Fire at Pike 3400 building (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Fire at Pike 3400 building (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
(Updated at 1:05 p.m.) Firefighters are investigating the source of dark smoke seen billowing out of a Columbia Pike apartment building’s parking garage.
The smoke was seen coming out of the garage entrance at the rear of the Pike 3400 building, at the southwest corner of the busy intersection of Columbia Pike and S. Glebe Road. A large fire department response was dispatched to the scene around 12:30 p.m., though the smoke has since largely abated.
Initial reports suggest that a boom was heard in the area and that it appears that an electrical transformer on the second level of the garage may have exploded and caught on fire, before the flames were extinguished by a sprinkler system.
In the past, fires that destroyed the electrical transformers of large buildings like this one have caused extended power outlets for residents.
The westbound lanes of Columbia Pike are currently blocked by emergency activity between S. Monroe Street and S. Glebe Road.
“Seek alternate routes,” advised an Arlington Alert.
Renderings of The Elliott apartments on Columbia Pike (via Arlington County)
Renderings of The Elliott apartments on Columbia Pike (via Arlington County)
Renderings of The Elliott apartments on Columbia Pike (via Arlington County)
The future 2025 Clarendon Blvd on the former Wendy’s site (via Arlington County)
The future 2025 Clarendon Blvd on the former Wendy’s site (via Arlington County)
The future 2025 Clarendon Blvd on the former Wendy’s site (via Arlington County)
The future 2025 Clarendon Blvd on the former Wendy’s site (via Arlington County)
This weekend, the Arlington County Board approved two apartment redevelopments that members lauded as architecturally distinct additions to Columbia Pike and Courthouse.
Members heaped praises on “The Elliott,” a new apartment building replacing the Fillmore Gardens shopping center, a one-story retail strip on the 2600 block of Columbia Pike.
Named for Elliott Burka, who managed the Fillmore Gardens apartments, “The Elliott” will situate 247 market-rate apartments above a grocery store (rumored to potentially be an Amazon Fresh), a renovated CVS store and a new location for Burritos Bros, currently located in the CVS parking lot.
It will also have three levels of below-grade parking.
They commended Arlington-based developer Insight Property Group for realizing community benefits — a public plaza, a pedestrian passageway and a new S. Cleveland Street — and for intending to make room for the existing retail in the completed building.
“This building will be delivering so much more than 247 residential units and the 50,000 square feet of commercial space,”said Board Member Takis Karantonis, who lives near the project. “It delivers the second half of the Penrose plaza, which is arguably, in my opinion at least, one of the most successful public, multipurpose plazas in Arlington County and a true community gathering place.”
Insight Property Group planner Sarah Davidson did not say the name of the grocer coming to “The Elliott,” but she did say the company is “very, very interested” in how to enliven Penrose Square.
Meanwhile, developer Greystar now has the go-ahead to build a glassy triangular skyscraper on the 0.57-acre vacant Wendy’s site in Courthouse, about a block from the Courthouse Metro station. The building will have 16 stories, with 231 residential units and 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.
It was approved despite some concerns among residents about the building’s height and the fact that it only provides 75 parking spots and 12 on-site committed affordable units.
“This will be a luxury, very expensive apartment building in Arlington — something we don’t have any deficit of,” said Board Vice-Chair Christian Dorsey. “To the extent that it adds to the housing supply for which there still continues to be strong demand for units at that price point, it helps with our housing strategy and goals for affordable housing indirectly.”
He said he also was concerned there are too few parking spots, but there are underused parking garages nearby to take advantage of.
“My suspicion is the reason people are willing to pay such a premium is to be three minutes from the Metro,” Board Chair Katie Cristol said, adding that “it is incumbent on us [to try to ensure that] it is not only the super wealthy who can live close to transit and all the access it provides.”
As for height, County Board members said the building is only 18 feet taller than the office building previously approved for this site. The Rosslyn to Courthouse Urban Design Study, meanwhile, recommends building no taller than 10 stories in this area.
