A groundbreaking was held this morning for the new 3001 and 3003 Washington Boulevard office project in Clarendon.
Local officials, including Rep. Jim Moran and County Board Chair Mary Hynes, were joined by officials from Penzance, the project’s developer, at the ceremony.
Since we first reported on the gravestone last week, we’ve learned that it is a private cemetery marker that was apparently removed from Arlington National Cemetery after a new headstone was put in place following the 1988 death of Patterson’s wife. (See photo of current gravestone, left.)
In a statement, Arlington National Cemetery said it is not responsible for the handling of private headstones.
The massive new 474-unit Sedona and Slate apartment complex on the 1500 block of Clarendon Boulevard in Rosslyn is set to open to residents “early next year,” according to developer JBG.
The complex, which suffered a construction setback last year due to a retaining wall collapse, consists of two residential towers: one 14-stories and the other 12-stories. Of the 474 units, 55 are expected to be affordable. Another 25 townhouses will be added to the project “at a later date.”
Construction on the new $62 million apartment project at 2201 Pershing Drive, at the intersection with Route 50, is nearing completion. One of the two buildings is expected to open in mid-July, with the other expected to open in September. The apartments in each feature sound-resistant windows, hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, and in-unit washer/dryers.
The 188-unit complex is currently leasing for both residents and for retail tenants.
A weathered gravestone for Robert Porter Patterson, a top military official during World War II, can be seen propped up against an old building inside the future Penzance office construction site in Clarendon.
Patterson was the Undersecretary of War during World War II and is credited with being “instrumental in the mobilization of the armed forces preparatory to and during” the war. He later served as Secretary of War under President Harry Truman.
Pike Buildings Set for Redevelopment — The buildings along Columbia Pike that house Rappahannock Coffee, L.A. Nails and Saah Furniture are set for redevelopment. A developer has proposed a single seven-story building to replace the aging buildings on the site. [Arlington Mercury]
School Board Approves Sequoia Plaza Lease — The Arlington School Board has approved a lease for office space in Sequoia Plaza, next to the new headquarters of the county’s Department of Human Services. The office space will allow the school system to move out of the Clarendon Education Center building and the Syphax Building on N. Quincy Street. [Sun Gazette]
The project has been evolving as developer McCaffrey Interests responds to neighborhood input and objections to the project. Whereas just a couple of months ago the project was to include a specialty grocery and 13,500 square feet of other retail, it now includes just the grocery store, with the retail replaced by 15 row houses along N. Veitch and N. Uhle Streets. The change is expected to reduce traffic around the development.
The project still includes a 10-story, 166-unit, LEED Gold-certified, glass-covered apartment building, complete with a fitness center and swimming pool on the penthouse level. The current plan, which will be discussed at a Site Plan Review Committee meeting at 7:00 tonight, also includes 222 spaces of surface and underground parking for residents and grocery store customers.
The large new apartment complex on the corner of Arlington Boulevard and N. Pershing Drive in Lyon Park has now started leasing.
2201 Pershing, as the complex is known, is billed as a luxury apartment community with 188 residences and 31,000 square feet of ground floor retail space. Rent starts at $1,810. New residents are expected to start moving into their apartments in July, according to developer Equity Residential.
About a month from now, in early May, a groundbreaking is expected to be held for a new 280,000 square foot mixed-use office project in Clarendon.
In the meantime, the block on which the project will be built (3001-3003 Washington Boulevard) is looking more and more like a ghost town.
The county’s Planning Research and Analysis Team recently released a report summarizing residential and commercial development activity for the 2011 calendar year. Along with the report, the research team set up an interactive Development Tracking Map to show the locations of projects under construction, completed, demolished or approved by the County Board. Additional information accompanies each entry — some of which date back more than 50 years — and pictures are available for certain locations.
At the end of last year, most of Arlington’s ongoing commercial construction was located along the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. In fact, according to the report, 90 percent occurred just in Ballston. In regards to ongoing construction of apartment and condo buildings, 43 percent was located in Rosslyn, and 33 percent could be found outside the Metro corridors.
Does asking developers to contribute to affordable housing funds or to pay for improvements to nearby roads constitute “official corruption?”
That’s what Arlington resident and conservative political activist Morton C. Blackwell suggested in a letter to the editor of the Washington Times last week.
Major Redevelopment Proposed for Rosslyn — A developer has proposed tearing down four office buildings and two residential towers between N. Kent Street and Arlington Ridge Road in Rosslyn, and replacing them with four new buildings, including 2.5 million square feet of offices, residences, hotel rooms and retail space. If all goes well, the project might even attract a Ritz Carlton hotel and a Harris Teeter grocery store. [Washington Business Journal]
Nuclear Attack Would Be Survivable for Arlington — Most of Arlington would survive a terrorist nuclear bomb attack on downtown D.C., according to a federal report released earlier this month. The biggest danger to Arlington wouldn’t be the initial blast, but would be the nuclear fallout afterward. One scenario suggests the Columbia Pike corridor would be vulnerable to fallout given a specific set of wind conditions. [Sun Gazette]
