apartments

New apartment tower proposed for Route 1 in Crystal City

By Jo DeVoe
1/8

A sliver of an apartment building is being proposed for Crystal City along Route 1.

Developer Dweck Properties proposes to construct a new, 412,975-square-foot building with 403 residential units and additional mixed-use space near the existing Crystal Plaza Apartments (2111 Richmond Hwy), according to an application filed with Arlington County on May 3.

Doing so will require demolishing 70,899 square feet of the northern portion of the existing North Crystal Plaza Apartments building. Dweck says in its application that it will develop, with county staff, a plan to relocate tenants affected by the demolition.

Parking for the project at 2111 and 2101 Richmond Hwy would be provided in an underground garage that will connect to an existing garage under the Crystal Plaza Apartments complex.

The new apartment building would be wedged between Richmond Hwy and S. Clark-Bell Street, a new contiguous street created by realigning the current S. Clark and S. Bell streets. This is called for in the Crystal City Sector Plan, the planning document guiding development in the neighborhood.

“The realignment of Clark-Bell Street will remove elevated portions of the existing street, provide greater distance from Richmond Highway/US-1 at critical locations, establish a more regular street grid, create new development sites, and facilitate two-way traffic flow,” per a document included in the application.

The realigned S. Clark-Bell Street (via Arlington County)

S. Clark Street will shift east and tie into the existing S. Clark Street while the northern end of the road would line up with S. Bell Street north of 20th Street S.

Another major Crystal City property owner, JBG Smith, is realizing part of this reconfigured street — west of the Crystal Plaza Apartments — as part of a separate redevelopment project building two multifamily buildings. Construction on the two buildings, immediately north of Dweck’s proposal, started in January 2022.

If approved, 2111 and 2101 Richmond Hwy would tackle another part of the realignment. Filings with Arlington County highlight the work as a primary community benefit of this project.

“The proposed development will include significant site improvements, including (but not limited to) partial implementation of realigned Clark-Bell Street, improved onsite circulation, and new infrastructure,” writes Kedrick Whitmore, a land-use attorney representing Dweck.

“The proposed development will help to create the 18-hour active environment, provide substantial transportation upgrades, particularly along Clark-Bell Street, and enhance the retail environment,” he continued.

Bringing retail and residents to the heart of Crystal City realizes a “significant” goal of the Crystal City Sector Plan, Whitmore said.

“The influx of new residents and mixed uses will not only activate the existing fabric of Crystal City, but they will also provide a built-in market for the recently proposed retail projects on this same block,” he said.

Public input drives developer to nix drive-thru ATM from Clarendon Wells Fargo redevelopment plans

By Jo DeVoe
1/9

In response to criticism from residents, citizen commissioners and county staff, a developer has removed a drive-thru ATM from its plans to redevelop the Wells Fargo in Clarendon.

One year ago, McLean-based developer Jefferson Apartment Group filed plans to replace the bank — the one someone recently attempted to rob — with a mixed-use building. It is set to consist of 238 apartments, 60,000 square feet of office space and 30,000 square feet of retail, including a new Wells Fargo branch.

The current two-story bank building at 3140 Washington Blvd has a drive-thru in addition to a surface parking lot. Critics of keeping the drive-thru say it would detract from walkability in the area, which is seeing significant redevelopment that will result in more people living, shopping and using public amenities in Clarendon.

“This is the most walkable place in the county and drive-up for anything doesn’t make sense to me,” said Planning Commission member Jim Lantelme back in February. “You would have to have a second ATM that people could walk up to.”

One commenter said drive-thrus are “horrible for the environment and they aren’t faster than parking and going into the building,” while another called it “a relic of the 70s [that] doesn’t belong here.”

A third said it “seems like a very bad idea that will take away space from pedestrians and increase the chance of crashes and congestion in an area that is meant to be dense and walkable.”

Jefferson had originally doubled down on the drive-thru ATM, saying in a county document this was “for the convenience of existing customers and as requested by Wells Fargo based on customer feedback during and after the pandemic.”

Ultimately, it agreed to changes that resemble a suggestion from the Clarendon Courthouse Civic Association: walk-up ATMs and free, short-term parking on a new local street that Jefferson will construct as part of the project.

The walk-up ATMs will be located at the northern and southern edges of the bank, which looks out over N. Irving Street. This street, which dead-ends in a green space, is set to become a plaza through a separate, Dept. of Parks and Recreation-led planning process.

