Located at 3650 S. Glebe Road, Melody Tavern was a bar/restaurant that hosted live music. It closed in October 2012 after 10 months in business.
The space is now being renovated and will become the new location of the Crystal City Children’s Center. The parent-run cooperative child care center opened in 1987 and is currently located at 1900 S. Eads Street.
The grocery store closed in May 2012 after it was flooded with raw sewage, the result of a clog at the nearby Arlington County Water Pollution Control Plant. The contents of the store were scrapped, and construction on a brand new interior has been underway since this spring, when the company announced plans to reopen later this year.
Harris Teeter is now hiring personnel for the store, according to a number of online job listings posted over the past 10 days. The store reapplied for a Virginia ABC wine and beer license and keg permit on Monday.
A ceremonial swinging of sledgehammers kicked off the demolition of an old bridge over Four Mile Run this morning.
The bridge, located between Potomac Avenue and Route 1 near Potomac Yard, was used by trains until the late 1980s when the railroad was decommissioned. It has since sat out of use, overgrown with vegetation.
In April, the Arlington County Board quietly approved a site plan amendment for the vacant National Gateway building at 3500 and 3550 S. Clark Street, along Jefferson Davis Highway near Potomac Yard. The amendment was granted to allow the office building to be used for educational purposes.
Specifically, the building was to be occupied by a new 1,300-student law school, complete with 22 classrooms, a law library, a bookstore, a moot courtroom and a cafe.
The store has been closed since last May, when it was flooded with raw sewage due to a clog at the nearby Arlington County Water Pollution Control Plan.
Over the weekend, residents of the Eclipse condominium building above the store delivered some 400 signed letters from residents to the Arlington County Board, calling for the county to help facilitate the store’s reopening.
Metro is planning to launch a new bus line, the 9X line, to run in dedicated transit lanes between parts of south Arlington and Alexandria. The Alexandria portion — to run from the Braddock Road Metro station to Potomac Yard via Route 1 — is expected to open in spring 2014. The Arlington portion — from the Pentagon City Metro station to the Crystal City Metro station to Potomac Yard — is expected to open in summer or fall 2014, according to Arlington County Senior Transit Engineer Matthew Huston.
At first, the line will travel in mixed traffic on 15th Street Pentagon City and Crystal City. Eventually it will utilize the extended and contiguous 12th Street. The line will travel south in new dedicated bus lanes along S. Clark and S. Bell Street, and north along Crystal Drive.
The store closed last May after it was flooded with raw sewage — an incident caused by a clog at the nearby Arlington County Water Pollution Control Plan. It has yet to reopen.
A Harris Teeter spokeswoman said the store will not reopen until the company can be assured that measures are in place to prevent another catastrophic sewage incident.
This weekend, the Arlington County Board is expected to approve an agreement with VDOT to design a trail connector from the Four Mile Run Trail to Potomac Avenue in Arlington. Potomac Avenue runs from Crystal City to the shops and new residential developments in the Potomac Yard section of Alexandria.
Currently, the Four Mile Run Trail connects with the west side of Route 1. One would then have to cross the busy thoroughfare to get to Potomac Yard. A steep, informal dirt path that connects directly from the trail to Potomac Avenue also exists, but can be difficult to climb.
Melody Tavern (3650 S. Glebe Road), a bar/restaurant that hosted live music, has closed after about a year in business. On Facebook, the owners thanked customers for “10 wonderful months.”
“This location is far more challenging than anticipated so we have decided to close the doors,” the Facebook post said. “We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause some. Thank you and God Bless.”
The family-owned restaurant opened on the ground floor of the Eclipse condominium building, near Potomac Yard, on Christmas Day 2011. No word on why the restaurant closed, but a tipster tells us it didn’t seem to be attracting enough customers. Hee Been was closed yesterday, according to another business owner at the Eclipse, and a property manager was seen changing the locks today.
Hee Been’s original Alexandria location, at 6231 Little River Turnpike, is still open, according to an employee who answered the phone there this afternoon.
The incident started on the morning of Friday, May 11. An excess buildup of rags and debris got into a pump station and clogged the station’s suction lines, according to Water Pollution Control Bureau Chief Larry Slattery. A sewage line then started to back up, ultimately leading to an overflow of raw sewage into Harris Teeter and the parking garage adjacent to the store.
Harris Teeter is closed indefinitely while crews work to sanitize the store.
Update on 5/14/12 — This article has been updated here.
The Harris Teeter supermarket at 3600 S. Glebe Road near Potomac Yard has been flooded, possibly by sewage.
