NAI Michael Cos. recently celebrated starting construction on the commercial portion of its $1.3 billion mixed-use development known as South Lake in Bowie. In a rare interview, the company’s president talked me through the project, especially how its adjacency to a big-draw youth sports complex makes it something of a unique case of suburban placemaking.
South Lake, which will weigh in at about 3.6 million square feet when all is said and done, will include 1,600 residences, ranging from single-families to apartments to senior housing, on about 380 acres along U.S. 301 — part of eastern Prince George’s County that’s otherwise largely dominated by suburban sprawl with limited amenities, industrial and rural uses.
But what really makes it stand out is that its roughly $400 million commercial portion, dubbed South Lake Marketplace, sits right next to Liberty Sports Park — a 10-field outdoor complex for youth and adult lacrosse, field hockey, football and other sports. The park opened in 2022 and already attracts 344,000 league and tournament attendees annually.
South Lake and Liberty are separate — the county owns the sports complex land and a nonprofit manages it — but integrally related, both creating demand for the other to satisfy.
