JBG Smith Properties wants to build up to 3,000 units of affordable workforce housing in D.C.

Developer JBG Smith Properties announced the launch of the Washington Housing Initiative yesterday, with the hopes of preserving or building between 2,000 and 3,000 units of affordable workforce housing in the Washington, DC region over the next decade.

This initiative includes the establishment of the Washington Housing Conservancy, a new independently managed and governed non-profit created to acquire, develop, own and operate workforce housing in rapidly-growing areas that are currently affordable but expected to become costly in the future.

While the press release doesn’t mention Amazon, the Washington Business Journal points out that this initiative could dovetail with efforts to bring Amazon’s second headquarters to D.C. by alleviating concerns that the new HQ2 would cause housing prices to spike. Some sources say that JBG Smith’s holdings in Crystal City are a front-runner for Amazon’s HQ2 site.

There’s plenty of questions left unanswered by the release: “Company officials were not immediately available to comment about what the company considers to be affordable housing, or to provide details on the timing of when the units might come on line or where, or what amount of money it will invest in the program,” WBJ’s Katie Arcieri writes.

• JBG Smith just launched a workforce housing initiative. It may have HQ2 in mind. [WBJ]
• Gambling site bets that D.C. region is the Amazon HQ2 frontrunner [Curbed DC]