Leslie Arminsky, speaking on behalf of the Radnor/Ft. Myer Heights Civic Association, said there should be 28 committed affordable units on site — rather than the approved 12 — while Board members opined that they should be committed affordable units for more than 30 years.
County staff countered that 30 years is standard for these projects.
While the Planning Commission was “thrilled” with the on-site affordable units — somewhat unusual for this manner of development project, with most developers opting to contribute monetarily to the county’s affordable housing fund instead — commissioners are concerned Greystar will seek a conversion of apartments to temporary hotel rooms if vacancy rates are high amid the initial leasing of the building, commission member Elizabeth Gearin said.
Hotel conversions are slated to be discussed tomorrow (Tuesday) during the County Board’s recessed meeting.
Zoomers — the generation born after 1997 — make up the “only active generation of apartment seekers nationwide,” and they are disproportionately choosing Arlington County, according to a new study from RentCafe.
Between 2020 and 2021, Arlington saw a 55% increase in apartment applications submitted by this age group, according to the website, which follows trends in the apartment market. It analyzed 3.2 million applications for the study.
“Once known as a verified Millennial hub, Arlington is getting a much-needed glow-up from this up-and-coming generation of young renters, ranking as the country’s sixth trendiest Gen Z hub,” RentCafe said.
That ranks Arlington behind the cities of San Francisco, Jersey City, New York City, Philadelphia and Boston and ahead of San Jose (California) and Seattle.
Zoomers are gravitating here after spending a one-year hiatus back home or in their college towns, RentCafe says.
“Young adults returned to their families’ homes in larger numbers in 2020, and with Gen Z being particularly affected by the pandemic, it’s safe to say it played an important role in their migration pattern,” RentCafe spokeswoman Michelle Cretu tells ARLnow.
But now, as society emerges from the pandemic, Zoomers are “following in the footsteps of their Millennial counterparts when it comes to independent living,” she said.
Millennials came to Arlington in droves during the Obama years, according to a previous RentCafe study, which found 52% of Crystal City’s population was made up of the generation also known as Gen Y. For them, Arlington offered employment opportunities plus plenty of nightlife and housing options, Cretu said.
Now, Gen Yers are in their home-buying years, and many are ditching their renter status to buy homes in Alexandria, Reston and Frederick, Maryland, according to RentCafe.
Younger Millennials, however, are still renting because they’ve been “outpriced by an overly competitive housing market,” she said.
Data show the new generation is, on a relative basis, choosing Arlington over D.C., which recorded a smaller increase — 31% — in the share of Gen Z renters. The City of Alexandria, the 13th trendiest Zoomer hub, also ranks higher than the District.
“So, it’s not a matter of Gen Z not choosing D.C., but one of Zoomers choosing Arlington in higher numbers,” Cretu said.
One reason is Arlington’s growing concentration of tech jobs, fueled in part by the construction of Amazon’s second headquarters.
“While both cities score in diversity and vibrant social scenes, Arlington is a developing city where new career opportunities are just emerging,” she said.
Zoomers are showing a keen interest in tech jobs, with three in 10 ranking software development as their top career choice, according to a study by the software company CloudBees. So it comes as no surprise that they are choosing Arlington alongside the well-known tech sectors of San Francisco and Seattle and the new tech hubs of Atlanta, San Diego and Baltimore.
Another factor behind the trends Cretu cited is that Arlington has bigger apartments.
Developers are building larger units here than they were five years ago, while in D.C., the average square footage of a new apartment is shrinking. The prospect of more spacious new construction could also be why the RentCafe list features suburbs of New York City and Dallas.
Marymount University’s office and educational building and “The Rixey” apartments (file photo)
Marymount University is seeking Arlington County Board approval to convert some of its student housing in Ballston into hotel rooms permanently.
The conversions would occur at “The Rixey,” an apartment building Marymount owns and operates at 1008 N. Glebe Road as graduate student housing. Marymount intends to repurpose 133 of the 267 units into hotel rooms to give students studying hotellery practical experience.
