Developers will break ground soon on a $100 million project in College Park with shops and apartments on the former site of Plato’s Diner and the Quality Inn in the 7000 block of Baltimore Ave.

Construction workers on the Southern Gateway project will not share tools or gather during lunch breaks and will be required to work farther apart than normal to avoid spreading the coronavirus, according to Washington Business Journal.

In other parts of the country, construction has not been considered an essential service, but that’s not the case in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Still, it will be one the first new projects started in the greater Washington area since the pandemic.

The partnership behind the project will skip the usual groundbreaking ceremony, which may be done virtually or held at a later date.

The development will have nearly 400 apartments, 73,000 square feet of retail space and two parking garages. It will be anchored by two big tenants: a 20,000-square-foot health club and a 15,000-square-foot specialty grocery store.