Author: Ethan Rothstein

Wet Seal Closes in Ballston as Company Faces Default

By Ethan Rothstein
1/3

Wet Seal, the national young women’s clothing store chain, has closed its location in Ballston Common Mall amid serious money trouble at the corporate level.

The Ballston location closed over the weekend, and pieces of merchandise were still strewn about the store despite most of it laying empty yesterday.

According to a tipster, there was a handwritten sign in the window that read along the lines of, “check the internet if you want to know why we are closed. wet seal sucks! liars!” (Update at 6:30 p.m. — BuzzFeed has a photo of the sign and an interview with its creator.)

Other Wet Seal stores around the country were closed abruptly, and employees of the location that closed in Durham, N.C., also posted a sign complaining about the fashion in which the store closed and how it treated its now-jobless employees.

Bloomberg News reported last week that Wet Seal received a notice of default and owes its creditors $28.8 million by Jan. 12. The financial news site says the company’s stock price has plummeted to 5.7 cents a share, having lost 97 percent of its value in the last year. If the company’s projections hold up, it will have lost almost $240 million by the end of the fiscal year.

According to the Dayton Daily News in Dayton, Ohio, 350 Wet Seal stores nationwide are in line to be closed. Employees in many of those stores were give just one day’s notice.

The Wet Seal location in the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City remains open, and a store employee told ARLnow.com today that the Ballston location’s closure and any problems at the corporate level are “news to me.”

Parents Livid at APS Decision to Open Schools

By Ethan Rothstein
1/7

(Updated at 12:45 p.m.) Arlington Public Schools has issued an apology as the early-morning decision to keep schools open today has been widely derided by parents as dangerous and misguided.

As more snow fell than predicted, and did so during the morning rush hour, school buses around the county got stuck on hills, were involved in accidents and, in some cases, never arrived to pick up their students.

Parents and students alike tweeted ARLnow.com about their travel woes.

Liz Vance, the mother of a third-grader at Barrett Elementary School, dropped her child off at about 9:30 a.m. after assuming there would be a delay. She told ARLnow.com she had one friend who lives on N. Granada Street waiting for the bus to come.

“[APS Superintendent Patrick] Murphy can’t get anything right,” Vance said. “Why didn’t we at least have a delay? We were driving really slow, and the roads are not good. This is kind of ridiculous. They were really pretty clear that it was going to snow. They knew with enough time to at least call a delay.”

School buses were involved in six accidents this morning, according to APS spokesman Frank Bellavia, including on N. McKinley Road next to McKinley Elementary School, at S. Joyce and 23rd Streets and on N. Kirkwood Road. Another was reported stuck for at least two hours at S. Quincy ands 12th Streets. Bellavia said it appears none of the accidents were serious and no students were hurt.

The snow didn’t just affect parents, students and buses; teachers and APS employees also had trouble making it to the school this morning. The instructional technology coordinator at Glebe Elementary School tweeted at 10:53 a.m. that it took him four hours and 12 minutes to get to the school today, and classes at Gunston Middle School may not have started on time due to a lack of teachers able to make it to the school.

“I think most of our schools started on time and we had enough coverage in the buildings,” Bellavia said.

There was also no phone service at some schools, including Williamsburg Elementary. Students who arrived late this morning would not be marked tardy, APS announced.

All after-school and evening activities have been cancelled, APS said in a statement, but students will be sent home at normal times.

“We believe that students are safest at school when parents have not had a chance to make alternate plans for their child’s return home from school,” the schools said in a statement. “However, families who prefer to pick up their children early today are welcome to do so.”

At noon, APS released a statement explaining its decision. APS apologized for the decision to keep schools open, as did Fairfax County Public Schools and Loudoun County Public Schools earlier.

The full APS statement, after the jump.

(more…)

Photos: Winter Storm Surprises Arlington

By Ethan Rothstein
1/21

(Updated at 11:10 a.m.) Arlington County officials say more snow arrived than they expected this morning —  3 inches so far, according to the National Weather Service — leading to widespread traffic, transit delays and accidents.

