Commuters on Jefferson Davis Highway might have recently noticed the first building pop up in the Potomac Yard development just east of Del Ray.

Pulte Homes, the nation’s largest homebuilding company, erected its yet-to-be-opened sales office just across Route 1 from the Exxon station. Pulte plans to build a multitude of townhomes, some up to 3,000 square feet, on 167 acres of land. The homes are scheduled to arrive later this spring.

The new brick building, adorned with lettering reading “Pulte Homes at Potomac Yard,” is decorated with a paneled mural depicting a sailboat, bicycle, shopping bag, dog on a leash and, curiously, a Metrorail car.

While a Potomac Yard Metro station is proposed for the area, it is not a certainty. Agencies participating in the station project—including the Federal Transit Administration, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the National Park Service and the City of Alexandria—are only in the drafting stages of an environmental impact study for a potential station. The study includes discussion of a no-build option. Metro tracks do serve as the eastern border of the Pulte development, servicing the Yellow and Blue lines.

Funding for the project also remains up in the air. The Alexandria City Council approved a special tax district on the new homes that will be built in Potomac Yard. A second tax district covering the Potomac Greens neighborhood will be considered by council soon.

Corporate officers with Pulte who may have been behind the mural’s construction were out of town on Wednesday. 

On Thursday, a city official said they were not aware of the mural and had no part in its construction.

Let us know your thoughts on the Pulte mural in the comments section.