800 4th St Sw, s420 WASHINGTON, DC 20024

The Southwest Waterfront is a neighborhood that looks and feels completely new but is actually one of the city’s oldest. Like many other revitalized urban waterfronts across the country, Southwest Waterfront benefited from a concerted partnership between local government and developers to transform an isolated area into a gleaming and alluring destination. The Wharf, a multi-billion-dollar mixed-used development that opened in 2022, now dominates the Southwest Waterfront, boasting restaurants, shops, residences, hotels, and businesses all along a mile-long stretch of the Potomac River, along with the revitalized Maine Avenue Fish Market, the country’s oldest open-air seafood market. Condos are the main housing option here, ranging in vintage from mid-century to brand-new. Southwest Waterfront is also home to a couple of unusual communities: two architecturally notable mid-century-modern townhouse developments and a collection of houseboat owners known as the Gangplank Slipholders Association, the largest liveaboard community on the East Coast.