The NWS declared a Winter Storm Warning just after 9:00 a.m., now predicting the region gets more than 4 inches of snow by 1:00 p.m. Several of the accidents this morning have involved school buses, and the Arlington County Police Department tweeted that they received 71 calls for traffic accidents between 6:00 and 10:00 a.m.

Arlington County sent out the following release at 9:45 this morning:

MEDIA ALERT:  A shifting weather pattern coupled with freezing temperatures resulted this morning in unexpectedly heavy snowfall and dangerously slick roads. Drivers should avoid unnecessary travel while County crews plow roads throughotu the day. If you must drive, use extreme caution. Visit the County’s Snow and Ice Page for tips on how to cope with inclement weather.

The County has deployed 35 piece of snow-fighting equipment. Snow-fighting will continue non-stop through the day and overnight into tomorrow. Crews will work first on main roads, then residential side streets.

APS has issued the following update: This morning’s inclement weather has caused significant traffic delays and buses are experiencing significant delays, and some buses are having problems completing their routes. Because of these traffic and road conditions, we continue to experience transportation delays this morning. We are also experiencing some telephone outages with Verizon services at some APS locations.  Any student arriving late will not be marked tardy. If you are driving your student to school, please be patient and safe.

ARLnow.com received a photo of a garbage truck that had slid onto the sidewalk while trying to make its delayed rounds. As of 10:30 a.m., all trash and recycling collection for the day has been suspended, and collection for the rest of the week is pushed back a day.

Snowfall has tapered off and most outlets are predicting that accumulation has all but ended. With sub-freezing temperatures predicted for the rest of the day today and tomorrow, the secondary roads the county has yet to plow could begin icing over.

This is the first snowfall since Arlington announced it would start treating its major trails as primary roads. Crews cleared the Custis Trail and W&OD Trail — which is owned and maintained by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority — to allow bike commuters to travel into work.

We had previously reported that at least seven roads had been closed due to accidents, and several more are experiencing multi-vehicle accidents. Scanner traffic indicates the intersection of Fort Scott Drive and S. Grant Street near Crystal City had a three-car accident, a multi-vehicle accident at N. Highland and 20th Streets and several cars getting stuck on a hill on N. Livingston Street.

Swiss Watch Store Opens in Ballston Mall

By Ethan Rothstein
1/5

A new store specializing in upscale Swiss watches is the newest tenant in Ballston Common Mall.

Watchstyle opened in November because, as owner Eric Kim said, he was “desperate to get open for the holiday season.” He found, however, that the Ballston Mall didn’t experience quite the holiday rush that he expected. Business was steady, and remained steady after Christmas passed.

Kim offers Swiss-made watches that aren’t the most recognizable brands, but, as a former Liljenquist & Beckstead watch buyer, he says the products he offers are the “equal or better” quality and more affordable.

“The watch market has changed so much,” he told ARLnow.com last week, “Swiss watch prices have gone up a ludicrous amount with no real increase in quality.”

Watchstyle’s watches start at around $200 with Mondaine styles and go up from there. Kim said he’s the only Mondaine dealer in Virginia. He also offers watches from brands like Ball and Maurice Lacroix. Despite the Ballston Mall’s negative perception and imminent redevelopment, Kim thinks he found the right place to start his business.

“It was definitely risky, but this mall is surrounded by the right demographic for luxury watches,” Kim said. “The mall may not be ready, but the market is.”

Checking in With More Arlington Startups

Startup Monday header

Editor’s Note: Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.

The growth in the Arlington startup community is too broad to limit to just one article.

We covered Snaapiq, talklocal (née SevaCall), Paul Singh and Disruption Corporation and DescribeIt, all of whom made strides in 2014, but none quite as big as Privia Health.

Privia Health CEO Jeff ButlerThe 6-year-old healthcare company combines a data-sharing platform — Privia Quality Network — and a network of doctors using said platform — Privia Medical Group. The medical group grew from 140 doctors in February when ARLnow.com interviewed founder Jeff Butler to more than 300 today.

Privia Health also built a training center for its staff and doctors in its network, according to spokeswoman Kate Slonaker. But the biggest development — and likely how Privia was able to build the training center — was a $400 million round of investment, led by Goldman Sachs. The investment will largely go into expanding Privia Health nationwide.

