grocery store

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

State Senator’s Husband Pens Alarming Column — Tom Whipple, husband of state Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D), has penned a column entitled “The Peak Oil Crisis: Civil Unrest” for the Falls Church News-Press. He writes: “By failure to guide the country to real solutions to real problems, our leaders are risking increasing violence as the frustrations of an unknowing people continue to grow.” [Not Larry Sabato]

Grocery Store and Development Proposed for Bergmann’s Site — A developer wants to bring a grocery store to the site of the Bergmann’s Cleaners on Lee Highway, provided the county also approves a 12-story apartment building next door. The apartment site is currently zoned only for single family homes. [TBD]

Manee Thai Condemned — Manee Thai restaurant on Columbia Pike has been declared “unfit for habitation” by county building inspectors, according to a sign near the entrance. Other businesses in the strip of stores adjacent to Manee Thai have remained open. [Pike Spotter]

O’Connell Athletic Field Request May Be Pushed Back — Consideration of Bishop O’Connell High School’s request to renovate its athletic field and add NCAA-compliant lighting will likely be pushed back to March. The board is slated to take up the request at its Jan. 22 meeting, but the school is requesting a deferral. [Sun Gazette]

Flickr pool photo by Philliefan99

Shirlington Harris Teeter Gets Parking Meters

By ARLnow.com

The Harris Teeter in Shirlington is adding meters to its reserved parking spaces.

The spaces, located on the ground floor of an adjacent parking garage, are often full, leading to complaints to Harris Teeter management. Even though the spaces are reserved for grocery customers and limited to one hour, an employee tells us that drivers often flout the rules by parking in the spaces and heading to other stores.

The new meters are expected to “go live” on Saturday. Much like the meters at the Harris Teeter in Pentagon City, the Shirlington meters will have a button that will give drivers an hour of free parking. Coins will not be accepted.

Currently, the Shirlington Harris Teeter does not actively enforce its parking rules. We’re told that at least at first, the time limits on the meters will likely not be enforced, either. However, that could eventually change depending on how effective the meters are as a deterrent.

A number of people have emailed us with questions about the meters.

“If you haven’t reported it, I hope you’ll consider doing so,” one reader said. “Your readers who patronize Shirlington Village will want to be informed that parking there is about to become more costly and less convenient.”

Alas, the meters will be free and the parking rules will remain the same, at least according to people who work at the store.

Board to Hear Grocery Store-Related Proposal for Crystal City

By ARLnow.com

It’s a rather unglamorous item on Saturday’s county board agenda, but behind the mundane particulars of a site plan amendment to turn retail space into office space is an issue near and dear to the hearts of many Crystal City residents: the potential for a neighborhood grocery store.

The firm that operates the underground shops at 2100 Crystal Drive wants to take 5,661 square feet of open retail space and convert it to office and storage use. But that would come at the expense of a vacant 17,919 square foot space that, until 2005, housed a Safeway store. The landlord has been trying to find another grocery tenant, but has been fighting a strong headwind caused by the weak national economy and the imminent departure of 13,000 jobs from the Crystal City area.

Essentially, the request to convert vacant space to an office use is a white flag — an admission that after five years of trying to market the space to grocery stores, leasing agents have come to the conclusion that no one wants to run a 17,919 square foot grocery store in the Crystal City underground at this time. While keeping open the possibility of a smaller, Trader Joe’s-sized market, the landlord is trying to find a way — any way — to productively fill some of the excess space.

But the county board may not allow that to happen. County staff is recommending that the site plan amendment be denied and that the space remain open for a potential grocery store. While acknowledging the difficulty in finding a suitable tenant, staff argues that it’s important to “retain the potential for a use that would activate the public realm and/or have a higher value to the community.”

County staff concludes that the space should be retained for retail or for “civic and culturally-oriented uses.” Besides, staff notes, BRAC will leave plenty of vacant office space for the landlord’s potential 5,661 square foot tenant.

The board is expected to take up the matter on Saturday. Then, on Tuesday, an item with far wider-reaching consequences will be considered: the 40-year Crystal City Sector Plan.

Crystal City Trying to Attract a Grocery Store

By ARLnow.com

Update at 12:55 p.m. — We’re told development at the space at 2121 Crystal Drive, referenced here, is a long-range goal and not set in stone. Vornado’s current and on-going effort to attract a grocery store is focused on existing spaces in Crystal City.