“The addition of hotel units to the Rixey building will be used to support and enhance Marymount University’s Hospitality Innovation Master of Business Administration (MBA) program by providing students with hands-on experience in the hotel industry,” a county report said.
This request follows several other recent proposals to temporarily convert apartment units into hotels during the initial leasing of these buildings, the report said.
For example, to recuperate revenue losses from pandemic-era vacancies, Dittmar asked the Arlington County Board last summer to allow three- to 30-day stays in 75 furnished units that are typically used for longer residential stays.
Some worried these conversions would harm rental housing affordability, but the County Board ultimately approved Dittmar’s request. County planners intend to study these conversions “in the next few years” to inform a potential hotel conversion policy, according to the report.
Staff say Marymount’s proposal, however, is “distinctly different” because the conversions would be permanent, would figure into a hands-on learning program and would add hotel rooms the county needs.
“The proposed conversion would also establish a concentration of new hotel rooms to help counterbalance the loss of 1,600 hotel rooms in Arlington over the past two years and would allow Marymount University to broaden its offerings as an anchor institution in Ballston,” the report said.
Recent losses include the Americana Hotel and the Inn of Rosslyn, both of which were sold to developer JBG Smith for residential redevelopment, as well as The Highlander and the Rosslyn Holiday Inn.
Marymount purchased “The Rixey” for $95 million in 2019 after it had purchased the land underneath in order to lease it to local real estate developer The Shooshan Company, which built the apartments. Marymount also owns the Ballston Center office building next door, using some floors for office and educational space and leasing other floors.
The Board is slated to review the proposal this Saturday.
The view from 23rd Street S. of JBG Smith’s proposed redevelopment at 2250 Crystal Drive (via Arlington County)
The southeastern view of JBG Smith’s proposed redevelopment at 2250 Crystal Drive in Crystal City (via Arlington County)
The northwest (left) and southwest (right) views of JBG Smith’s proposed redevelopment at 2250 Crystal Drive in Crystal City (via Arlington County)
Plans to redevelop an office building and the former Jaleo restaurant in Crystal City as two apartment towers are crystallizing.
But two yet-undeveloped buildings appear to be limiting plans for some transportation and open space community benefits associated with the project.
JBG Smith proposes replacing the one-story retail building at 2250 Crystal Drive — home to Jaleo until September — and the aging 11-story “Crystal Plaza 5” office building at 223 23rd Street S. with two, 30-story apartment towers:
A “West Tower” at 223 23rd Street S. that would be 309 feet tall and have 613 dwelling units, 4,379 square feet of retail and 184 parking spaces
An “East Tower” at 2250 Crystal Drive that would be 304 feet tall, and have 827 dwelling units, 13,059 square feet of retail and 249 total parking spaces
Most of the buildings on the block, dubbed “Block M” in the 2010 Crystal City Sector Plan, are owned by JBG Smith: the apartments 220 20th Street S. and Crystal Plaza 6 and the offices and retail at 2200 and 2100 Crystal Drive.
Once approved and constructed, the development would make the block 80% residential. On the same block, JBG Smith is replacing the Crystal Plaza 1 office building with two apartment towers, 2000 and 2001 S. Bell Street.
Site conditions and developments within the block, dubbed “Block M” (via Arlington County)
As part of the project, JBG Smith is responsible for providing two open spaces and building a new S. Clark-Bell Street to improve pedestrian, car and transit circulation near Route 1. But the developer has to work around Crystal Plaza 6, which it owns, and the Crystal Plaza Apartments, owned by Dweck Properties.
JBG Smith proposes putting the new S. Clark-Bell Street west of these buildings, which could create future transit connectivity challenges, county planner Michael Cullen said in a staff presentation last month.
“While much of the vision relies on the redevelopment of the Crystal Plaza Apartments and the Crystal Plaza 6 site at 2221 Clark Street S., the proposed site plan project will be establishing critical alignments for future entry and exit points that will impact the feasibility of achieving the ultimate roadway alignment,” he said.
