A $340 million shopping and residential project is coming to Largo

Prince George’s County, state, business and transportation officials unveiled a $340 million project Thursday that they hope will spur economic development around downtown Largo.

Workers will break ground at The Promenade at Lottsford next spring, officials said at a news conference near the site. The mixed-use retail and residential development will be located near the Downtown Largo Metro station at “the southwest quadrant of the intersection of Lottsford Road and McCormick Drive,” according to documents from the county’s planning board.

The effort is a joint development between Banneker Ventures and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, said Omar Karim, president of Banneker Ventures, a D.C.-based real estate and development firm founded in 2005.

“This didn’t happen because someone stood up and talked about vision,” Karim said. “It happened because a county and a state and a team of partners put real years and real dollars behind it until it became a buildable plan.

“Prince George’s County isn’t the place people leave to find opportunity anymore,” he added. “It’s the place they’re moving to find it.”

Banneker Ventures has developments across the region, including Capitol Heights’ Park Place at Addison Road, which is still under construction, and in D.C.

Karim said the project will include 763 units of workforce housing and 44,000-square feet of retail space. He estimated it will create more than 800 construction jobs and bring more than 150 permanent jobs to Largo.

Downtown Largo Metro station has an average daily ridership of around 2,800 customers, said Katie Cristol, WMATA’s senior vice president of government relations. County stations from Benning Road toward Downtown Largo carry around 8,800 daily riders, Cristol said. The agency estimates that the Largo project will spark a growth of 57,000 new riders annually.

Karim credited County Executive Aisha Braveboy with accelerating the development plan on this project, which he said has been in the works at Banneker since 2018.

“We are now exceeding $18 billion in projects in Prince George’s County,” Braveboy said. “And we’re just getting started.

“We are very excited about all of the momentum around Prince George’s County,” she added, pointing to the Sphere, which is being developed in National Harbor and “elevated grocers” such as Sprouts. She teased that next week she plans to announce further developments at the Six Flags site.

“Largo has a special place in my heart,” said Braveboy, a Largo High School graduate. “This is the center of gravity here in Prince George’s County.”

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