The history of the Yards Park site is closely linked with that of the neighboring Washington Navy Yard that was founded in 1799 and is located just to the east of the Park. In 1916, in reaction to World War I, the Navy Yard added the Navy Yard Annex, an expansion westward to 2nd Street SE to accommodate increased manufacturing efforts. By the mid-1940’s the Navy Yard and Navy Yard Annex reached peak production with 26,000 employees in 132 buildings on 127 acres of land. After WWII the Navy Yard became principally an administrative and ceremonial center and the unused annex land was transferred to the GSA in the early 1960’s.

In 2003, at the urging of D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the GSA conducted a nationwide request for proposals among private sector real estate developers to redevelop the former Navy Yard Annex site, including its several historically protected former industrial buildings. After selecting a private developer to contract with the US Department of Transportation to construct their new headquarters building, the GSA then awarded the remaining 42-acre riverfront property site to Forest City Washington to redevelop as a new urban mixed-use, riverfront neighborhood including 2,800 residential units, 1.8 million SF of office space, up to 400,000 SF of retail space and a significant riverfront public park.