Property Development

The Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH) is the nation’s oldest continually operating retirement home for enlisted military personnel.  It is comprised of two separate campuses. 

The first, formerly the United States Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home (USSAH) and now AFRH-Washington (AFRH-W), was founded in 1851 and, at its largest, sat on more than 500 acres of prime real estate in the District of Columbia.  It is also the headquarters for the federal agency.  Located on 272 acres in Northwest Washington DC, the AFRH-W is close to Catholic University, Trinity Washington University, Howard University, Children’s National Medical Center, the VA Medical Center, the National Rehabilitation Hospital, the Washington Hospital Center and the National Zoo. The Home is within a few miles of four Metro stations, providing access to the Red, Yellow and Green lines with active development and investment opportunities occurring in adjacent communities due to strong demand fundamentals along Georgia Avenue, North Capitol Street and New York Avenue.

The second is the former United States Naval Home, which originated as an “asylum” in Philadelphia in 1834 and is now situated on a forty-acre parcel on the Gulf of Mexico in Gulfport, MS.  This campus is referred to as the AFRH-Gulfport (AFRH-G).  Facilities on the AFRH-G were either destroyed or heavily damaged in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina and rebuilt, with commissioning in 2010.

AFRH-W

A Master Plan was completed and approved in 2008 that was endorsed by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) and amended in 2018 and again in 2022.  An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was completed in 2007, a supplemental was prepared in 2017, and the final was approved in 2022.  These documents guide and constrain development in two zones of the campus.  The “AFRH Zone” is 192 acres and includes the Home’s facilities, as well as President Lincoln’s Cottage.  The Development Zone (previously referred to as “Zone A”) is an 80-acre area on the southeast portion of the campus identified for mixed-use development that will include adaptive reuse of several historic buildings and features.

As of March 2023, AFRH and the development team continue to work with the District of Columbia Office of Planning, NCPC, and the State Historic Preservation Office on a zoning amendment for Zone A.

The National Capital Planning Commission approved the second amendment to the AFRH-W Master Plan on 2 June 2022. The final amendment, the accompanying Record of Decision, and the Commission's action are available below.