One of Startup Monday’s more controversial stories in 2014 was our profile of DrinkMate, the smartphone breathalyzer created by EdgeTechLabs founder Shaun Masavage. Masavage had been working for the Office of Naval Research near his home in Ballston, but he resigned on New Year’s Eve.

DrinkMate As of Jan. 1, Masavage is now EdgeTechLabs’ first full-time worker, and he has begun shipping the mini-breathalyzers to the thousands of Kickstarter funders who helped the campaign reach $99,161, more than double Masavage’s goal of $40,000.

DrinkMate still only works for Android phones, but Masavage — who invented the device and built the initial prototypes himself — is now focused on creating an iPhone version. As he prepared to ship out his first orders, he says he traveled to China to “personally oversee” their assembly.

“We also secured an exclusive partnership with Drunk Mode App to implement some incredible new features into the DrinkMate app to make it interactive and add quite a bit of value to the already-inexpensive product,” Masavage said. Drunk Mode allows users to lock certain numbers to prevent drunk-dialing and leave “breadcrumbs” to retrace one’s steps the previous night.

Another Kickstarter company, Boldfoot, has seen substantial growth since its successful funding round. Founder Brad Christmann said after raising $23,273 from a $10,000 fundraising goal, the company is set to take the next step.

Boldfoot Founder Brad Christmann“The Kickstarter orders have all been fulfilled and we are officially open for business online at Boldfoot.com,” he told ARLnow.com in an email. “Numerous new designs have since been launched and we anticipate being in 10-plus retail outlets in the first quarter of this year.”

Other noteworthy developments in the startup world: Encore Alert, a Twitter advising and technology firm, now counts the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons among its clients; and nClass, an education technology company, launched a New Delhi, India, office and “launched the product globally,” according to founder Gaurav Malik.

Arlington Agenda (Jan. 5-11)

By Ethan Rothstein

Arlington Agenda is a listing of interesting events for the week ahead in Arlington County. If you’d like to see your event featured, fill out the event submission form.

Also, be sure to check out our event calendar.

Monday

BootCamp-4-2Warrior Boot Camp*
Pentagon Mixed Martial Arts (1041 S. Edgewood Street)
Time: 6:00-7:00 a.m.

Four times a week, for four weeks, you can get that “get in shape” New Year’s resolution out of the way with MMA boot camp. Register here for the $239 program.

Thursday

Hollywood-on-the-PotomacHollywood on the Potomac
Marymount University (2807 N. Glebe Road, Rowley G127)
Time: 7:00-8:00 p.m.

Arlington TV executive producer Rob Farr talks about the history of films being shot in Arlington, including “The West Wing” assassination scene shot in Arlington. Free for all.

SteveRileyMamouPlayboysevent1Live Music: Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys
Artisphere (1101 Wilson Blvd)
Time: 8:30-10:30 p.m.

“Hailed by critics as one of the best Cajun music acts in history,” Steve Riley and his three-time Grammy-nominated band grace the Artisphere stage. Tickets are $15.

Friday

January-2015Art Show: The Wonder of Winter
Gallery Underground (2100 Crystal Drive)
Time: 5:00-8:00 p.m.

“Local artists explore different facets of beauty in the winter season-winter light, winter activities, and special effects created by cold weather.” The show runs until Jan. 31.

Sunday

Chewy-ProfileChewy the Camel
Church of the Covenant (2666 Military Road)
Time: 10:30-11:15 a.m.

The camel makes its annual visit to the Church of the Covenant. Join the congregation in “songs of Joy welcoming the three kings.” Hot cider and cookies also provided.

Arlington-Phil-PhotoLive Music: Arlington Philharmonic
Washington-Lee High School (1301 N. Stafford Street)
Time: 3:00-5:00 p.m.

The Arlington Phil’s first concert of the year features Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony and oloist Sara Daneshpour performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Tickets are free, but donation is encouraged.