An alley between the two towers that JBG Smith is proposing will be nothing but a dead end unless the Crystal Plaza Apartments are redeveloped, according to the county.
Until JBG Smith redevelops Crystal Plaza 6, the developer says it can only build an interim, 8,670-square foot park on the site’s southwest corner — not the 13,000-square foot park envisioned in the 2010 Crystal City Sector Plan.
The 16-story apartment building Greystar proposes for the Wendy’s lot (via Arlington County)
The 16-story apartment building Greystar proposes for the Wendy’s lot (via Arlington County)
The 16-story apartment building Greystar proposes for the Wendy’s lot (via Arlington County)
The 16-story apartment building Greystar proposes for the Wendy’s lot (via Arlington County)
Final approvals could be imminent for a high-rise apartment building proposed for the long-vacant Wendy’s lot.
Plans to redevelop 2025 Clarendon Blvd are set for Planning Commission and County Board votes next month, beginning with the Planning Commission on March 7. The County Board is expected to review the plans during its Saturday meeting on March 19.
Greystar Real Estate Partners is proposing to turn the 0.57-acre lot about a block from the Courthouse Metro station into a 16-story apartment building, with 231 residential units and 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. Residents will have 75 vehicle parking spaces and one bike parking spot for every unit.
As part of the project, Greystar is adding a public plaza at the tip of western edge of the site — where N. Courthouse Road and Wilson and Clarendon Blvd intersect — and an alley along the eastern edge.
The site languished for years after the Wendy’s and a bank were torn down to make room for a 12-story office building proposed by Carr Properties — which was never built because Carr couldn’t secure a tenant.
The lot has been used as a staging area for 2000 Clarendon, a condo project across the street, as the site changed hands and Greystar drafted new plans for apartments.
Last fall, most residents who participated in a public engagement process seemed to welcome the switch from office to residential use, although they were divided on the low parking ratio and the height, given the one-story retail and low-rise brick apartment buildings nearby.
But Greystar was able to nearly double the number of units it could pack onto the site and increase the building height by six stories through a 104,789 square foot transfer of development rights from Wakefield Manor, a small garden-apartment complex deemed to be historic, located less than a half-mile from the proposed development.
Before and after Greystar removed patios to decrease the massing proposed for 2025 Clarendon Blvd (via Arlington County)
Greystar did adjust the project a bit in response to community and staff feedback.
To make the building feel less bulky, it removed columns running along the ground of the public plaza as well as some patios on the upper stories, Walsh Colucci land use attorney Nick Cummings said during a November presentation.
During the same meeting, county planner Adam Watson said Arlington continues to work with Greystar to make the plaza more vibrant than a concrete slab, with more plantings, movable seating and diverse building materials.
“There’s a number of things we’re working on to get there,” he said.
Greystar removed columns on the ground to open up the plaza proposed for 2025 Clarendon Blvd (via Arlington County)
Greystar, meanwhile, is currently building new apartments a stone’s throw away in Courthouse on the “Landmark Block” (2050 Wilson Blvd). This project is poised to realize a significant portion of a 2015 vision to transform the neighborhood.
A few more county projects and private developments have to get underway, however, for the vision to be fully realized.
The Barcroft Apartments, a 1,334-unit, market-affordable apartment complex along Columbia Pike (via Google Maps)
It’s been two months since Arlington County and Amazon agreed to loan more than $300 million to facilitate the sale of the Barcroft Apartments on Columbia Pike.
Since the deal in December, Jair Lynch has started conducting initial property assessments to understand what substantive repairs and renovations need to be done in the short term to improve residential quality of life and building safety, Anthony Startt, the company’s director of investments, tells ARLnow.
It’s also working with Barcroft Apartments property management company Gates Hudson to meet with residents individually and at welcome events and administer surveys to understand their living situations.
“We are assuring all of our residents that no one will be displaced,” he said.