Crystal City has been without a grocery store for more than five years. But now, as developer Vornado works to attract more residents to the area, it’s also working hard to attract a new grocery store.

The Safeway that had served as Crystal City’s lone grocery store closed its doors in March 2005. The store had been an anchor tenant of the Crystal City Underground for 38 years, but decided to close when surface parking was eliminated as part of the revitalization of Crystal City.

Now, we hear, Vornado is touting the success of Crystal City’s Freshfarm market in an effort to attract a new grocery store. We don’t know much about the closely-held discussions with retailers, but we do know a likely site for a future store — the park in front of 2121 Crystal Drive.

The park is actually owned by Vornado, which wants to liven up the block by replacing the open space with low-rise retail and, possibly, condos. In order to do so, however, Vornado would need to convince the county board that the open space being developed would be replaced by more open space elsewhere in Crystal City.

We talked to Crystal City Business Improvement District President Angela Fox and County Board Vice-Chairman Chris Zimmerman about the potential development earlier this summer. Check out the video from that lively discussion (don’t worry, it’s short) after the jump.

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Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

It’s September — Start mourning the end of summer now — and get to the pool while you still can.

Man Goes Bananas in the Vegetable Aisle — Police are trying to find a man who walked into the Virginia Square Giant, spit on the vegetable display, sprayed hand lotion on a candy display, and assaulted a cashier. He’s described as a six-foot tall, 30-year-old white male with a ponytail. More from TBD.

A “Tree Tragedy” in Ballston — This is an older item that was just brought to our attention. Last month workers at Ballston Common Mall went overboard while pruning trees along the sidewalk, resulting in an incident our tipster referred to as the “Ballston Tree Massacre.” A member of a local group called the Tree Stewards apparently tried to intervene, but was ignored by the crew. The end result of the overzealous pruning: ugliness and death.

Photos from Capital Bikeshare Station Installation — The first of the 114 planned Capital Bikeshare stations was installed near the Crystal City Metro station yesterday morning. The Commuter Page Blog has photos of the installation.

Flickr pool photo by BrianMKA

Here We Go Again: Snoverkill Eve In Photos

By ARLnow.com

We know the drill by now. As the latest snow storm to blanket the Washington area arrived tonight, the plows were already out. The roadways were less busy. Pedestrians were wearing boots and heavy coats. And the grocery stores that hadn’t closed early were already picked clean of many items.

That’s right, we’re getting pretty good at this. More photos, after the jump.

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Grocery Stores Closing

By ARLnow.com

Update at 8:10 PM – The Pentagon City Harris Teeter is closing within the hour. The Ballston store is planning to close at midnight. Both stores say it is unlikely they’ll open tomorrow.

Local Giant stores are, apparently, toughing out the storm. The South Glebe Road and the Virginia Square stores are both planning on closing at midnight and re-opening at 6:00 AM.

The Clarendon Whole Foods is closing at 5:00 PM today due to the snow. The store will remain closed until Sunday.

The Ballston Harris Teeter will be closing at some point tonight, depending on conditions, according to a store employee. Other stores, reached by phone, said no decision has been made regarding whether they’ll close today.

Local Stores Jammed As Snowmageddon Approaches

By ARLnow.com

Update at 12:00 AM – Both the Ballston and the Pentagon City Harris Teeter stores are running very low on many essentials. Much of what is left is the more specialty-type items. As of 11:30 PM, the Pentagon City Harris Teeter still had very long lines.

Parking spaces were scarce outside the Shopper’s Food Warehouse at Potomac Yard tonight. At the Harris Teeter in Pentagon City, register lines stretched nearly the length of the store’s isles. Meanwhile on South Fern Street, drivers waiting to get into the Costco parking lot resorted to honking out of frustration with the massive backup.

With forecasters talking up the possibility that this storm will surpass December’s whopper snowfall, locals dutifully headed out en masse to stock up on the essentials. The usual staples — milk, bread, toilet paper — could be found in most carts.

As of 7:30 tonight, the Potomac Yard Shopper’s suffered at least one kind of shortage: shopping carts and baskets. Many shoppers resorted to carrying their groceries by hand — no easy task while waiting in 45 minute checkout lines.

Despite the rancor that prevailed in the traffic jams outside, politeness won the day inside. Lines moved along in an orderly fashion and, at least so far, there was no need to fight for the last roll of Charmin.