News

New Streets Coming With New Marriott Redevelopment in Rosslyn

The redevelopment of the Key Bridge Marriott in Rosslyn will come with some changes to the local streetscape.

The plan is to redevelop the current site into three separate buildings: a condominium building, a hotel, and an apartment building.

N. Nash and N. Meade Streets are proposed to be extended north through the site to help separate and provide better accessibility to the three buildings.

“The development proposal calls for the establishment of two new street sections to serve the new residences and the existing hotel,” a county staff report said. “Both streets will intersect with Lee Highway in approximately the same locations as current driveways used to access the Marriott Hotel.”

The new streets are scheduled to be considered at the upcoming Saturday, Feb. 22 County Board meeting.

Though built for use primarily by the private development, the new streets would be accessible to the public. Part of the staff report included some insight into the behind-the-scenes discussions that go into naming streets.

The development has proposed to name the two streets Potomac Lane and River View Lane. Since 1932, Arlington County has had a street naming system in place and has used that system for all new street additions. To avoid public confusion, staff recommends that all new publicly accessed streets should be named in accordance with the County’s street naming system. The western-most of the two new streets will connect to Lee Highway at the location of North Nash Street and therefore should also be named North Nash Street. According to the Arlington street naming system, the eastern-most of the new streets should have a single-syllable name that begins with the letter “M.” There are two single-syllable “M” street names currently in use in the County system, they are “Moore” and “Meade”. Based upon the new street’s proposed physical location, Meade is the more appropriate name as there already is an intersection of Lee Highway and North Moore Street elsewhere in Rosslyn.

In addition to the new condo and apartment buildings, the development plan calls for demolishing part of the existing, 582-room hotel and remodeling it into a 449-room hotel. The Key Bridge Marriott is the second Marriott ever built and the company’s longest continuously operating hotel; the first was the former Twin Bridges Marriott Motor Hotel near Crystal City.