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Morning Notes

Published January 17, 2019 at 8:45AM

Spike Mendelsohn Planning New Restaurants in Crystal City — “Already in National Landing with Good Stuff Eatery and We, The Pizza, Mendelsohn has a letter of interest out for two new spaces. One will bring his Mexican taco shop already on Capitol Hill, Santa Rosa, to Virginia. Another is a new concept: fried chicken.” [Northern Virginia Magazine]

Shutdown May Fry Local Economy — “Come February — perhaps by the beginning of the month, probably the middle and definitely by the end — the financial, occupational and psychological impact of this now-record government shutdown will go from the theoretical to the very, very real.” [Washington Business Journal]

News

PBS Agrees to Keep Headquarters in Crystal City, Plans to Relocate to New Building

By Alex Koma

Published January 15, 2019 at 9:45AM | Updated January 15, 2019 at 10:44AM

A building at 1225 S. Clark Street in Crystal City, set to become home to the PBS headquarters.

(Updated at 10:45 a.m.) PBS has signed a new deal to keep its headquarters in Arlington, though it will be relocating to a different building in Crystal City.

The media company announced today (Tuesday) that it will be moving from its current space at 2100 Crystal Drive to a 120,000-square-foot office at 1225 S. Clark Street. PBS agreed to a 15-year lease in the building, and plans to make the move sometime in “mid-2020,” per a press release.

News

With Amazon On Board, JBG Smith Prepares to Bet Big on ‘National Landing’

By Alex Koma

Published December 17, 2018 at 3:45PM

JBG Smith is gearing up to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Crystal City, Pentagon City and Potomac Yard, arguing that Amazon’s impending arrival could make the “National Landing” area nearly as in-demand as D.C. itself.

In documents delivered to investors last week, the developer revealed its most detailed plans yet for how it expects to work with the tech giant as it moves its 25,000 workers to the county.

News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published December 14, 2018 at 9:05AM

Rolling Thunder to Coming to a Stop — The 2019 Rolling Thunder rally will be the group’s last Memorial Day rally in the D.C. area, organizers say. The rally has brought thousands of bikers, along with road closures and motorcycle noise, to Arlington over the past three decades. [Washington Post]

The Gritty Pre-History of Crystal City — “Before development flourished (the entrepreneurs offered bargain rates to federal agencies), the area ‘was a conglomeration of places that sold junk, used tires, a drive-in movie theater, a run-down ice skating rink, second-hand materials — it was very unattractive…’ The industrial area leading to the Potomac Yard railway tracks for decades was bordered by sketchy bar-rooms of the 19th-century Jackson City and National Airport’s precursor, Hoover Field.” [Falls Church News-Press]

News

Pentagon Row Parking Rates Creep Upward, A Development Neighbors Attribute to Amazon

By Alex Koma

Published December 6, 2018 at 4:15PM | Updated December 7, 2018 at 12:58PM

A Pentagon City parking lot is jacking up some of its monthly rates, and some residents fear that Amazon’s impending arrival in the neighborhood is to blame.

Residents of the RiverHouse Apartments (1400 S. Joyce Street) were recently informed by their landlord that their monthly parking rates were about to jump substantially if they park their cars in the nearby Pentagon Row garage and surface lot. Starting Jan. 1, anyone from the apartment complex parking there will pay $100 month per space, up from $65.

News

Demolition Work Starts on Crystal City Office Building Set for Amazon-Related Redevelopment

By Alex Koma

Published December 4, 2018 at 3:45PM | Updated December 5, 2018 at 10:23AM

The former office building at 1900 Crystal Drive in Crystal City before it came down (via Google Maps)

(Updated Wednesday at 10:20 a.m.) Demolition work is kicking off ahead of the development of a new apartment complex in Crystal City, set to be located immediately adjacent to some of Amazon’s new office space in the area.

JBG Smith, the area’s dominant property owner, started work yesterday (Monday) to tear down an office building at 1900 Crystal Drive. Eventually, the company hopes to add two buildings to the site, with room for 750 apartments and some ground-floor retail.