The garden apartments at 1130 S. George Mason Drive sprawl across 60 acres and house more tenants than some rural towns. They happen to be some of the last market-rate affordable apartments in Arlington, and proponents of the county’s $150 million loan heralded the significant investment in preserving affordable housing, while critics said the deal went through too quickly and without enough community oversight.
Now, the hard work on the county side begins: drafting a long-term investment plan and figuring out how to involve the community, particularly Barcroft residents, in the planning process. Community leaders and County Board members say this will have to balance blue-sky ideas with the financial constraints that come with an affordable housing project, all while working within the parameters of the Neighborhoods Form-Based Code that governs development in the area.
“There are a lot of cool things people would love to see, but the money first has to go toward preservation of 1,334 units, which I don’t know of a larger housing preservation deal in the D.C. area, ever,” says John Snyder, the chair of the Columbia Pike Partnership board (formerly the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization, or CPRO).
He served as a representative of the Douglas Park neighborhood on the working group that developed the the Neighborhoods Form-Based Code.
Snyder’s must-haves include an on-site bus stop and bicycle stations to ensure there isn’t a large influx of cars clogging up S. George Mason Drive. His wish list includes a municipal swimming pool and playgrounds. There’s also interest in a daycare or a school.
“It’s going to be very interesting as all of this moves forward in the planning process,” Snyder says. “I just envision people getting great ideas and looking at the other end of the table where the engineers and accountants are sweating, wondering how they can do this… In other places, maybe we can raise the rent, but we can’t here.”
The County Board has encouraged county planning staff to prioritize a review the Neighborhoods Form-Based Code — which has some guidance on building size and placement, but not other topics such as form or ground-floor retail — to ensure the plans act as a floor, and not a ceiling, for whatever Jair Lynch proposes.
Columbia Gardens Apartments at 5309 8th Road S. (via Google Maps)
(Updated 10:45 a.m.) Nearly 60 residents and families on Columbia Pike are scrambling to find new housing options under the shadow of a looming redevelopment project.
The impacted tenants live at Columbia Gardens Apartments (5309 8th Road S.), a collection of market-rate affordable garden apartments. Some families have lived there for upward of 20 years, but now, 62 units will be replaced with townhouses through a by-right development project.
Residents have about 50 days to find new homes. Last weekend, they received letters via certified mail giving them until March 31 to vacate, listing nearby complexes with openings and local movers, and offering $200 in rental assistance. The complex owner had transitioned them to month-to-month leases before giving them the notice, which would have been 120 days by law if they had renewed for a year.
“Everybody’s stressed,” says tenant Maria Torres, 31, who has a daughter at Campbell Elementary School. “They want to stay in the same area because they want their kids to stay in the same schools. We’re in the middle of the pandemic and the school year, and some people don’t have the money to just go and give a deposit and a month of rent.”
Tenants knew eventually the apartments would be torn down, since the property owner is also redeveloping the property it owns nearby at 843 S. Greenbrier Street, a separate project that received County Board approval in November 2020. But, she says, management didn’t indicate when notice would come for them.
“We thought they were going to give us time,” says Torres, a 15-year Pike resident. “We didn’t imagine it’d be only 45 days.”
Now, the 58 households will be competing for affordable housing in Arlington, which is grappling with a shortage of options as well as habitability concerns, such as rodents and mold, at some complexes with units set aside for low-income residents. This bottleneck could drive longtime residents out of the county, tenant advocates say.
“We have a shortage of affordable apartments,” said Elder Julio Basurto, a community leader working with the tenants. “Where are they going to go?”
A tenant meeting outside Columbia Gardens Apartments (courtesy photo)
Advocates and some local elected officials say the notice is unjust and poorly timed, and are trying to buy tenants more time to resettle. Long term, they aim to reform the state housing codes to require longer notice periods for month-to-month renters and enact local policies to support low- and moderate-income communities at risk of displacement as the Pike redevelops.
“This is a horrible situation in the middle of winter, in the middle of a pandemic, with kids going to local schools having to potentially move out of school,” said Del. Alfonso Lopez, whose district includes most of Columbia Pike. “Everything about it is horrible, and it needs to be addressed immediately.”
