Image courtesy of Carr Properties
An interior design rendering of Margo, a new apartment building opening soon in Old Town North.
Sixteen apartments at Margot, the new residential building rising at 425 Montgomery St. in Old Town North, will be rented as committed affordable units under the City of Alexandria's Affordable Rental Set-Aside Program, the city's Office of Housing announced.
The units range from junior one-bedrooms to two-bedrooms, and all 16 will be affordable to households earning up to 60% of the area median income. Seven of them are scheduled to be delivered in the building's first phase, tentatively in December.
What 60% AMI actually means
Under the 2026 income and rent limits the city publishes each year, a household earning up to 60% of AMI means:
- $69,780 for one person
- $79,740 for two people
- $89,700 for three people
- $99,660 for four people
Rents in set-aside units are capped, too. At the 60% level in 2026, the ceiling on gross monthly rent — utilities included — is $1,869 for a one-bedroom and $2,243 for a two-bedroom. Efficiencies top out at $1,745.
There's a floor as well as a ceiling: the city requires an applicant's total household income to be at least 2.5 times the monthly rent to qualify. Household income counts before-tax income from every resident, including wages, Social Security, unemployment, retirement benefits, workers' compensation and recurring gifts.
How to get on the list
Image courtesy of Carr Properties
Rendering of a swimming pool at Margo, a new apartment building opening soon in Alexandria.
Set-aside units are leased directly by each property, not through the city, so renters interested in Margot should contact the building. The Office of Housing says more information on the units will be available in October.
In the meantime, the city keeps a running list of every committed affordable rental unit available across Alexandria, updated regularly and posted on its page, where a Spanish-language version is also available.
Questions about city housing programs go to the Office of Housing at 703-746-4990. For disability accommodations, contact Gabriella DiLena at 703-746-3089 or gabriella.dilena@alexandriava.gov, or use Virginia Relay at 711.
What else is in the building
Margot is a Carr Properties development — eight stories and roughly 250,000 square feet, with 237 apartments ranging from studios to three-bedrooms. About a third of the units will have Potomac River views. The building sits next to Montgomery Park and is designed to earn LEED Silver certification.
Amenities include a 24-hour fitness center, a library with a fireplace, on-site garage parking, bike storage, EV charging, and a pool and sun deck. Carr is working with SK+I Architecture and interior design firm Edit Lab by Streetsense.
The ground floor is where Old Town North's arts-district ambitions show up. Carr has said the 6,445-square-foot performing arts space will go to CityDance, the regional nonprofit dance institution, alongside two retail bays that will house For Five Coffee and Italian restaurant Grazie Nonna.
The 1845 canal under the parking garage
The site has a second life story. Before Margot, 425 Montgomery St. — addressed for years as 901 N. Pitt St. — held a vacant 1980s brown-brick office building that came down in 2024.
What was underneath it turned out to be more interesting. During exploratory trenching in fall 2024, crews hit the remains of the fourth lock and third basin of the Alexandria Canal, completed in 1845 to connect the city's port to the C&O Canal at Georgetown. City archaeologists had suspected something might survive down there. They did not expect this much of it: a long stretch of the north lock wall intact, plus the canal floor — well enough preserved that researchers learned new details about how the canal was built.
Carr worked with the city's Alexandria Archaeology division, the Friends of Alexandria Archaeology and volunteers to excavate the find, opened the site for public tours in January 2025, and relocated the original canal stones for future use in a park. In October 2025, the City Council recognized the company with the Ben Brenman Archaeology in Alexandria Award for Outstanding Developer.
A below-grade parking garage now occupies much of that ground.
