Pentagon Centre

Public review of four major redevelopment projects could start up this fall

By Jo DeVoe
1/9

Arlington County expects to accept a handful of major development applications this month, teeing them up for public engagement down the road.

The four pending projects span Pentagon City and Crystal City to the south and Rosslyn and Courthouse to the north.

Apartment buildings figure into all the proposals, though two developers are mulling a mix of office or hotel uses, too. Of those in the queue, two are straightforward, single-phase apartment projects while two are far-afield, multi-phase redevelopments with details still to iron out.

First up, between Rosslyn and Courthouse, sits the future home of an apartment building by D.C.-based developer the Fortis Cos.

Fortis proposes demolishing the existing National Science Teachers Association headquarters at 1840 Wilson Blvd, and surrounding restaurants, to construct an apartment building with 188 units and about 12,000 square feet of retail space. It purchased the properties at the start of this year for $14 million and filed its application, complete with new renderings, this summer.

Next up, in Crystal City, JBG Smith proposes to build a 7-story tower with 370 apartments and about 3,300 square feet of retail or equivalent space on land dubbed Block W, located at 2451 Crystal Drive.

The site is bounded by Crystal Drive, a National Airport access road, and railroad tracks, and is currently home to a gravel parking lot, an off-ramp from the access road and a small, JBG-owned workout park.

The off-ramp would be removed for construction, as envisioned in the Crystal City Sector Plan, but JBG Smith will be keeping adjacent sand volleyball courts.

Heading to Pentagon City, two developers are taking steps forward on long-standing redevelopment plans.

The first, plans from Brookfield Properties to redevelop the old TSA headquarters at 601 and 701 12th Street S., marks progress after a years-long pause. Brookfield held off on advancing these plans while Arlington County was developing the Pentagon City Sector Plan, approved last year.

Now, Brookfield proposes carving up the land, dubbed 12th Street Landing, into three bays. It is mulling either apartments, condos and an office building, or a apartments and a hotel, per filings with Arlington County.

To keep its options open, it asks Arlington County to approve the overall “density and intensity consistent with the maximum allowed by the [Pentagon City] Sector Plan,” the materials say.

More concrete details would be approved with a later site plan application, the letter to the county said.

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Construction wraps up on second apartment tower in Pentagon Centre redevelopment

By Jo DeVoe
1/18

Pentagon City’s metamorphosis is continuing.

The second apartment tower in the multi-phase Pentagon Centre shopping center redevelopment is now complete.

The Milton, at 1446 S. Grant Street, is an 11-story, 253-unit building developed by Kimco Realty. So far, it is already 25% leased and move-ins are expected to start this month, a spokeswoman told ARLnow.

Various businesses are expected to move into the roughly 16,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. In a statement, Kimco Realty says this retail, “carefully curated to complement the neighborhood,” will be announced later this year.

Tenants will have use of a community garden and potting station, two outdoor courtyards with a co-working area, a pet spa with wash stations, a gym and clubroom, per the statement. The building is designed to meet LEED Silver standards for sustainability and was named for Kimco Realty co-founder Milton Cooper.

The first residential tower in the long-term redevelopment of the retail center opened four years ago. The 26-story, 440-unit building, dubbed The Witmer, is located on the other wide of the property, above the second Pentagon City Metro entrance at 710 12th Street S.

Future plans for the area — which Kimco recently updated — propose two office buildings, three more residential towers, additional retail and a hotel, as well as a 30% increase in green space, criss-crossed by planted paths dubbed “green ribbons” in the recently-updated Pentagon City Sector Plan.

In a statement, Kimco Realty Southern Region President Tom Simmons said this new building “offers something new for Pentagon City.”

“The Milton provides residents with direct access to several key sites in Arlington, which has become a huge hub for recent development,” he said, highlighting the essentially complete Amazon HQ2 office complex nearby and the Virginia Tech Innovation campus in Potomac Yard.

The full press release is below.

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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.

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UPDATED: Fire breaks out above restaurant at Pentagon Centre shopping center

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at noon) A fire broke out Tuesday night at the Pentagon Centre shopping center, next to the Pentagon City Metro station.

The fire broke out shortly before 11 p.m. Early video, below, appears to show the fire in an HVAC unit above the Chevy’s Mexican restaurant.

The restaurant was filled with smoke, according to scanner traffic, though the fire appeared to be mostly confined to the roof area. Thick smoke could be seen rising from the shopping center at 1201 S. Hayes Street from a distance.

By midnight, after an extended effort to extinguish the last of the flames, the fire was reported to be out, but by morning it flared back up and prompted another large fire department response and road closures.

More via social media:

Video (top) courtesy anonymous

Don’t be surprised to see a helicopter lifting stuff from a roof in Pentagon City on Tuesday

By ARLnow.com
Construction underway at Pentagon Centre in Pentagon City in January 2021 (Staff Photo by Jay Westcott)

It’s not a common sight, particularly in such close proximity to the Pentagon.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) morning, a helicopter — neither military nor law enforcement — will hover over Pentagon City. It will be there to “remove some rooftop mechanical equipment” from the Pentagon Centre mall building, across S. Hayes Street from the larger Fashion Centre at Pentagon City mall.