People using the ATMs will be able to park in short-term parking on the north side of a planned public road. As part of the project, Jefferson will build a new 10th Road N., which will run parallel to Washington Blvd and separate the new construction from the existing Verizon building to the south.

The proposed changes to the Clarendon Wells Fargo redevelopment (via Arlington County)

Even with the walk-up ATMs, staff have concerns that a bank, generally, is not the kind of lively retail that encourages people to use the planned Irving Street Plaza. Those who commented were not as concerned with this but suggested sculptures or water features could help “activate” the plaza.

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County says Inn of Rosslyn redevelopment proposal needs more work

By Jo DeVoe
1/9

Although redevelopment plans for the mid-century Inn of Rosslyn pay homage to the motel, the county says the developer could do more.

Last fall, D.C. real estate company Monument Realty filed plans to replace the 38-unit hotel, built in 1957, with an 8-story, 141-unit apartment building with 88 parking spaces. It took over the property after JBG Smith purchased it in December 2020.

This February, the county kicked off a review process that will culminate with a vote by the Arlington County Board. Planning staff already have some suggestions for the developer to comply with recommendations for the site made in the neighborhood’s Fort Myer Heights North Plan.

They say Monument should study adding floors to shrink the overall footprint of the property — located at 1601 Fairfax Drive, fronting Route 50 — match it to heights of other nearby apartment towers.

The designs, meanwhile, should imitate nearby Art Deco and Colonial Revival garden apartments and the developer could incorporate more historic preservation of the property, county planners say.

“The building footprint should be reduced to provide the recommended landscaped green space which is not currently provided,” said planners in a county report. “The proposed building does not incorporate elements of Colonial Revival or Art Deco, as recommended.”

New renderings from Monument Realty depict a building with alternating stripes of lighter and darker brick, offset by wood-like paneling. Mid-century motifs on the balconies and a “50” sign out front pay homage to the architecture of the existing hotel.

A postcard of the old “Motel 50,” later the Inn of Rosslyn (via Arlington County)

The developer’s land use attorney, Nick Cumings of Walsh Colucci Lubeley & Walsh, argued in a January 2023 letter to the county that the project does “compliment and draw from the architecture of the existing building and the characteristics of the surrounding neighborhood.”

That includes the retro “50” sign and some of the materials to be used in construction.

“This selection of building materials is appropriate for the neighborhood, which predominantly features masonry, while also introducing a biophilic design with the wood-like paneling,” writes Cumings.

The county also wants the developer to work on “historic preservation elements” for the existing motel, while an attorney for Monument Realty argues that is not necessary.

Within the Arlington County Historic Resources Inventory, Cumings says, the property is designated as “Important” — but less distinctive and/or in worse condition than “Essential.” He added that the neighborhood plan does not call for its historic preservation.

Meanwhile, residents involved in the pro-housing group YIMBYs of Northern Virginia said on social media that their priority will be getting the developer to include more affordable housing in exchange for greater density.

Like staff, they envision the building reaching 12 stories — the tallest the Fort Myer Heights plan allows — so that more people can live in the Metro-accessible area.

Monument Realty already plans to earn some 59,000 square feet of extra density by participating in the Green Building Density Incentive Program, aiming to earn LEED Gold, and by providing some affordable housing. It’s unclear whether the provided affordable housing will be on-site or elsewhere.

Next up in the development approval process, the Site Plan Review Committee of the county’s Planning Commission will review the project twice before it heads to other citizen commissions and the Arlington County Board. No dates have been set for these meetings.

Demolition of a pedestrian bridge in Rosslyn is set to begin this weekend

By Jo DeVoe
1/4

The pedestrian bridge connecting the Rosslyn’s RCA building to another building (and bar) across N. Moore Street is set to be demolished soon.

The demolition process will start on Saturday and last two weekends: April 29-30 and May 6-7, per a letter to residents of the Central Place apartments, shared with ARLnow.

Jefferson Apartment Group, one of the developers leading a joint venture to redevelop the RCA property at 1901 N. Moore Street as an apartment tower, confirmed that the information shared was correct. The letter provided some details about expected traffic impacts as a result of the demolition.

“Please note that North Moore Street will be completely closed off to pedestrian and bus traffic during this period, except for cars that need to access the garage entrance for 1911 Fort Myer Drive,” the letter said.

