Lyon Park

Retail, Street Improvements Coming to Pershing Drive

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 9:55 a.m.) A grocery store and as many as four restaurants could be coming to Pershing Drive in Lyon Park over the next year or so.

Construction on the new $62 million apartment project at 2201 Pershing Drive, at the intersection with Route 50, is nearing completion. One of the two buildings is expected to open in mid-July, with the other expected to open in September. The apartments in each feature sound-resistant windows, hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, and in-unit washer/dryers.

The 188-unit complex is currently leasing for both residents and for retail tenants.

The buildings together have 31,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Developers envision up to four restaurants, with outdoor sidewalk seating, and a 12,000 square foot specialty grocery store, like Yes! Organic Market or Balducci’s. One of the retail bays is pre-built for a wood burning oven, with the hopes of attracting a Matchbox-type restaurant.

Though the complex is about a 15 minute walk from Clarendon, most retail customers who do not live in the immediate area are expected to drive. To accommodate them, a 125-space at-grade retail parking lot has been built behind the buildings. That’s in addition to the 270 underground spaces for residents. Both the residential and retail parking areas will have electric car chargers.

While attempting to bring a revamped retail district to Pershing Drive (the apartment complex replaced a former strip mall), developer Equity Residential is also paying for improvements to the streetscape. Company officials expect the road construction currently in progress will be complete by the time the first apartments open in July. Improvements include a complete repaving, planted center medians, trees, brick planters, overhead utility relocations.

2201 Pershing Apartments Now Leasing

By ARLnow.com

The large new apartment complex on the corner of Arlington Boulevard and N. Pershing Drive in Lyon Park has now started leasing.

2201 Pershing, as the complex is known, is billed as a luxury apartment community with 188 residences and 31,000 square feet of ground floor retail space. Rent starts at $1,810. New residents are expected to start moving into their apartments in July, according to developer Equity Residential.

A press release claims “easy access” to the Courthouse and Clarendon Metro stations, though in reality both are about three quarters of a mile away.

2201 Pershing is located adjacent to Arlington Blvd., one of the major arteries of the Washington, DC area, with easy access to Courthouse and Clarendon Metro stations. The buildings feature 34 different floor plans designed with modern and upscale interiors, ranging in size from 629 – 1,440 square feet, with the option of a balcony or patio. Each apartment home boasts 9 foot ceilings, unique interior finishes of ceramic tile and hardwood floors, stone countertops, extra-wide cabinetry and wood flooring, as well as spacious walk-in closets.

Designed to deliver a lifestyle of convenience, 2201 Pershing is a smoke-free, pet-friendly community with expansive amenities including a 24-hour concierge, clubroom, fitness center, and media/theater room. The highlight of the property is a two-level elevated courtyard with extensive landscaping, fire pit, outdoor kitchen and grill area, cabanas, and outdoor movie theatre wall. Residents will also enjoy a newly renovated outdoor pool deck redesigned to offer a resort-style experience with new lounge furniture, umbrellas and custom built pergolas.

Pershing Drive Shut Down Due to Gas Leak

By ARLnow.com

 

(Updated at 1:35 p.m.) Pershing Drive has been closed at N. Cleveland Street, between N. Barton Street and N. Danville Street in the Lyon Park neighborhood, due to a reported gas leak.

So far crews aren’t sure how big the ruptured gas line is, but there are concerns that it may be a larger distribution line.

Police are redirecting traffic around the leak until the gas company can patch up the line. The leak is three blocks from Fort Myer and one block from an apartment construction site.

Update at 12:50 p.m. — We hear that Pershing Drive will remain closed for “a couple of hours” while gas company crews dig up the street to reach the leak.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Lyon Park Community House Plan Approved — A permit to expand and renovate the historic Lyon Park Community Center was approved on Saturday by the Arlington County Board. The planned changes to the house, owned by the private Lyon Park Citizens Association, includes an updated kitchen and a new sunroom. [Arlington County]

Pike Affordable Housing Project Approved — Also on Saturday, the County Board approved up to $6 million worth of lending to local nonprofit developer AHC Inc. to build a new 83-unit affordable housing complex. The building will replace a Shell gas station along Arlington’s western end of Columbia Pike. [Arlington County]

Hall’s Hill Cemetery Wins Historic Status — The County Board has voted to grant historic status to an African American cemetery in the Hall’s Hill and High View Park areas of Arlington. The small cemetery plot was the final resting place for about 100 residents, who were buried between 1891 and 1959. [Sun Gazette]

Last Day for Special Election Registration — Today is the last day to register to vote or update your address for the March 27 County Board Special Election. Contenders in the race to replace former County Board member (and current state Senator) Barbara Favola include Libby Garvey (D), Mark Kelly (R) and Audrey Clement (G).