The chopper will be landing on the top level of a Pentagon Centre parking garage as part of its work, Arlington County said today via social media. The work is expected to start around 8 a.m.

Non-governmental helicopters and other private aircraft — aside from jetliners arriving and departing National Airport — are only allowed inside the restricted airspace around D.C. by special government waiver. Once such waiver was granted recently for drone flights to count deer in Arlington.

Pentagon Centre is in the midst of a major, multi-year redevelopment project.

Construction Underway for Second of Two Residential Buildings at Pentagon Centre

By Jo DeVoe
1/9

The second of two residential towers at Pentagon Centre, in Pentagon City, is taking shape at 15th Street S. and S. Hayes Street.

This past spring, work began on The Milton, an 11-story building with 253 residential units and 15,541 square feet of ground-floor retail. It follows on the heels of a 26-story, 440-unit residential tower with 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail called The Witmer (710 12th Street S.), which opened in July 2019.

The Milton is set to be completed in 2023, said Geoffrey Glazer, the Senior Vice President for National Development of Kimco Realty, owner of the shopping center.

The County Board approved the buildings in 2015 as part of Kimco’s three-phase, 30-year development of Pentagon Centre. Phase one began with a parking garage near Costco. The project also includes a 9,000-square foot open space, according to a staff report.

Construction crews worked from spring to fall relocating utility lines for the new building, and the project is still on-schedule, Glazer said. Right now, they are doing preliminary foundation work and will eventually start digging.

“We’re very close to where we were [supposed to be] when we started that project,” he said. “We worked through most of the pandemic, and construction on the site work all kept moving forward.”

He does not anticipate the construction causing any disruptions to shopping at Costco, Nordstrom Rack or Marshalls.

“Access to our existing parking structures and fields will all be open and operational,” he said. “There will be additional signage for people to have clarity for how to move around.”

In later phases, scheduled out about two decades, leases will be up for the big-box stores, making way for public open space and new development.

“It’s out there,” Glazer said. “Everybody’s leases have lots more term.”

Meanwhile, Chick-fil-A and a Chase Bank branch are moving into the ground floor of The Witmer, joining Arlington’s second outpost of Wiseguy Pizza. The local D.C. pizza chain opened the Pentagon location in June.

Ultimately, as currently configured, the site will have 346,000 square feet of retail, 705,000 square feet of office space and a 200-room hotel. With the residential buildings, that brings the total project size to nearly 2 million square feet, according to Kimco.

County Considers Lowering Speed Limit Along Busy Pentagon City Street

By Alex Koma

Drivers along a busy stretch of road in Pentagon City could soon need to slow down a bit.

County officials are proposing changing the speed limit along S. Hayes Street as the road runs between Army Navy Drive and 15th Street S. It currently has posted speed limits of 35 and 30 miles per hour along different stretches of the road, but the county could bump that down to 25 miles per hour.

The Crystal City Business Improvement District requested a study of the speed limit along that section of the street, which runs past major developments, including the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City and Pentagon Centre, as well as the neighborhood’s Metro station.

Staff wrote in a report for the County Board that the “high volumes of pedestrian crossings and higher density land development” in the area justify bumping down the speed a bit.

Similarly, staff noted that an examination of the last four years worth of crash data for the area suggest that a lower speed might be beneficial for the area.

If the Board approves the change, the county will spend $1,500 to install signs advertising the newly revised speed limit along the road.

The Board is set to consider the issue for the first time at its meeting Saturday (March 16), where members are scheduled to set a public hearing on the matter for April 23. The Board could then approve the change immediately afterward.

Photo via Google Maps

Pentagon Centre Starbucks Closing Later This Month

By Airey
1/2

Starbucks is closing one of its Pentagon City locations later this month, according to a sign posted on the door.

The Starbucks, located on 1201 S. Hayes Street, will shut up shop on March 29. The coffee shop is located at the Pentagon Centre development, also home to the area’s Nordstrom Rack, Best Buy and Costco.

“We are very thankful to have played a role in your daily routine and that you have shared these moments of your life with us,” wrote managers Nick Tobias and Mel Huth on the goodbye note taped to front door.

Mall rats and Metro users will not have to travel far to get their caffeine fix, however: the chain’s other stores located inside the Pentagon City mall, on 1201 S. Fern St, and S. Joyce St. remain open.

The billion-dollar company announced it would be closing several of its 50 D.C. stores earlier this year, citing slowing sales in a company memo, reported WTOP. By mid-February, Starbucks stores on 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, 21st and P Street NW, 9th and G Street NW closed and a fourth on 2300 Wisconsin Ave is expected to close by the end of the month.

The chain typically closes 50 stores per year, but announced last June it would be shutting down 150 this time.

CEO Kevin Johnson cited expenses from the incident at a Philadelphia store last year when two African American men were arrested while waiting for a friend to show up at their Starbucks.

Former-chariman-turned-presidential-candidate Howard Schultz said the anti-bias training offered to store employees nationwide after the incident went viral cost Starbucks “tens of millions” of dollars.

H/t to Ben C. Photo 1 via Google Maps.