The bridge connects the old office building to the retro pool hall Continental. Demolition could impact the buses and shuttles that pick up people in front of the bar’s beer garden and take them to D.C., such as the shuttle between Georgetown University and the Rosslyn Metro station.

“All parties of bus routes that stop at the corner of North Moore Street and 19th Street N. have been notified of the work, and they will notify all customers of any route changes,” the note to residents said.

Demolition began earlier this month, Axios reported. Rather than an implosion, Jefferson Apartment Group previously told ARLnow that the building will be dismantled bit by bit.

The county approved plans to replace the concrete-cladded office building with a 27-story, 423-unit apartment building in June 2021. Construction is expected to take three years.

Like the RCA building itself, pedestrian bridges in Rosslyn are relics of a mid-century planning belief that bridges make pedestrians more comfortable by separating them from vehicular traffic, noted a 2014 Washington Business Journal article.

Forty years later, these were already out of vogue, per a scathing passage in a 1999 study of Rosslyn.

“To the planners of the early 50’s and 60’s, presumably it seemed orderly and logical to separate the pedestrian flow with its erratic, unpredictable movements, from the fast-moving steel machines of the road,” wrote the local architecture firm the Lukmire Partnership in the study.

Publications from that time illustrated these passageways as wide, open, landscaped spaces that were somehow “strikingly devoid” of any signs of a vibrant urban streetscape, the report continued.

“Buried in the back of the planners’ minds perhaps lingered images of the piazza at San Marco in Venice or those of Rome,” Lukmire Partnership concluded. “If so, in the instance of Rosslyn, something was lost in translation.”

Planning Commission OKs Americana Hotel redevelopment despite affordability concerns

By Jo DeVoe
1/8

Plans to redevelop the Americana Hotel in Crystal City cleared their penultimate hurdle despite criticism that the project does not provide on-site affordable housing.

The Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve plans from JBG Smith to redevelop the former motel at 1460 Richmond Hwy.

To get here, the developer has overcome sloping terrain and maneuvered future development plans for neighboring sites and Route 1, which the Virginia Department of Transportation plans to lower. The company also attended to lingering transportation and sustainability concerns.

JBG Smith proposes a 19-story apartment building with about 3,885 square feet of ground-floor retail. Of the 639 units, 33 will have three bedrooms. It’s across the street from Amazon’s under-construction HQ2, the first phase of which is expected to open this summer.

There will be two levels of underground parking, with 188 residential and visitor parking spaces, and 206 off-site parking at the Bartlett Apartments. JBG Smith proposes a 2,800 square-foot green space area with a small, private outdoor amenity area and a small dog run.

As for affordable housing, JBG Smith is making a baseline contribution to the county’s Affordable Housing Investment Fund (AHIF) of $2.1 million and making an additional $7.53 million contribution to leverage about 80 committed affordable units (CAFs) at the Crystal House Apartments at 1900 S. Eads Street, about one-third of a mile away.

There, two developers will oversee the construction of 655 CAFs and 189 market-rate units. Amazon helped a nonprofit purchase the 16-acre site and stabilize rent for the 828 existing units and build new units, later donating the land and development rights to Arlington County.

Some Planning Commission members, however, were emphatic that all future projects need some on-site affordable units.

“Every project needs to have on-site affordable housing. Period. Every single project,” Chair Devanshi Patel said.

Currently, developers seeking a large-scale redevelopment can offset that with an AHIF contribution or the provision of on-site or off-site units. In exchange, they can build taller buildings and, in the case of apartments, add more units. Most developers will make a cash contribution and it is rarer to see on-site units, though some recent projects have included setting aside existing units off-site for affordable housing.

“If we hold ourselves out to be a ‘welcoming, thriving, inclusive community,'” — and here she changed voices, suggesting air quotes or skepticism — “then we need to stand by that and that means we need to have affordable housing at every project,” Patel said.

(more…)

JUST IN: Police trying to identify suspect in Va. Square break-in and sexual assault

By ARLnow.com
File photo

A man broke into a woman’s apartment in Virginia Square early this morning and sexually assaulted her.

That’s according to a press release just issued by the Arlington County Police Department.

The break-in happened on the 3900 block of Fairfax Drive, which corresponds with the address of the Quincy Plaza apartment tower. After sexually assaulting the resident, the man fled on foot.

The suspect remains at large and police are asking for the public’s help in identifying him. The press release, however, only included a vague description of the man and no surveillance image.

