Huntington Club Moving Forward with Redevelopment Plans

Association is paving the way for zoning changes for a transit-oriented community.

The Huntington Club Condominium Association is taking steps toward developing residences, retail and office space on its site adjacent to the Huntington Metro station. The Association recently submitted an Area Plan Review (APR), which basically is an update to their original Comprehensive Plan. The APR will mostly pave the way for the change to the zoning for the land, explained David Ben, director of marketing and communications for Southeast Fairfax Development Corporation. Ben said to accomplish this redevelopment, the Association will have to jump through a few legal hoops before moving forward. "They need to go through the legal process of getting that land to be allowed to have that type of development on it because it's not …

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County Officials Await Development Proposals for King's Crossing

Officials expect a development application in the next few weeks.

Bulova Calls Route 1 Development ‘Exciting’

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors chairwoman cites new residential developments, transportation improvements.

Sharon Bulova’s first home in Fairfax County was not in an ideal setting. Bulova, who spoke Wednesday night to the Mount Vernon-Lee Chamber of Commerce at the Mount Vernon Country Club, recalled moving to Route 1 in 1966, when she and her husband rented an apartment for $120 per month. “Route 1 at the time was an endless strip of cheap hotels, or motels, interrupted by car repair shops and unattractive retail uses,” said Bulova, chairwoman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. “And traffic was awful, awful. “Everything else has gotten better,” she said to a round of laughter. " ... The Richmond Highway corridor become a very, very different place from the homely strip where I lived as a newlywed in 1966." Bulova pointed to upscale …

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Community Opposed to Penn Daw Development

Community rejects mixed-use development ideas for Penn Daw Plaza project as presented.

Opinions clashed Monday as residents packed into the cafeteria at Mount Eagle Elementary School for a public meeting about the proposed development of the Penn Daw Community Business Center (CBC). Members of the Penn Daw Task Force, which is only an advisory body and consists of local residents and a Southeast Fairfax Development Corporation representative, answered questions regarding a drafted amendment to Fairfax County’s Comprehensive Plan for the rezoning and redevelopment of the area west of South Kings and Richmond Highways, and south of Poag and School Streets.  It is the task force's job to review the amendment and make sure that the plans proposed are acceptable to the community.  Throughout the meeting, residents stressed that …

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Martin Tillett

4:10 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012

This is deja vu to the development proposals of JPI across the street at Kings Xing with the Spring Bank community. JPI wanted primarily residential development with a ratio 95% residential with 5% retail/commercial. JPI argued for months against a ratio closer to the comp plan language of 60% residential 40% retail/commercial. Spring Bank voted not to oppose a plan by JPI that called for 67.5% …   more ›

David Versel Takes the Helm of SFDC

New executive director discusses Route 1 revitalization, community involvement.

David Versel has big plans for the Southeast Fairfax Development Corporation (SFDC) in 2012.  Versel was appointed executive director of the SFDC in November 2011. He was born and raised in Rockville and attended Washington University in St. Louis to study architecture. He earned his master’s degree in city planning at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. “I like to think I came in here without the baggage,” he said. “I’m have a fresh look on the corridor.” After earning his master’s degree, Versel worked for Economic Research Associates in Washington, D.C. He was involved in many projects that reshaped downtown D.C. in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He also worked for the Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission as a Senior Planner from 2003-2005…

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Landmark Mall Redevelopment Still a Long Way Off

About one-third of the mall's storefronts are currently vacant.

Alexandria's Landmark Mall has a vacancy rate more than three times the national average. According to Reuters, at large U.S. malls, the national vacancy rate is about 9 percent, the highest since the first quarter 2000, when Reis, a a commercial real estate research and analysis company based in New York, began tracking regional malls.  But more than one-third of the Landmark Mall’s retail space—more than 50 individual storefronts—sit unused. In addition, two large sections of the mall adjacent to Sears and a storefront on level 2 large enough to be a small department store are empty.  Unlike Springfield Mall, just a few miles southwest of Landmark, renovations of Landmark Mall still seem to be a long way off. Local management at Landmark…

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Springfield Mall Redevelopment May Start This Fall

Half the mall's storefronts are empty in preparation for major renovations.

Those long-awaited, heavily-rumored renovations to Springfield Mall may start as early as this fall, according to Fairfax County officials. One clue that renovations are coming soon is that right now roughly half the storefronts in the once-prosperous Springfield Town Center are empty. “A lot of the vacancies that exist in the mall—believe it or not—are deliberate,” Fairfax County Supervisor Jeff McKay told Patch.   The vacancies will allow stores to move around and remain operational while large sections of the building are renovated. Other vacancies are deliberate for a different reason: “[The owners have] not been renewing leases for stores that they don’t think fit in with the long-term redevelopment plans for the mall.” --------- What…

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Richie Rich

3:07 pm on Monday, March 12, 2012

You are going to lower taxes and raise revenue? What's next, improve FFX County schools by paying teachers less or just sub it out to the lowest bidder?   more ›