Author: ARLnow.com

County Board May Up Contract Threshold — “A measure up for a vote at the June 10 County Board hearing would quadruple – from $250,000 to $1 million – the threshold of any new contracts being inked by the local government to go before the board (and therefore public). The proposal likely will add more fuel to the fire among critics of the government like the Arlington County Civic Federation, which has contended that the government is failing the public on the transparency front.” [Gazette Leader]

Auction for Columbia Pike Office Building — “The second property, an eight-story, 63,000-square-foot office built in 1970 at 2300 S. 9th St. in Arlington, was acquired in 2020 for $6.5 million. BoundTrain planned a major renovation to capture tenants ‘fleeing to quality.’ But BoundTrain recently having defaulted on its debt, the noteholder has foreclosed on the property, directing the acting trustee Joseph Corish, an attorney with Bean Kinney & Korman PC, to sell BoundTrain’s asset at auction Wednesday morning.” [Washington Business Journal]

Five Arlington Cos. in Fortune 1000 — “Thirty-six Virginia-based companies made Fortune magazine’s 69th annual Fortune 1000 list, notably including newcomers to the commonwealth Raytheon Technologies Corp. and Boeing Co. [both based in Arlington] as Virginia’s second and third highest-ranking companies. Freddie Mac remained Virginia’s top-ranked company, at No. 45, and 24 Virginia companies made this year’s elite Fortune 500 list.” [Virginia Business]

Free ART Rides Coming — “The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission on June 1 called an audible, opting to provide the Arlington County government $566,000 to enable free rides on certain Arlington Transit (ART) buses over a five-month period. The plan aims to increase ART ridership, which was hit hard during the pandemic and has been slow to recover, staff of the regional transit body said.” [Gazette Leader]

Moran Switches Prosecutor Endorsement — “Former Congressman Jim Moran withdrew an earlier endorsement of [Josh] Katcher to back [incumbent Parisa] Dehghani-Tafti. ‘Originally, a friend was raising money for Katcher,’ he told the News-Press, ‘but when I told my wife, Deborah Warren,’ who is a deputy director of the county Human Services Department, ‘she told me Parisa is very competent and doing a good job. So I listened to Parisa speak and would [be] up [to] agreeing to switch my allegiance.'” [Falls Church News-Press]

NYC Bagel Maker Coming to N. Va. — “By the end of the year, DC locals will be able to decide for themselves: New York institution H&H Bagels plans to open 10 stores in the District and Virginia as part of a national expansion. The bagels will be kettle-boiled, parbaked, and flash frozen at a new facility in Queens before being shipped in frozen trucks to the franchises, where they’ll be finished in special ovens.” [Washingtonian]