*Denotes featured (sponsored) event

Eastern Mountain Sports in Clarendon to Close

By Ethan Rothstein

EMS in Clarendon, expected to close after January 2015Eastern Mountain Sports, the outdoors outfitter store next to Barnes & Noble in Market Common Clarendon, is expected to close at the end of the month.

There’s a storewide clearance sale going on now, and the store has signs posted inside and out announcing that the location will be closing at the end of January. According to a store employee, EMS’ lease is up at the end of the month.

The closest EMS location is in Dulles, Va., 20 miles away. A similar retailer, Orvis, is another Market Common tenant and is at 2879 Clarendon Blvd.

Hat tip to Bill Colton

Cakelove in Shirlington Closes

By Ethan Rothstein

Cakelove in Shirlington closes Cakelove in Shirlington closes

Another retailer has closed up shop in the Village at Shirlington.

Cakelove, the pastry specialty store at 4150 Campbell Avenue, has closed its doors after seven years in the shopping center. According to its website, Cakelove is closing “in in order to scale up production of our cake in a jar.”

Cakelove will still operate its location on U Street NW in D.C., but it has also closed its two Maryland locations.

Cakelove closed in December, making it the fourth retailer in the Village to close since October. First, lingerie store Bloomers closed, followed by health-conscious Lebanese restaurant Aladdin’s closed, and Periwinkle — sharing the same block as Cakelove and Bloomer’s, told ARLnow.com it wouldn’t renew its lease for 2015.

Hat tip to Stephanie

Hynes: County, Schools to Revamp ‘Arlington Way’

By Ethan Rothstein

Mary Hynes at the Jan. 1, 2015 County Board organizational meeting

The Arlington County Board’s chief priority for 2015 will be a new, broad plan to solve the county’s school capacity and land shortage problems.

New Board Chair Mary Hynes announced yesterday that the County Board and School Board are launching a joint study to assess Arlington’s facility needs and solutions.

The County Board’s annual New Year’s Day meeting has traditionally been used by the incoming County Board chair to announce the new year’s political agenda, and this year was no different. Hynes said “we must develop systemic strategies to meet our array of community facility needs rather than address any particular need or any particular site in isolation,” and introduced the county’s plan for the study.

In the coming year, Hynes said, each board will select members of Arlington’s residential and business community to be on the committee for the “Arlington Community Facilities Study — a Plan for the Future.” The committee will determine criteria and needs for facilities planning and to develop a framework for the county’s 2016 Capital Improvements Plan.

“I believe we are always better when we listen to each other, seek to understand the breadth of the challenges we are facing and work together to adjust our course,” Hynes said. “Our framework will acknowledge that, as our population grows, change is unavoidable; that challenges loom as we work to reinvigorate our economy; and that the reality of our physical space limits some possible solution sets.”

Hynes said the committee will address the following questions:

  • For the foreseeable future, what are our facility needs for schools, fire stations, recreation, and transportation vehicle and other storage?
  • How do we pay for these needs?
  • What criteria should we use to help us decide where to locate them?
  • In the context of changing demographics and economics, what opportunities and challenges are there in our aging affordable and workforce multi-family housing stock?
  • What do changes in the Federal government presence and the residential and private commercial marketplace mean for County revenues?

Hynes and County Board member John Vihstadt — elected twice in 2014 while presenting himself as an alternative to longtime Board members Hynes, Jay Fisette and Walter Tejada — will serve as the Board’s liaisons to the study committee. The School Board will also have two liaisons to the committee.

“People talk about tension or discord on the Board, but I don’t look at it that way,” Vihstadt said in his year-opening remarks. “We have our disagreements, heated at times. We may have different perspectives, and it is right to air those perspectives … But I’d like to think that, as a collective body, we are working better together and being more productive than our federal and state counterparts across the river and down Interstate 95.”

The Board and School Board will appoint members of the committee later this month, according to a county press release. The committee will answer the above questions, Hynes said, with the understanding that “significant new funding is unlikely” and that “no new land is being created.”

Full details of the facilities study and plan will be made available shortly, Hynes said.

Affordable housing will again be a key priority for the County Board. Along with the facilities study, Hynes highlighted affordable housing and “business vibrancy” as her other two priorities, and new Vice Chair Walter Tejada said affordable housing will be his top priority once again.

