The Crystal City Motel is no more.
The deteriorating, long-vacant motor lodge off of Old Jefferson Davis Highway was torn down this week to make way for the future Boeing regional headquarters.
development
Chopper Called in for Suspect Search — The U.S. Park Police Eagle 2 helicopter hovered over the Claremont neighborhood — near Wakefield High School — for about half an hour last night while assisting Arlington County Police in a search for several armed robbery suspects. The chopper assisted police and K-9 units on the ground in the search for the suspects in a armed robbery on the 1000 block of S. Frederick Street, in the Columbia Forest neighborhood, according to ACPD spokesman Dustin Sternbeck. Police eventually arrested three men in connection with the crime, according to police radio traffic.
Board to Consider ‘Pipestem’ Lot — The County Board is expected to decide this weekend on a controversial development proposal in the Leeway Overlee neighborhood. A developer wants to build a large new home on a parcel of land set back from the street and only connected to the street via only a thin driveway strip known as a “pipestem.” Neighbors have been fighting the plan, but to some degree state law — which emphasizes the rights of property owners — prevents the Board from completely blocking development on the lot. [Sun Gazette]
The plan, from Arlington-based affordable housing developer AHC Inc., would replace the gas station with a six-story, 83-unit apartment building for lower-income tenants.
According to slides from a recent AHC presentation to the Columbia Heights West Civic Association, the building will consist of 15 one-bedroom apartments and 68 two-bedroom apartments. Residency would be reserved for those making below 50 to 60 percent Area Median Income (AMI). The building is also expected to have 6,700 square feet of retail space and a “high-level of energy efficiency.”
|
Update at 5:15 p.m. on 2/1/12 — The site plan is no longer expected to come before the County Board in February. It may, however, come before the Board as soon as March or April, according to Leon Vignes of the Arlington County Department of Community Planning, Housing, and Development.
The Arlington County Board is expected to consider a site plan for a new eight-story office building in Courthouse at its February an upcoming meeting.
New renderings of the development planned for the Rosenthal Jeep/Chrysler dealership site on Columbia Pike have been released on the Arlington County web site.
The renderings show the front of the development’s “north block” apartment complex — a six-story, 259-unit building along Columbia Pike with 15,000 square feet of retail space — and views of the “south block” development, which consists of 44 townhouses. The two blocks are separated by a new, to-be-constructed street, which would be dubbed 11th Street South.
The residential space above the restaurant was supposed to be sold as condos, but multiple issues prompted the developer to convert the units to rentals over the summer.
Subway will be the first retail tenant in the building. The space, including the residential portion, sat empty for years due to problems with the building’s structural soundness, multiple lawsuits and a faltering economy.
The development will bring more than 300,000 square feet of office and retail space and nearly 450 underground parking spaces to the 1.13 acre block between Washington Boulevard and 11st Street N., one block from the Clarendon Metro station. While the development will replace several existing business on the block — including Eleventh Street Lounge, Potomac Crossfit, T.A. Sullivan & Son cemetery monuments, Atlantic Motors and a BB&T bank branch — it will also result in the preservation of several buildings and facades.
In order to build to the desired density (one 10-story office building and another 8-story office building) developer Penzance arranged to transfer development rights from two designated historic Clarendon properties: the Walgreens/Kenyon Peck building at 2825 Wilson Boulevard and the Boulevard Woodgrill/Faccia Luna building at 2901 Wilson Boulevard. Both buildings, considered “important” commercial structures by Arlington County’s Historic Resources Inventory, will be fully preserved.
BDC Crimson LLC is the developer for the nine story mixed-use commercial building, which will include offices, ground floor retail and a 12,985 square foot black box theater. The theater will cost $3.7 million to build, and will be leased to the County for 30 years, at $1 per year. It will hold 150 people.
“This project brings us closer to realizing the community-crafted sector plan’s vision of Virginia Square as a center for arts, culture and education,” said Arlington County Board Chair Mary Hynes. “The public plaza will enliven Virginia Square, and the Black Box Theater will add a significant cultural destination to this part of the Metro corridor.”
Potomac Crossfit owner Brian Wilson says he was just notified by his landlord that he would have to vacate the space by the end of the month, despite receiving earlier assurances that the gym would be able to stay until the spring. Wilson is planning to move staff and equipment from Potomac Crossfit, which opened in 2008, to his newer Patriot Crossfit gym near the intersection of Lee Highway and Glebe Road.
Wilson hopes loyal gym members will make the extra car trip or bus ride to Patriot Crossfit while he works to secure a new location in Clarendon. He says he’s currently in negotiations with a landlord to lease a space in Clarendon that’s even bigger than the current Potomac Crossfit space. Even if those negotiations prove successful, however, Wilson doesn’t expect the new location would open any sooner than this summer. Wilson added that he’s also in negotiations to lease spaces for crossfit gyms in the Pentagon City and Ballston neighborhoods.
The site — which was recently purchased by USAA Real Estate from developer Zom Inc. — has laid fallow for years as Zom struggled with financing. A 186-unit apartment building with ground floor retail (previously dubbed “The Waverly at Clarendon Station“) is planned for the site.
Contractors started bidding on the project this fall, though no construction timeline has been formally announced. Late last month a tipster sent in a photo (above) of a small group of workers shoring up the empty shell of the former Madhu Ban Indian restaurant.
Once called “the most modern funeral home in Northern Virginia,” the business has transferred its remaining operations to the Murphy Funeral Home at 4510 Wilson Blvd in Bluemont. Both funeral homes are managed by Service Corporation International under the Dignity Memorial brand.
The Arlington Funeral Home building and its surrounding surface parking lot was purchased by developer Crimson Partners in 2010. The developer is expected to bring a site plan before the County Board next month that calls for the property to be redeveloped as an office building with 173,700 square feet of office space, 3,200 square feet of retail space and a 9,900 square foot black box theater.
The first phase of the project will add a southbound lane to the portion of Crystal Drive between 12th Street and 15th Street, just north of the Crystal City water park. It will also convert a one-way section of S. Clark Street between 12th and 15th Streets to a two-way road. Construction on this phase of the project is expected to begin in the spring of 2012 and wrap up in winter 2012.
A second phase is expected to begin construction in fall 2012. That phase will add a southbound lane to the one-way portion of Crystal Drive between 23rd Street and 27th Street. Changes will also be make to 27th Street, which runs between the Courtyard by Marriott and the Hyatt Regency hotels.