The company announced today that its grocery store at 1109 N. Highland Street will open at some point in November. The store is 12,300 square feet in size and will offer underground parking.
Interior construction started early last month. Freezer cases and other food-related accoutrements are now visible inside the under-construction store.
Interior construction has finally started on the new Trader Joe’s in Clarendon.
In addition to converting the cavernous space within 1109 N. Highland Street into a grocery store, crews will also be working to install an elevator shaft, to provide access from the store to the parking garage below. Residents of the Lyon Place at Clarendon Center apartments received the following note about the impending construction on Friday.
The store was originally slated to open “mid-2011,” but that hoped-for opening has been pushed back due to an unexplained delay in applying for (and getting) the necessary permits and inspections. In May, a Trader Joe’s rep told ARLnow.com that the store is expected to open by the end of the year.
In addition to the building permit, Trader Joe’s has also received a zoning permit that will allow it to modify the building’s first floor facade (pictured) for use as a grocery store. The only other regulatory hurdles that remain, for now, concern the store’s fire prevention plan.
Interior construction of the hotly-anticipated grocery store has yet to begin. In November a Trader Joe’s rep told the County Board that they hoped to have the store open by “mid-2011.” Now, that seems highly unlikely.
Reached for comment yesterday, all Trader Joe’s spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki could tell ARLnow.com is that the store is on track to open by the end of the year. She said the company never actually promised an earlier opening.
So it was with the grocery chain’s new Clarendon location. For months now, the company has kept observers wondering when they would finalize the lease for 11,000 square feet of prime retail space on the ground floor of the Clarendon Center project.
First, the store demanded concessions from Arlington County, which were granted. Then, we hear, they insisted on holding off on the lease until they were granted certain county permits.
The changes will allow Trader Joe’s to reserve underground parking spaces for customers and shopping carts, utilize the loading dock from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and allow an outdoor display of merchandise.
“I’m very happy to take this vote,” County Board Chairman Jay Fisette said, shortly before members voted 5-0 to approve the amendments without modifications. “It’s about time Trader Joe’s figured out what a great market Arlington is.”
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The company still hasn’t signed a lease, we learned; it’s waiting for the Arlington County board to approve a site plan amendment for the space it wants to occupy in the Clarendon Center development. That approval is expected next Tuesday, with county staff recommending the changes laid out in the amendment.
With the lease signed, Trader Joe’s expects to be able to open in late spring or early summer. No specific dates were discussed.
ARLnow.com first reported last month that Trader Joe’s was prepared to sign a lease in the Clarendon Center project if it could get some regulatory issues ironed out. Among them: the retailer wanted permission to have dedicated parking, wanted to display its products outside the store, and wanted a loading dock provision modified.
“I think we managed to work through all three issues,” Arlington County Planning Division Chief Robert Brosnan told us last night. “We do have a policy for shared parking, but we also have a policy for grocery stores, and it really is in the name of encouraging a grocery store that we will modify those requirements in this case.”
Residents at a Lyon Village Civic Association meeting last night were told that Trader Joe’s will only move to the area if Arlington County amends the Clarendon Center site plan to allow reserved parking spots in the building’s parking garage. The retailer is reportedly worried that there may not be enough parking for customers if all the garage’s spots are unrestricted, as the current site plan calls for.
Fisette says he can “fully appreciate the reason for their request.” He says county staff will study existing Trader Joe’s stores to determine parking requirements, and will also study the number of available parking spaces in the area near the Clarendon Center project.
The store is nearly a done deal, we’re told, except for one big hurdle. Trader Joe’s has said it will only move to the space if Arlington County amends the Clarendon Center site plan to allow reserved parking spots in the building’s parking garage.
As the site plan stands right now, the garage will be open to anybody who wants to park there, whether they’re going to a Clarendon Center store or to a restaurant across the street. It’s a provision that the county desired, but Trader Joe’s fears that there won’t be enough parking left for its customers.