News

Officials Expect Plenty of Amazon Votes in Coming Years, Giving County Some Say in Shaping New HQ

By Alex Koma

Published November 20, 2018 at 2:45PM

Amazon protesters demonstrate at a County Board meeting.

Though Amazon skeptics fret that Arlington officials will offer them only limited opportunities to have their say on the new headquarters, county leaders stress that the complexity of the tech giant’s plans for the area means there will be plenty of chances for the public to weigh in.

Critics of the county and state’s proposal to Amazon have centered on the secrecy of the “HQ2” negotiations in the days following the company’s big announcement, arguing that it may well be an uphill battle for lawmakers to change the structure of the deal after Gov. Ralph Northam’s staff already hammered out most of the details with Amazon. Though both the General Assembly and the Arlington County Board will hold votes on the proposed headquarters agreement, opponents of Amazon’s arrival argue those will mainly be for show, and won’t include a robust community debate about the company’s impact on the region.

News

Following Amazon’s Big Announcement, JBG Smith Sketches Out Plans for New ‘National Landing’

By Alex Koma

Published November 13, 2018 at 11:40AM | Updated November 13, 2018 at 1:00PM

A multimodal transit hub planned for Crystal City to coincide with Amazon's arrival. (via JBG Smith)

(Updated at 1 p.m.) Amazon’s arrival in Crystal City and Pentagon City seems set to completely transform developments already planned for the area.

The company’s big announcement today (Tuesday) that it would split its planned second headquarters between Arlington and New York City represents a major windfall for JBG Smith, the largest property owner across the newly dubbed “National Landing” — an area including Crystal City, Pentagon City and Potomac Yard. The developer had long sought to fill thousands of square feet of vacant office space in the neighborhoods, much of which will now presumably be occupied by Amazon’s 25,000 workers attached to the project.

News

As Amazon Rumors Intensify, Advocates Worry Arlington Won’t Press for Affordable Housing Help

By Alex Koma

Published November 7, 2018 at 1:45PM

As all signs continue to suggest that Crystal City will soon become home to at least half of Amazon’s new headquarters, affordable housing advocates are increasingly concerned that Arlington won’t force the tech giant to take action to mitigate the new office’s impact on housing prices in the county.

The company’s abrupt decision to split its “HQ2” between Crystal City and New York City, as detailed in a flurry of national news reports, means that Arlington could see only half of the 50,000 new jobs Amazon promised along with the new headquarters. Nevertheless, fears linger that the arrival of even a portion of those workers would further squeeze the county’s already tight housing market.

News

HQ2 Watch: The Case of the Mysterious Disappearing Tent

By ARLnow.com

Published November 6, 2018 at 4:55PM

The partially-assembled event space on Monday

All signs point to Crystal City being a landing spot for at least half of Amazon’s proposed HQ2 — well, all but perhaps one.

The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and now NPR are all reporting that Crystal City is likely to be announced as the future home of a major Amazon office campus. The announcement could come as soon as this week.

News

JBG Smith’s Major Crystal Square Project Nears Approval, Though Some Concerns Linger

By Alex Koma

Published October 18, 2018 at 12:45PM | Updated December 17, 2018 at 12:19PM

A rendering of a future Crystal City movie theater (Photo via Arlington County)

Plans to transform a section of Crystal City into a new retail hub for the neighborhood could soon move ahead, though neighbors and cyclists are still pressing for changes to the redevelopment effort.

Many of JBG Smith’s plans for the “Crystal Square” project, centered on a block of Crystal Drive between 15th Street S. and 18th Street S., are up for approval by the County Board this weekend. The long-awaited project would completely revamp the existing office buildings on the block, adding a new movie theater, grocery store and other retailers to replace the existing Crystal City Shops at 1750.

News

JBG Smith Launches New Experiment to Cool Down Crystal City Parking Lots

By Alex Koma

Published October 16, 2018 at 1:45PM

Crystal City’s biggest property owner is now testing out a new pavement sealant in a bid to bring down temperatures and reduce the “heat island” effect increasingly plaguing urban areas.