From ACPD:

The Arlington County Police Department’s Special Victims Unit is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying a suspect involved in a residential burglary with sexual assault which occurred in the Ballston-Virginia Square neighborhood.

At approximately 4:15 a.m. on April 2, police were dispatched to the report of an attempted rape in the 3900 block of Fairfax Drive. Upon arrival, it was determined the unknown male suspect gained entry into the female victim’s residence, entered her bedroom and sexually assaulted her before fleeing the scene on foot. The suspect is described as a Black male, approximately in his mid-20’s, wearing dark clothing.

This remains an active investigation. Anyone with information regarding the identity of this individual, details surrounding the incident, and/or home surveillance that may assist the investigation is asked to contact Detective J. McGrath (703-228-4244 or [email protected]) or Detective C. Oesterling (703-228-4241 or [email protected]) of the Special Victims Unit. Information may also be provided anonymously through the Arlington County Crime Solvers hotline at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).

Developer files new long-term plan for redeveloping Pentagon Centre

By Jo DeVoe
1/10

A new vision for replacing the Pentagon Centre shopping center, including the Costco, is coming into focus.

Kimco Realty Corporation revised its plans envisioning the long-term redevelopment of the 16.8-acre site, which were first approved by the Arlington County Board in 2015. Kimco submitted documents articulating these changes — which call for new high-rise residential and commercial buildings — in late December.

“With the redevelopment approvals that have been granted since 2015, and because the Pentagon City Metro Station is contained within the Pentagon Centre block, Pentagon Centre should be part of the intensification of redevelopment — in height, in mix and in overall density — to leverage the significant positive impacts of Metro ridership, job creation and livability here in Arlington County,” per the plan.

Pentagon City has recently been the focus of private redevelopment and county planning initiatives. On the Pentagon Centre site, Kimco has completed the redevelopment of surface parking into an apartment building dubbed the Witmer (710 12th Street S.) in 2019. Another apartment tower, dubbed the Milton (1446 S. Grant Street), is nearing completion.

Elsewhere, the first phase of Amazon’s second headquarters is set to open this summer, and — once economic headwinds change for the company — a second phase with the marquee “Double Helix” building is still planned, though delayed. JBG Smith, meanwhile, plans to redevelop acres of surface parking at the RiverHouse apartment complex into more residences.

Kimco updated its guidelines for redeveloping the Pentagon Centre site because much has changed in seven years. Office demand dropped due to the pandemic, so the real estate company proposes swapping some proposed office space for more apartments. It made changes to align with the 2022 Pentagon City Sector Plan, which guides long-term growth in the neighborhood.

“While we are not part of the sector plan, we thought it was a good time to look at the plan,” Kimco’s Director of Multifamily Development Abbey Oklak told the Arlington Ridge Civic Association during a meeting last week.

The new plans propose two office buildings, down from three, as well as three additional residential towers. Green space increased by about 30%, to nearly three acres, criss-crossed by planted paths, or “green ribbons,” envisioned in the Pentagon City Sector Plan.

Kimco divides the redevelopments into two phases. In the new first phase, S. Grant Street — which currently dead-ends at the southern edge of the mall — will extend through the site as a double-sided retail street.

Existing retail space west of the extended S. Grant Street, including Marshalls, Best Buy and restaurants, would become a pair of towers, one residential and one office, with ground-floor retail and parking.

“We wanted to look at the realignment of S. Grant Street so that Costco could stay,” Vice President of Development at Kimco Greg Reed said. “We’d take the mall down and bring the tenants back if they want to stay, in a different format… and have density above that in the future.”

In the new second phase, the Costco and parking garage on S. Fern Street would become an apartment building, an office tower with a conference center and a mixed-use hotel and apartment building, all with retail at the base.

These changes will not be happening for a while, as Kimco is still signing 10-year deals with retailers in the shopping center with 5-year extension options beyond that, civic association meeting attendees were told.

(more…)

Americana Hotel redevelopment in Crystal City nears finish line

By Jo DeVoe
1/6

(Updated at 3:45 p.m.) Plans to redevelop the Americana Hotel in Crystal City with apartments could get final approval next month, Arlington County says.

“The County is targeting April for full Planning Commission and Board review, but that is subject to change,” Dept. of Community Planning, Housing and Development spokeswoman Erika Moore told ARLnow.

