Van Leeuwen Ice Cream is expanding in Arlington, with plans to replace a longtime Clarendon ice cream shop and potentially open another location in Ballston.
The website for The Crossing Clarendon lists the national ice cream franchise as “coming soon” to the spot that Nicecream currently occupies at 2831 Clarendon Blvd. Permit records also indicate that Van Leeuwen, which did not respond to a request for comment, is considering a location at 4075 Wilson Blvd in Ballston.
Nicecream, a family-owned ice cream parlor that has spent 11 years at its current address, will be leaving in the fall, co-owner Gil Welsford told ARLnow.
“Unfortunately, our landlord increased rent over 50%, so our small business was unable to meet those rent needs,” he said. “They are only looking to work with large national tenants and no longer want to work with small businesses like Nicecream.”
“The choice was on our end not to renew [Nicecream] going forward once they reached their term,” Regency Centers wrote in an email to ARLnow post-publication.
Welsford and his wife, Northern Virginia native Sandra Tran, founded Nicecream in 2013 at age 23. The business is noted for freshly making ice cream for customers by using liquid nitrogen. At first it sold the ice cream at markets across D.C., before gaining traction across the region and opening a Clarendon storefront a year later.
“We love [our customers],” Welsford said. “It is truly an honor to be Arlington’s beloved ice cream shop … We are so grateful for all of the years the community has supported us in this space.”
Nicecream doesn’t plan to be gone for long, Welsford assured, teasing some “extremely exciting” plans in the works.
“Let’s just say, this is not goodbye,” he said, adding that anyone seeking to open a Nicecream location should reach out.
Van Leeuwen also appears to be eyeing a portion of Rustico Restaurant’s old space at Two Liberty Center in Ballston.
A permit application filed yesterday (Wednesday) calls for “alterations to an existing single tenant space … to create two separate landlord building shell spaces for two future tenant fit outs.”
One of these spaces is “currently being marketed” to Van Leeuwen, the permit says, while the second space is being marketed to an unnamed restaurant tenant.
The New York-based company opened its first Arlington location in Crystal City last summer. It has one location in development in Alexandria and six outposts in D.C.
This story has been updated to include a response from Regency Centers.