Flickr pool photo by Allee574

Board to Consider Permit to Expand Lyon Park Community House

By Katie Pyzyk

After more than a decade of working to make it a reality, the Lyon Park Citizens Association may finally get its community house renovated. The Arlington County Board is scheduled to take up the issue at Saturday morning’s meeting.

The association has requested a permit to expand and renovate the community house, which was built in 1925 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. If approved, the permit would allow for the addition of more than 1,000 square feet. Among the changes would be an update to the kitchen and the addition of a sunroom. The plan also includes various updates to make the house handicap accessible.

Typically, an expansion of this kind would also require the addition of parking spaces; In this particular case, 13 extra. However, the building was constructed before a zoning ordinance regarding parking was put in place. Therefore, county staff has recommended that the expansion be allowed without the addition of parking spaces. The permit would require the association provide handouts with off-site parking information to anyone who applies to rent the facility.

Because the house and park are owned by the Lyon Park Citizens Association, county money will not be used for the renovations. The association has been fundraising to finance the project.

If the County Board follows the staff recommendation to approve the permit, the association hopes to begin construction sometime this year.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Hope Proposes Cigarette Tax Hike — Arlington’s Del. Patrick Hope (D) is planning to introduce a bill that would increase Virginia’s relatively low cigarette tax. Unlike past years when Hope has proposed a cigarette tax hike only to have it promptly killed by Republicans, Hope is now proposing that revenue from the tax go directly to car tax relief, rather than to anti-smoking programs or Medicaid funding. [WTVR]

Record Profit for Virginia ABC — Virginia’s state-owned ABC liquor stores and restaurant wholesale business saw record sales and a record profit in fiscal year 2011. The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control says it recorded an all-time high profit of $121 million last fiscal year, amid record demand for wine, liquor and mixers at stores and from restaurants. The state’s top-selling liquor, meanwhile, is Jack Daniels. [Associated Press]

Lime Fresh Now Open in Clarendon — Lime Fresh Mexican Grill officially opened in Clarendon on Monday. The restaurant, at 2900 Wilson Boulevard, is the first D.C. location for the Florida-based chain. Another Lime Fresh location is planned for Pentagon Row. The chain originally got its start in 2004 as a restaurant on Miami’s South Beach. The Clarendon Lime Fresh location will be open from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., seven days a week.

Lyon Park Community Center Renovations — The County Board is expected to consider a use permit in March for planned renovations to the Lyon Park Community Center. [Sun Gazette]

Flickr pool photo by Alex

Progress on 2201 North Pershing Drive Project

By ARLnow.com

What was once the Lee Center strip mall is now a big, dusty hole in the ground.

Construction is well underway on what is known as the 2201 North Pershing Drive project. When work wraps up in mid-to-late 2012, the $75 million project at Route 50 and Pershing Drive will consist of 188 rental apartments and nearly 33,500 square feet of ground-level retail space.

For now, motorists on Pershing Drive have to put up with regular lane closures, slow-moving construction equipment and flagmen directing traffic.

Lyon Park to Hold Spring Fair, Big Wheel Grand Prix

By ARLnow.com

Lyon Park will hold its annual Spring Fair and Big Wheel Grand Prix on Saturday.

The fair is being held on the grounds of the Lyon Park Community Center (414 N. Fillmore Street) from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The event will feature carnival games, pony rides, moon bounces, a bake sale, a plant sale, food and drink concession stands, and live bluegrass music.

Following the fair, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m, the third annual Lyon Park Big Wheel Grand Prix will be held. Helmet-clad competitors — kids and adults — will careen down N. Garfield Street on plastic “big wheel” tricycles for racing glory — and to raise money for the community center’s upcoming renovation.

“Danger and adversity is no match for our fierce community,” says the official Lyon Park Big Wheel Grand Prix web site.