“I will redouble my unwavering commitment to supporting affordable housing and maintaining Arlington’s diversity in these challenging times,” Tejada said. “This is a necessary effort to help secure our future as a successful community.”

Tejada, Libby Garvey, Vihstadt and Fisette all noted that securing a new transit plan for Columbia Pike and the Route 1 corridor in Crystal City is a must in the near future.

The Right Note: What’s Next?

By Ethan Rothstein

The Right Note is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

Mark Kelly2014 certainly was an interesting year in Arlington, especially on the political front.

A Republican-turned-Independent won not one, but two elections. The budget-busting project that was the centerpiece of those two elections was then reluctantly canceled by the County Board.

Where do we go from here? Politically, what does this mean for the Garvey-Vihstadt alliance formed to stop the Columbia Pike trolley? Will Walter Tejada run for re-election, and, if so, what impact will being the lone holdout for the trolley project have on his prospects — including whether he will draw primary opposition?

The overriding question left for County budget watchdogs is whether the end of the trolley will spark a new era in fiscal responsibility or whether it was a one-time event?

The recent Signature Theater bailout was offset by the announcement that the Artisphere was slated to be closed in 2015. The Artisphere and its always suspect business plan was never going to stand on its own two feet despite repeated assurances from County Board members to the contrary. Hopefully Board Members will follow the County Manager’s recommendation to close it.

Then came the reminder the County was going to use our tax dollars to pay $350,000 to stick plastic in the water treatment plant fence next year. This is a drop in the bucket when it comes to money that could be better spent elsewhere, but certainly symbolic of too many Board priorities.

Speaking of priorities, will the aquatics center move forward in 2015 or will the Board give the controversial project longer to sit on the sidelines? And, when we go to taxpayers for bond approvals on major projects like this, should we require the Board to put them on the ballot as a separate question?

This leads to the next question for 2015, will an independent audit function ever truly get off the ground? Is it too much to ask that the County Board have an auditor who reports directly to them, rather than having findings filtered by the County Manager? Shouldn’t these spending decisions be subject to the highest level of scrutiny?

And when it comes to making spending decisions, will the Board look at the revenue estimating process? This process consistently underestimates revenue in order to give the County Board an excuse to collect more of our tax dollars and spend those dollars in the annual closeout process.

This morning at the annual Jan. 1 meeting, incoming Board Chair Mary Hynes said “Arlington stands at a crossroads.” She called on her colleagues to address the challenges that face us, among other things including rising school enrollment and vacant office space.

After the Macbook Air story over the summer, will the schools budget draw closer scrutiny from watchdogs next spring particularly as they are looking to meet new capacity needs?

Will the County Board solve the problem of the office vacancy rate by finding ways to make Arlington more business friendly from permitting processes to taxes instead of creating another task force or commission to talk about it?

In her speech Hynes also said we are “always better when we listen to each other.” Too often in the past that meant only listening to those who agreed with those in control of the Board. After voters spoke out this year at the ballot box, hope springs eternal that this time it will be different.

Mark Kelly is a former Arlington GOP Chairman and two-time Republican candidate for Arlington County Board.

Whole Foods Parking Snarls Clarendon Traffic

By Ethan Rothstein
1/6

Anyone who’s driven along Clarendon Blvd near the Whole Foods at 2700 Wilson Blvd knows the grocery store has a tendency to cause minor backups.

This afternoon during the lunch hour, the traffic problems escalated, backing up traffic for several blocks in the area and leading to police being called for traffic control. We’re told backups like this are common around major holidays, like Christmas and New Years.

Part of the problem, according to the responding officers, is cars parking — legally — in pay spots on the left-hand side of Clarendon Blvd between the entrance to Whole Foods and N. Edgewood Street. That causes cars waiting to turn into the store’s parking lot to wait in one of the travel lanes.

At about 1:00 p.m., there were three officers on Clarendon Blvd helping to direct traffic. That helped to clear much of the backed up traffic, which also extended to several side streets.

When asked, two of the officers each said it was far from the worst Whole Foods-caused traffic they had seen in Clarendon.

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