groundbreaking

Groundbreaking for New Rosslyn Metro Station Entrance

By ARLnow.com

Fortuitously timed between yesterday morning’s downpours, local officials and Sen. Jim Webb gathered under a tent near North Lynn Street to break ground on a new entrance to the Rosslyn Metro station.

The entrance will be located across from the existing Metro entrance, between the planned CentralPlace office and residential towers and near the future 1812 North Moore Street tower. It will feature three high-speed elevators and an emergency staircase, but no escalators.

The $32.6 million project also includes the construction of new fare collection and vending equipment, as well as a new kiosk and a new entrance mezzanine.

“I think it’s a good investment,” said Webb, who pointed to heavy traffic on the nearby Roosevelt Bridge as evidence of the importance of the Metrorail system.

The entrance will be able to serve up to 2,000 riders per hour, officials say. Local leaders hope it will help keep pace with the station’s soaring ridership, which has increased 23 percent in the past decade and is expected to increase even more with all the new development in the area.

“The project that’s being initiated today will increase the capacity of the station,” said county board member Chris Zimmerman, who is also sits on Metro’s board of directors. “It will be easier for people to get in and out of Rosslyn station… It’s going to make Rosslyn a more vital place, and help us achieve the vision for Rosslyn that everyone here has been working on for quite a long time.”

The project is being funded by a combination of federal, state and county dollars.

Construction is expected to wrap up in the spring of 2013. In the meantime, construction has necessitated some traffic changes in the Rosslyn area.

Rosslyn’s Future, as Foretold by an Office Building

By ARLnow.com

If Thursday’s groundbreaking for the 1812 North Moore Street office tower was anything, it was a vote of confidence in the DC area, and Rosslyn specifically, as a commercial center.

“The fundementals of our market are probably the best in the entire country, if not the world,” said Tim Helmig, the executive who just placed a $30 million bet on Rosslyn. “Investors worldwide have focused on the [Rosslyn-Ballston] corridor.”

Helmig, who heads the DC office New York-based Monday Properties, said he is embarking on the project without a signed tenant and without full financing because he believes that demand for office space in Rosslyn will be there once the building is completed. His company is so sure of Rosslyn’s viability that a full 45 percent of the company’s portfolio, in square feet, is based here.

“You’re seeing that a market like Rosslyn can withstand what is arguably the worst recession in American history, and move forward on a speculative office building,” Helmig said as a group of developers and local leaders gathered for lunch on the empty 30th floor of an existing Monday Properties building on Wilson Boulevard.

Congressman Jim Moran, who joined Arlington officials and Monday Property executives on stage at the ceremonial groundbreaking, said the event will help inspire confidence in the country’s economic recovery.

“This sends a signal to the whole region that the future is going to be brighter than the past,” Moran said. “It has made it clear that [the Washington area] is going to lead the country out of this recession.”

Calling Rosslyn the area’s “second downtown,” Arlington Economic Development Director Terry Holzheimer said that 1812 North Moore Street, and the still-stalled Central Place towers, are big steps in the continuing evolution of Rosslyn.

“This building and Central Place and some others are going to change the market dynamics of Rosslyn,” he said. “It’s going to be competing with some of the best of the District.”

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Groundbreaking Scheduled for Rosslyn Skyscraper

By ARLnow.com

Originally approved by the county in 2007, the planned 35-story office tower at 1812 North Moore Street in Rosslyn is finally moving forward with construction. A groundbreaking ceremony has been scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 14.

Unable to sign a tenant or obtain financing for the building, owner Monday Properties is paying the first $30 million of the project’s estimated $300 million cost in cash, according to the Washington Post.

Once it’s built, the 390-foot building will be the tallest in the Washington area. It will offer expansive views of the DC skyline and surrounding areas.

Construction is expected to wrap up in early 2013.

“We’re of course very pleased to see it happen,” said Arlington Economic Development spokesperson Karen Vasquez. “[It is] a great addition for Rosslyn as well as for Arlington.”

Vasquez noted with a pinch of irony that with the 387-foot Central Place tower also moving forward, “we may see another Chrysler Building/Empire State Building competition right here in Arlington.”

Groundbreaking for Crystal City Chick-Fil-A

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 11:15 a.m.) To help mark the start of construction on the new Crystal City Chick-fil-A, a groundbreaking ceremony (or, in the chain’s parlance, a ground ‘mooving’ ceremony) was held at 10:30 this morning outside 2200 Crystal Drive. Local leaders and the famous Chick-fil-A cow were on hand for the event.

Since the restaurant will be located on the ground floor of an existing office building, the gathered leaders donned hard hats and shoveled some plush cow toys in a park across the street.

From a company press release:

Projected to open in November, the restaurant will bring upward of 65 new jobs to the area and will feature a full breakfast, lunch and dinner menu.

“There’s lots of excitement about Chick-fil-A opening in Crystal City, and we’re delighted to welcome them to our great line up of restaurants,” said Patrick Tyrrell, Chief Operating Officer of Vornado/Charles E. Smith (the store’s landlord).

With the company having researched locations in the area since 2004, the Crystal City restaurant provides an opportunity for the chain to be a part of the Crystal City streetscape pedestrian traffic. The Chick-fil-A restaurant also is conveniently located to mass transit and the Pentagon.

The 3,683 square-foot restaurant will seat up to 81 people. It’s owned by a franchisee and mother of four, Natalie Yang, who is moving from Georgia to run the restaurant.

Like all Chick-Fil-A restaurants, the Crystal City location will be closed on Sunday. Before the store opens in November, there will be a dedication dinner to “dedicate the store to the Lord,” said Steve Mason, the company’s vice president of operations.

Mason and Yang participated in the ceremonial stuffed animal shoveling, along with Vornado’s Tyrrell, Crystal City Business Improvement District President Angela Fox, and the cow.

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