The fair is one of more than a dozen Arlington Neighborhood Day events planned for Saturday.

Flyer image via the Lyon Park Citizens Association

Ashton Heights to Celebrate 90th Anniversary With House Tour

By ARLnow.com

The annual Lyon Park-Ashton Heights house tour will be held this weekend.

This year’s event will mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of Ashton Heights. The tour will feature homes built between 1904 and 2009. Along the way there will be antique cars, retro costumes, old documents and demonstrations of green technology.

The tour will take place on Sunday between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. Here’s how organizers are describing it:

Ninety years after real estate developer Ashton Jones created the subdivision he named after himself and appealed to Washingtonians to move to one of the first commuter neighborhoods in Arlington, the Ashton Heights Civic Association kicks off its anniversary celebration with the annual Lyon Park-Ashton Heights Villas & Vistas house tour showcasing the area’s history and charm.

This year’s Villas & Vistas house tour will celebrate Ashton Heights’ 90th anniversary with proceeds benefiting the renovation of the Lyon Park Community Center, a 1920s historic structure. The tour features twelve houses spanning 1904-2009, from bungalows to colonials, and the way residents have adapted them over nine decades through remodeling and green opportunities. Tour participants also will experience some fun vintage surprises–old cars, retro costumes, and original house documents–along the way.  Owners will be on hand to demonstrate aspects of green technology, display building materials, point out original details, describe renovation/design parameters, and share product information (as well as fascinating stories about former owners.)  A limited number of the Ashton Heights Style Guide, an illustrative how-to on planning additions to period houses, will be available.

See a list of homes on the tour here.

Other events being held this year in honor of Ashton Height’s 90th anniversary include a neighborhood picnic, lectures on neighborhood history and “a celebration of long-time residents.”

Courtesy photo

Water Main Break in Lyon Park

By ARLnow.com

Arlington’s Office of Emergency Management issued the following statement tonight regarding a water main break in Lyon Park.

Commuters should avoid the intersection of Pershing Drive and N. Barton Street due to a water main repair now underway. Pershing Drive between Wayne Street and N. Barton Street is one travel lane with flaggers. Access from Barton Street onto Pershing Drive is affected. The break occured today during the installation of a new 12-inch water main. One residential block of N. Barton Street from Pershing Drive to N. 9th Street and a small number of businesses in the 2200 block of N. Pershing Drive have been notified that they will remain without water while repairs are made into the evening.

Lyon Villagers Press County Officials On Parking, Traffic Issues

By ARLnow.com

Residents of the quiet neighborhoods that surround Arlington’s urban villages have a very peculiar relationship with the automobile. At least, that’s the conclusion one could draw based on citizen input at a Lyon Village community meeting that focused on parking and street-related issues.

Residents are quite opposed to the county taking away parking on one side of narrow neighborhood streets to allow fire engines and garbage trucks to operate safely. But they also want more zone parking to keep outsiders from parking on the same streets. And at least one gentleman wanted folks who rent houses to have their street parking limited to just two cars.

Residents expressed indignation that their streets weren’t plowed during snow storms, making navigation treacherous. Then some asked if there was any way streets could be closed to through traffic. One man earnestly suggested quadrupling the number of speed humps and lowering the speed limit to 15 miles per hour.

In short, when it comes to cars, some residents want things their way and want others to stay on the highway.

Lucky for them, Arlington County seems perfectly willing to listen and respond to their requests.

Last night Arlington County Director of Transportation Dennis Leach and Traffic Engineering and Operations Chief Wayne Wentz sat down for a 90 minutes discussion with about 30 residents at the Lyon Village Community House. Although the meeting was ostensibly about street parking, all manner of street-related issues were brought up. The meeting was attended by Lyon Village residents and by representatives of other local civic associations, who are worried about the county’s recent move to restrict street parking on certain narrow streets.

Wentz and Leach explained that while the county is not actively looking for narrow streets, one complaint about a street’s width — from the fire department, a garbage contractor or an anonymous resident — is all it takes for county staff to be sent out with measuring tapes. They will visit a street several times, on different days and at different times, to study parking utilization. If the street is less than 28 feet wide and heavily parked on both sides, parking restrictions will likely be recommended — although first the county will notify residents and initiate a neighborhood discussion about the changes.

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