Columbia Gardens’ owner, Merion Companies, says it’s doing what it can to help — but ultimately, the old buildings need to come down.
“There is no good time to [give notice],” said managing member Ryan Bensten. “We’re completely sensitive to that fact and have tried to do the right thing by our tenants to minimize heartache and impact.”
He said Merion provided a list of 13 locations where the group found vacancies and are trying to place some families in other units on the Columbia Gardens property not yet slated for development. He has three staff members dedicated to answering calls and working with tenants.
“These buildings have lived beyond their useful life,” Bensten said. “We’re moving on with a redevelopment — the project is complex with a lot of moving parts and we’re doing our best to be responsible to our tenants as we can.”
On short notice
At the core of this saga is a frustration with Virginia code, which requires landlords to provide 30 days of notice to tenants on month-to-month leases in the event of a renovation project, as opposed to 120 days of notice for year-long leases.
It’s a provision that dates back at least to 2005, says Lopez, but was most recently clarified in 2015 as part of a law providing protections to residents of mobile homes.
Merion acquired the property around four years ago, and as tenants’ year-long leases expired, they transitioned to month-to-month arrangements, Bensten says.
“Typically, in Virginia, the month-to-month lease automatically kicks in once your lease has expired and if the landlord doesn’t make an attempt to renew the normal lease,” says Kellen MacBeth, who chairs the Arlington branch of the NAACP’s Housing Committee and is Vice-Chair of the Arlington Housing Commission.
Both tenants and landlords can terminate a month-to-month lease with 30 days of notice, which is convenient for landlords and can sometimes benefit tenants, he said.
“But in the case where the tenant has a family and has established themselves in this neighborhood — this is their home and they’re not looking to make major changes — it can be really challenging, as we see here,” MacBeth said. “Thirty days is not a lot of time to pack up your family and move.”
A rendering of one of the new towers that proposed Marbella Apartments from N. Ode Street (via Arlington County)
The view of the proposed Marbella Apartments from N. Queen Street (via Arlington County)
The view of the proposed Marbella Apartments from N. Pierce Street (via Arlington County)
A view of the proposed Marbella Apartments (via Arlington County)
The view of the proposed Marbella Apartments from Route 50 (via Arlington County)
A rendering of the new Marbella Apartments to be constructed along N. Pierce Street (via Arlington County)
The N. Pierce Street main entrance to the proposed Marbella Apartments (via Arlington County)
The Marbella Apartments on N. Queen Street (via Google Maps)
This weekend, a new affordable housing development in the Fort Myer Heights neighborhood, near Rosslyn, could get the green light to get started.
During its regular meeting on Saturday, the County Board is slated to review plans for the Marbella Apartments, a proposal from Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) to build two 12-story, multifamily residential buildings that will be 100% affordable units for residents earning less than the area median income (AMI).
It will also review a proposal to issue a $10.5 million, 38-year loan to the Arlington-based affordable housing developer to fund one half of the project.
The two buildings, with a total of 555 units, would replace the existing three-story, garden-style complex located at 1300 and 1305 N. Pierce, north of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. These buildings are located on the east and west sides of N. Pierce Street, between N. Queen Street and N. Ode Street.
About two-thirds of the units in both buildings will be affordable to those earning up to 60% AMI and more than half of the units will be family-sized, with two to three bedrooms. The rest of the units will be affordable to people earning up to 30% to 50% of AMI.
Current residents will be prioritized as new tenants and the units will be affordable for 75 years, according to a Board report. In the “unlikely” event of a foreclosure with the senior lender, Virginia Housing, APAH may be able to reduce the number of affordable units to no fewer than 20% of the total, it said.
The project would be built in two phases:
Phase 1: “Site A,” a 234-unit tower with 118 below-grade parking spaces
Phase 2: “Site B,” a 321-unit tower, 132 of which will be dedicated to senior housing, with 163 below-grade parking spaces
Each building will be oriented around central courtyards, with two new pedestrian walkways across each site. They have some environmentally friendly features, including green roofs, rooftop solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations and bicycle parking.