JBG Smith proposes to demolish the former hotel at 1400 Richmond Hwy and build a 19-story, 639-unit apartment building with 3,885 square feet of ground-floor retail. If approved next month, construction could wrap up in 2026 or 2027, a company representative said in a Site Plan Review Committee meeting last month.

Up to this point, JBG Smith has overcome sloping terrain and maneuvered future development plans for neighboring sites and Route 1, which the Virginia Department of Transportation plans to lower. Per the meeting discussions, the developer is spending the remaining time before final review ironing out transportation and sustainability elements.

The building will have 188 on-site residential and visitor parking spaces. JBG Smith proposes setting aside 206 spaces for residents at the nearby Bartlett Apartments, which is a quarter-mile away. County code allows property managers to provide spots on other properties they own up to 800 feet away, says Kedrick Whitmore, an attorney for the project.

Some SPRC members differed over whether this would be a burden.

“One of our group members in that situation, they lived in a place and had off-site parking, it was so hard every time they had shopping to get from one place to another,” said Pedestrian Advisory Committee Secretary Pam Van Hine. “How are you going to mitigate that?”

Also speaking from experience, Transportation Commission Chair Chris Slatt said his first apartment after college had off-site parking about the same distance away.

“It was occasionally annoying but otherwise not a big deal,” he said. “We all know how much parking costs to build. If it means you are 100 bucks a month under rent because it’s annoying, I would happily take that if I were fresh out of college.”

Malcolm Williams, an associate with JBG Smith, said the Bartlett garage is three-quarters full and use will likely decrease with additional transit usage.

(The county is expanding bussing in the area via the extension of the Crystal City-Potomac Yard Transitway, while advocates of an at-grade Route 1 want to see more walking, cycling and scooting along the urban boulevard.)

The building will also target younger people working at Amazon or other nearby companies who are less likely to own cars. To Van Hine’s point, however, Williams did acknowledge the need for additional managerial effort.

“Anytime you have shared parking, it’s going to require heavy touch from the onsite property manager to make sure that drop offs and things of that nature are managed efficiently… and it’s legible for people,” Williams said. (more…)

Demolition day nears for RCA building in Rosslyn

By Jo DeVoe
1/7

The RCA building in Rosslyn could soon be demolished — not with a bang, but mechanically and over the next five months.

“We are awaiting issuance of the demolition permit,” said Greg Van Wie, the senior vice president for McLean-based Jefferson Apartment Group. “[We] anticipate receiving it any day and commencing immediately thereafter.”

The looming demolition work comes nearly two years after the county approved plans to replace the concrete-cladded office building at 1901 N. Moore Street with a 27-story, 423-unit apartment building in June 2021. Construction of the building is expected to take three years.

“We are currently completing the interior demolition and abatement so [we] have not necessarily been delayed, just working through the County requirements for full demolition,” Van Wie told ARLnow today (Thursday).

JAG is leading a joint venture to demolish the building, built in 1969, as well as the skywalk connecting it to the Rosslyn Gateway building. The new structure, comprised of of a north and a south tower joined at the base and at the rooftop with an “amenity bridge,” will have retail and parking across the third and fourth floors and underground.

A letter to residents of JBG Smith-owned mixed-use apartment building Central Place, shared with ARLnow, informed residents that demolition would start Friday.

Van Wie said he is “not sure it will be Friday.”

Residents noticed prep work for the site occurring last fall. At the time, Van Wie told ARLnow he did not yet have a demolition schedule to share, but did say it will be dismantled, rather than imploded, “so there won’t quite be the same show as with the old Holiday Inn, unfortunately.”

The letter to Central Place residents outlined hours of demolition and expected closures over the next five months.

“We are expecting temporary closures of N. Moore Street just north of N. 19th Street,” it reads. “All closures will be coordinated between the developers and Arlington County.”

Per county zoning ordinances, demolition may take place Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and on weekends and holidays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., the letter said.

“In our experience, teams will begin working promptly in the mornings, however it is common that activity will slow in the evenings,” the letter continued.

JAG projected demolition would occur in February or March back in December, when the Washington Business Journal reported that a joint venture led by JAG acquired the building for $55.5 million.

Three years ago, JAG took over the plans to redevelop the property from Weissberg Investment Corp., which built the initial building in 1969 and had plans to redevelop it back in 2017. The original plans were later put on hold.

