The demise of an anticipated development project at a busy Columbia Pike intersection has left a social and economic void in South Arlington.
It has also left many fingers pointing at an unnamed grocery tenant — which evidence suggests may have been an Amazon Fresh — for its role in the project’s failure.
Once home to thriving local businesses, Fillmore Gardens Shopping Center lost almost all its commercial tenants following the approval of a new apartment building back in March 2022. With promises of 247 units of housing, a ground-floor grocery store and valuable community benefits, the project was meant to strengthen an existing hub of activity on the Pike.
But then came the delays.
Over the following months, community concerns grew as the project’s timeline pushed further and further back and the deteriorating strip mall withstood vandalism, vermin infestations and a small fire. Finally, Arlington County confirmed in May that the project had fallen through.
What happens next remains to be seen — much to the frustration of many nearby residents and business owners.
Harald Mangold — president of Scott Management, which operates the shopping center — told ARLnow in May that his team is collaborating with the Columbia Pike Partnership to rent “one or two of our spaces” on a short-term basis. In the long run, he said he still hopes to work with Arlington County to redevelop the site as an apartment building.
“We are grateful they are good partners willing to work with us as we reinvent ourselves,” he said. “However, the plan approval and public hearing process will likely take 1.5 to 2 years, once we have new plans. We are working [on] identifying a new partner to do just that in the future.”
As none of these plans have materialized yet, however, the crumbling retail bays and loss of commercial vibrancy at the intersection of Columbia Pike and S. Walter Reed Drive remain a sore subject in the neighborhood. Doubts about the future and demands for accountability abound.
“This has been an absolutely devastating blow to Penrose and our community and our neighborhood culture here,” Alex Sakes, president of the Penrose Neighborhood Association, told ARLnow. “Everybody in this neighborhood… is totally devastated by this, and beyond frustrated.”
Who was responsible?
The fate of The Elliot appears to have hinged on bad economic conditions and an anchor grocery tenant’s decision to withdraw late in the game.
Development went on indefinite pause after the grocer pulled out in December 2022, a spokesperson from Insight Property Group — a developer that has since cut ties with the project — said last year. Mangold said the undertaking failed because of “a very sad collapse of the investment market and the termination of our pre-leased commercial space.”
In public statements and conversations with ARLnow, no one with a direct connection to the development has identified the prospective grocery store, which would have been next to a Giant and a mile from a Harris Teeter.
But the project came at a time of rapid expansion for Amazon Fresh both across the country and in the D.C. area. The grocery chain — once known for its “just walk out” technology that eliminated the need to check out groceries by hand — opened one location in Fairfax City in April 2022, and another in Crystal City in July 2022.
As The Elliot stalled, Insight spokesperson Sarah Davidson said in May 2023 that the grocery tenant was “pulling out of a significant number of pipeline deals, of which this was one.” This also parallels the business trajectory of Amazon Fresh, which announced in February 2023 that it would “exit stores with low growth potential” after disappointing fourth-quarter earnings.
Crystal City’s Amazon Fresh ultimately closed in April after less than two years in business, though another Fresh store just opened in Potomac Yard.
“Insight Group has never confirmed it, but the conversations happened at a time when Amazon Fresh was expanding aggressively and 38,000 [square feet] is a very typical size for their stores,” Chris Slatt, a local advocate for walkable communities and sustainable transportation, told ARLnow.
For Sakes, the evidence points to a single suspect.
“I’ve heard this from a million people,” he said. “That’s who it is. I don’t understand this sort of, ‘Ooh, is it them? It’s not?’… That was what every single person that I’ve ever talked to about this project, from commissioners, whoever, has said that it is. So I’m, you know, 99% certain, it’s Amazon Fresh.”
Amazon, whose second headquarters is just two miles from Fillmore Gardens Shopping Center, did not respond to repeated requests for comment on this story.
What it means for the Pike
Opinions vary on what The Elliot would have meant for Columbia Pike, but widespread concerns surround the current situation.