The developer will also take utilities underground and plant street trees.
APAH intends to return to the County Board later to request funds for the second phase. The County loaned the developer $4 million in 2011 when it purchased the existing 134-unit complex, built in the 1940s.
APAH is allowed to build 12-story buildings in the neighborhood through an April 2021 zoning ordinance amendment that hasn’t been used before, according to the report. Developers can tack on height if they commit to keeping all the units affordable and designing effective height transitions to lower-slung neighbors.
But this policy lacked “well-defined planning and urban design guidelines or other applicable policy guidance,” resulting in a contentious public review process, according to the report.
The Radnor/Fort Myer Heights Civic Association, Lisa Court townhouses homeowners and representatives for the Flats at Pierce Court condos all “voiced a number of concerns with the proposal, including issues related to overall building height, density, proposed parking, construction impacts, and transition to lower density properties,” the report said.
The Marbella Apartments site, showing neighboring communities (via Arlington County)
But revisions addressing these concerns worried several Site Plan Review Committee members and advisory group representatives, who said they reduced the number of units too much, the report continued.
The county says the final proposal smoothes the transition from townhouses to 12-story buildings as much as possible while removing only a half-dozen of units.
The evolution of the Marbella Apartments proposal (via Arlington County)
Meanwhile, this summer, APAH intends to renovate some low- and mid-rise affordable apartment buildings it owns next to the buildings intended for redevelopment.
Renderings of The Elliott apartments on Columbia Pike (via Arlington County)
Renderings of The Elliott apartments on Columbia Pike (via Arlington County)
Renderings of The Elliott apartments on Columbia Pike (via Arlington County)
Renderings of The Elliott apartments on Columbia Pike (via Arlington County)
The shuttered H&R Block on Columbia Pike (staff photo by Matt Blitz)
The Fillmore Gardens Shopping Center (via Google Maps)
The CVS in the Fillmore Gardens Shopping Center (via Google Maps)
The Fillmore Gardens Shopping Center (via Google Maps)
The Arlington Planning Commission gave a proposed Columbia Pike residential redevelopment the thumbs-up.
Now, plans to replace an aging, one-story retail strip in the 2600 block of Columbia Pike will head to the County Board for approval during its recessed meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 17.
Arlington-based Insight Property Group proposes to tear down the Fillmore Gardens Shopping Center at the corner of Columbia Pike and S. Walter Reed Drive and build a multifamily building with ground floor retail. The six-story building, dubbed “The Elliott,” will situate 247 market-rate apartments above a grocery store (rumored to be an Amazon Fresh), a renovated CVS pharmacy and three levels of below-grade parking.
“This project has been a work in progress for several years now,” said Tad Lunger, the land use attorney representing the project. “As you know, it is a very prominent site in a town center on Columbia Pike, which was envisioned to accomplish a number of planning and community goals. The culmination of these goals has informed every aspect of this proposal.”
The developer will contribute land on the eastern edge of the site to the second phase of Penrose Square Park. This will nearly double the park’s size, and allow the two sculptures that comprise the public art installation “Echo” to be farther apart, as originally envisioned by its artist.
It will also build a new S. Cleveland Street, which separates the park and the site, a pedestrian passageway along the western edge of the site and an alley to the north.
The site of The Elliott development on Columbia Pike (via Arlington County)
Residents will have access to four amenity spaces: two internal courtyards, a pool courtyard overlooking the pedestrian passageway and a rooftop space. Insight Property Group is aiming for LEED Silver certification of the building.
Once engineering, building and landscape plans are finalized, demolition could begin in early fall, Erika Moore, a spokeswoman with the Department of Community, Planning, Housing and Development, previously told ARLnow. If that starts on time, construction would likely conclude by early 2025.
Members of the Planning Commission praised the project and had few questions.