Plans for RiverHouse come into focus as residents call for more infrastructure upgrades

By Jo DeVoe
1/12

(Updated at 5 p.m.) Proposed infill development for the RiverHouse site in Pentagon City is coming into focus with more renderings from the developer.

Reprising long-envisioned intentions to redevelop the expansive property, JBG Smith filed plans last year proposing apartments, senior housing, condos and townhomes on the surface parking lots on the RiverHouse site. Existing apartment towers will stay and more units within them will be set aside for affordable housing.

Arlington County has yet to officially accept JBG Smith’s application, a step that would kick off a formal community engagement and review process, which the developer anticipates will culminate in Arlington County Board review by the end of 2023.

The timeline for the RiverHouse project (via JBG Smith)

On Thursday, more than 100 residents, neighbors, other community stakeholders attended an open house, in which JBG Smith shared renderings showing how it proposes shorter and fewer buildings than what is allowed in the Pentagon City Sector Plan, a document guiding decades of development in the area.

“As our design team has developed our plans for the RiverHouse Neighborhood, we have benefited from the active participation and input from existing residents, neighbors, and other community stakeholders,” JBG Smith said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to collaborate in the coming months as we advance a shared vision for our neighborhood.”

After the meeting, residents tell ARLnow they are hoping for more collaboration to improve “livability” on the site and in the surrounding area, through more community benefits and supporting infrastructure, per the Arlington Ridge Civic Association President Kateri Garcia and the local group Dense That Makes Sense.

“How do we know the infrastructure in place is going to be enough to meet the demand of all these additional people?” Garcia said. “What are the benefits we most need in this area? … We already have a community center and library that is out of date. How can we use the investment to improve those facilities to right-size them for the future population?”

Some Arlington Ridge residents welcome, for instance, the lower heights. Before the Arlington County Board adopted the sector plan in February 2022, some residents rallied against the height maximums the plan would allow on the RiverHouse site, potentially blocking the skyline view some enjoy in the condos and homes that line Arlington Ridge Road.

“The October 2022 plan is a more reasonable plan than what Arlington County’s Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development (CPHD) proposed in its Pentagon City Sector Plan that was accepted by the County Board at its February 12, 2022 meeting,” according to Dense That Makes Sense, a group of residents who organized on this issue.

That said, the group said it does not endorse the 2022 plan, nor does it necessarily endorse plans JBG Smith put forward in 2019, which it says is the best of the three visions for the site. It argues that further study of the site is needed to figure out what supporting infrastructure is needed before JBG Smith moves forward.

(more…)

Hotelier floats idea of turning Green Valley hotels into apartments and townhouses

By Jo DeVoe
1/7

The owner of a hotel in Green Valley is signaling interest in building apartments.

Capital Second Investments, which owns Hotel Pentagon at 2480 S. Glebe Road near I-395, has filed a conceptual site plan application envisioning a 467-unit apartment building and 36 townhouses. Some entities take this step before filing a formal site plan application to get early feedback on the feasibility of their proposal.

The concept from Capital Second Investments situates the housing on a site that currently houses the Hotel Pentagon — which used to be a Best Western, and consists of a standalone structure and a trio of long, two-story buildings — as well as the Comfort Inn Pentagon City, a single tower next door.

Both hotels are listed at 2480 S. Glebe Road, which is at the corner of 24th Road S. and S. Glebe Road, surrounded by I-395, the Lomax AME Zion Church, some auto body shops and two apartment complexes.

Capital Second Investments proposes to fill the 467-unit building with:

  • 99 “junior 1-bedroom” units, which are studios with a small space that can be separated off
  • 191 1-bedroom units
  • 59 1-bedroom units with dens
  • 118 2-bedroom units
  • 608 underground parking spaces
  • A pool and an amenity deck

Across a tree-lined path from the complex would be two rows of stacked townhomes, with a typical floor area of 2,425 square feet, and parking.

Renderings for an apartment building to replace the Comfort Inn 2480 S. Glebe Road in Pentagon City (via Arlington County)

Conceptual site plan applications are preliminary by nature — a step some take before submitting a formal site plan application, which would be reviewed by staff and Arlington County’s various citizen committees.

“This application, and its administrative review process, is intended to provide guidance to prospective applicants in the preparation of land use development applications,” the application says.

Prior to becoming the Hotel Pentagon, the Best Western on S. Glebe Road was the scene of prostitution-related run-ins with law enforcement. In one publicized case, a man who forced a 16-year-old girl into prostitution at the motel later pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a minor.

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