Sol Schott, owner of Acme Pie Co., bristles when asked about the mostly vacant strip mall down the street from his business.
“It’s just ridiculous,” he said. “It’s the small businesses, and the mom-and-pop places that are just trying to make a living, that are getting screwed by their poor planning.”
Schott especially bemoaned the loss of Atilla’s, a Turkish restaurant and grocery store that closed after nearly 50 years on Columbia Pike. While other businesses — including the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, Legend Kicks & Apparel and the Columbia Pike Partnership — relocated after The Elliot’s approval, Atilla’s closed permanently.
Currently, only a single business, a CVS, is still open at the shopping center.
Despite the displacement of local establishments, one of the goals of The Elliot was to contribute to the Pike’s vibrancy, not detract from it.
Beyond providing housing and a grocery store, the project promised significant community benefits. These included the dedication of 13,580 square feet of land to expand Penrose Square, as well as the construction of a new segment of S. Cleveland Street.
Andrew Schneider, executive director of the Columbia Pike Partnership, noted the importance of the Walter Reed Drive intersection for the Pike as a whole.
“There are key, what we call ‘nodes’ or areas of density where you see both housing and commercial activity,” he said. “Obviously that intersection — kind of buffered with Penrose on one side, and then assumed to be redevelopment property on the other side — I mean, this is a crucial part of the Columbia Pike nucleus.”
Despite the outcome, Schneider believes that attempting to redevelop the shopping center was a reasonable move.
“Many of our buildings are older and aging, so owners have to decide, how do they keep buildings up to date, keep meeting the needs of the marketplace?” he said. “And I think the reality is, for this building, the only thing that seemed to make sense for them and for the community was redevelopment, and so that’s why I was supportive of it.”
Pete Fejeran — manager of the Arlington Drafthouse and co-owner of Cornerstone, two establishments located near the strip mall — has more complicated feelings about the project. While he believes more development on the Pike would be good for business, he’s wary of what it might mean for the area’s character.
“It’s a good and bad thing,” he said. “The bad part is that it might turn out to be more like North Arlington or D.C., which gets that ‘homey’ feeling out of the area.”
Fejeran likes the quieter, more spacious feel of Columbia Pike — although he admits the area has problems. He referenced recent liquor store robberies and said he recently had to remove a man from lying in front of his business’s door.
Fejeran supports redevelopment on the Pike if it means less lawlessness, though he said, “I really hope it just keeps that homey feel.”
“Everything has to change, and we just roll with the punches,” he said. “That’s all we can do.”
The future of the shopping center
Though Schneider wants to help secure more commercial tenants at the existing shopping center, he doesn’t expect to see it fully restored. Attracting enough businesses to make that happen, in his view, is just too difficult.
“I think it would be surprising in the long term if that shopping center, in its current footprint and current plan, is completely rehabilitated to a thriving, one-story shopping center,” he said.
Mangold also admits that restarting a construction project will likely be an uphill battle.
“In fact, all our possible partners tell us that one cannot build in the current financial and cost environment unless a project had already started or has very very deep cash pockets,” he said.
Still, the shopping center is in a better spot than several months ago, Tad Lunger, an attorney for the owners, said at an Arlington County Board meeting in May. The owners previously were not legally allowed to access the site, which had to be maintained in a pre-demolition state.
“Our short-term goals are to bring life back into the existing building, relet spaces and turn the lights back on,” he said. “Since regaining control of the property this spring, we have been full speed ahead studying what is next for Fillmore in the long run. However, revitalizing the existing shopping center is our immediate challenge.”
Though tangible signs of progress have yet to appear at Fillmore Gardens Shopping Center, Schneider remains cautiously optimistic.
“I’m hopeful, having talked to the owners and talked about this property a lot, that there will be a commitment by them to ensure that even in the near term, the property is not, as we say, an eyesore, and that we are able to provide whatever community benefit from that property is possible,” he said.
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