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]
The Washington Business Journal reports that this month the Arlington County Board gave the developer behind the proposed Tellus apartment building an additional three years to get the project off the ground.
Construction had been set to begin in 2010, but “changing market conditions” mean that the building is still just a twinkle in the eye of its architect. For now, a 60s-era office building remains at 2009 N. 14th Street, where construction would be well-underway had the money been available to build the apartment complex.
Last week Slate columnist Matthew Yglesais, author of The Rent Is Too Damn High, wrote about Arlington and suggested that the prevalence of expensive high-end rentals and condos stems from two factors: restrictions on building height and the width of the corridor itself, which is sometimes just 2-3 blocks wide, thanks to zoning restrictions intended to preserve the single family homes on either side of the corridor.
“What you see is a narrow thread of urbanism between Wilson Boulevard and Clarendon Boulevard, with a bit of a thicker blob of urbanism around the Metro station itself,” Yglesais writes. “I don’t really want to condemn this development paradigm because if you compare it to other suburban jurisdictions around the United States, what Arlington has done really stands out as practically best in class. But still the fact of the matter is that these single-family homes adjacent to the corridor of urbanism are sitting on some extremely expensive land.”
Located at the corner of 18th Street and S. Eads Street, the $50 million high-rise apartment building will have more than 200 residences, and will be built under the new Crystal City Zoning District. The building’s closest neighbors will be several older high-rise apartment complexes and a pair of high-rise hotels.
“The livable luxury community will offer residents a boutique hotel experience with a wide variety of amenities,” Kettler said in a press release. “The lobby ‘great room’ will be the central gathering space bridging Crystal City’s bustling 18th Street with the building’s tranquil outdoor courtyard. The Wi-Fi enabled common areas will include a state-of-art fitness center, media lounge and conference room. The rooftop terrace will be a place to both relax and entertain, offering residents a pool with sun deck, kitchen with bar and BBQ grills, and an entertainment lounge centered around a fireplace.”
Just six months ago, the Garfield Park apartment building in Clarendon was only beginning to take shape at the corner of Washington Boulevard and 10th Street N.
Today, insulation wrap is quickly being replaced with bricks as the project moves closer to completion.
The Clarendon Metro station is the agency’s second fastest-growing station, with 14.4 percent ridership growth, according to the Washington Examiner. The East Falls Church station is the fourth fastest-growing, with 11.2 percent ridership growth.
“The list of fast-growing stations serve as a proxy for where development is growing around the region,” the Examiner noted.
The first of several expected Arlington Site Plan Review Committee meetings on the so-called PenPlace project was held last night at county government headquarters in Courthouse. The meeting was standing room only as interested community members packed the small audience area to observe the hour-and-a-half-long proceedings.
Developer Vornado has proposed building five structures on a large, 10-acre block of mostly vacant land bordered by Army Navy Drive, S. Eads Street and S. Fern Street, one block from the Pentagon City Metro station.
The proposed buildings would replace the former Bergmann’s dry cleaning plant, at the corner of Lee Highway and N. Veitch Street, and five early 20th century houses across the street from the plant. The homes are also owned by Bergmann’s.
In place of the plant, Chicago-based McCaffery Interests proposes to build a 26,000 square foot, single-story “specialty grocery store.”
Ballston Parking Garage Rate Hike Approved — On Saturday the Arlington County Board approved a proposed increase in parking rates at the Ballston Public Parking Garage. The parking rate hike, the first at the garage since 1996, will have the biggest impact on those who park on weekends, who were previously paying a $1 flat rate. The county said the increase was necessary to pay for repairs and upgrades to the garage. Also discussed: the effect of Arlington’s living wage requirement on personnel costs at the garage. [Arlington County]
New Streetlights Green-Lit for the Pike — Also on Saturday, the Board approved a $1.2 million contract to install new LED streetlights along part of Columbia Pike. County officials said the new streetlights will improve safety, energy efficiency and aesthetics along one of the busiest pedestrian sections of the Pike. [Arlington County]
