News

On March 11, 2020, Covid was declared a global pandemic. More than three years later, the knock-on effects of Covid are still being felt, including when it comes to television and internet service in Arlington.

The Arlington County Board on Saturday is expected to extend the franchise agreement with Verizon to provide its Fios service to county residents for another year. The relatively short-term extension is being proposed because negotiations over a longer-term extension were “significantly impacted” by the pandemic, county staff say.

Forecast: Home Prices to Keep Soaring — “An already constrained inventory coupled with developers circling the community in search of lots viable for Missing Middle-type housing could continue pushing the price of single-family homes higher in Arlington. That’s the conclusion of a new report from the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors and Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University, which predicts 2023 will end with Arlington single-family-home prices up an average of 9.2 percent from the year before.” [Gazette Leader]

APS Examining Renovation Needs — “Arlington School Board members on June 8 are slated to approve a contract to finish up an ongoing analysis of existing facilities in preparation for future renovation. The second-stage contract of $832,273 will go to Arlington-based MTFA Architecture, which in coming months will develop an analysis that focuses on the conditions of: 25 elementary schools. Six middle schools. Six high schools and high-school programs.” [Gazette Leader]

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]