“I’m excited by the presentation, and I’m excited to see this move forward,” said Daniel Weir, speaking not as the Planning Commission Chair but as a member. “I’m very happy as well with what we’ve been presented with.”
That there were no public speakers and few questions demonstrates how the Columbia Pike Form Based Code — which guides development on the Pike and favors mid-rise apartments with ground-floor retail — helped realize an “amazing building,” Commissioner Stephen Hughes said.
“Our long list of public speakers and fellow commissioners who have poignant things to add is a big old goose egg,” he said. “We stand on the shoulders of giants who helped build the original plan and worked to ensure the balancing act of many different areas were heard, communicated and then held to.”
The alley prompted one question from Commissioner Tenley Peterson, who referenced two car accidents involving alleys in November — one involving a toddler in Westover and the other an adult on a motorcycle who died of his injuries — that prompted a county task force to study alley safety.
The overall view of 3000 and 3250 Clarendon Blvd from the corner of Washington and Wilson Blvd (via Arlington County)
Renderings of a Clarendon redevelopment by TCS Realty Associates and The Donohoe Cos. (via Arlington County)
Renderings of a Clarendon redevelopment by TCS Realty Associates and The Donohoe Cos. (via Arlington County)
The overall view of 3000 and 3250 Clarendon Blvd from the corner of 10th Street N. and N. Irving Street (via Arlington County)
The view of the proposed apartment building from Wilson Blvd (via Arlington County)
The view of the proposed apartment building from Wilson Blvd (via Arlington County)
The view of the proposed apartment building from 10th Street N. looking into the courtyard (via Arlington County)
The view of the proposed apartment building from the new 10th Road N. looking at the alley (via Arlington County)
Plans and a possible construction timeline for the proposed Silver Diner redevelopment in Clarendon are crystallizing.
Late last month, property owner TCS Realty Associates and developer Donohoe Cos. filed their application materials for the “Bingham Center” project on a triangular parcel of land bounded by Wilson Blvd, 10th Street N. and N. Irving Street, across from Northside Social.
One half of the project would replace the Silver Diner and a retail building (3240 Wilson Blvd) with a 224-room hotel, featuring a rooftop bar, gym and terrace. The other half would see a 286-unit residential building with 16,000 square feet of retail replacing The Lot, two brick structures called “The Doctors Building,” an auto repair facility and surface parking.
The sites for the hotel and apartment buildings by TCS Realty Associates and The Donohoe Cos. (via Arlington County)
The review process for the project could take upward of seven months, TCS Realty Associates President Tom Shooltz tells ARLnow. Construction, which Donohoe will oversee as general contractor, could start in the first or second quarter of 2023 and wrap up about two years later.
“We’re getting to the goal line now,” he said.
The filings come as revisions to the Clarendon Sector Plan are set to be finalized in the next four months. In response to a bevy of expected near-term projects in Clarendon, Arlington County embarked on a review of the 2006 plan last year.
“Currently, staff is preparing the draft Clarendon Sector Plan Update document,” Arlington County Planner Brett Wallace told ARLnow in a statement. “Staff posted materials online in early December that include draft recommendations, updated sector plan text and maps, and potential land use scenarios for the 10th Street County-owned properties.”
Staff will next meet with the Zoning Committee in two weeks to review proposed zoning amendments before Planning Commission and County Board public hearing dates are set.
Progress on the Silver Diner redevelopment project hinged on sector plan revisions.
“The Clarendon Sector Plan is very important to the whole development of Clarendon,” Shooltz said. “There are a few other projects in the pipeline for that immediate part of Clarendon, so it only made sense that the county and stakeholders stepped back to make sure the Sector Plan reflects what we want to see for Clarendon.”
Despite COVID-19 delays and a timeline dictated by the sector plan, Shooltz says getting to this point has been smooth.
“We’ve got a very sophisticated citizen group who has been through this process many times,” he said. “It’s been a pleasure to work with them and Clarendon is going to be a beneficiary of the review process.” (more…)
