Apartments would displace The Block
The Eastgate mixed-use development proposed for John Marr Drive in Annandale will have 280 apartments, ground-floor retail, and an above-ground garage.
Land use attorney Scott Adams of McGuire Woods presented an update on the project at the July 25 meeting of the Mason District Land Use Committee. Adams represents Insight Property Group which is developing the project in partnership with Brian Kim, the landowner.
The six-story apartment building will displace The Block, the Pelicana chicken restaurant, Kimen Ramen & Izakaya, and B-Thrifty in the Eastgate Shopping Center. The Block could potentially relocate to the ground floor of the new building.
Everything else in the shopping center, including K Market, will remain, at least for the time being.
Kim hopes to eventually redevelop the entire site. The future build-out could incorporate some of the existing businesses.
The Fairfax County Planning Commission will hold a hearing on a rezoning application for phase 1 on Oct. 12. The Board of Supervisors hearing is scheduled for Oct. 24.
The parking garage would be at the rear of the apartment building. The developer is seeking 1.34 parking spaces per residential unit, which would require approval of a parking reduction. There would be an additional 48 spaces in the garage for retail/restaurant customers. Parking would be free.
According to a representative with Insight, Fairfax County allows a parking reduction if there are more than three bus lines in the area. Most of the apartments would be studios or one-bedroom units, so many tenants would be expected to have only one car.
The apartment building would have a courtyard with a pool for residents. About 8 percent of the units would be affordable workforce housing.
The developer is proposing over half an acre of publicly accessible open space, including a civic plaza with seating and public art, a linear park on the northern side of the property, and a 10-foot-wide multimodal trail along John Marr Drive. There would also be a plaza for residents at the entrance of the apartment building.
The public spaces would “integrate the project into the community,” Adams said.
The project will “create a sense of community and a sense of place,” he said. “It’s going to be transformative for Annandale.”
What is the footprint of the shopping center he would like to redevelop? All of those businesses are brand spanking new and the land owner just comes out and says he wants to tear it down? That wouldn’t convince me to renew my lease if I was a business owner
I enthusiastically support this and hope most existing retail continues to exist on the ground floor. Big changes will happen to Annandale and hopefully more transit will birth more development
Yes… I wonder where all their customers will park? In the 48 spaces inside the parking garage? I agree this site needs to be a town center concept and the current 12 acre parking lot is ridiculous. But there is not enough transit in Annandale for this to only have 1.3 parking spaces per resident and 48 public parking spaces. It takes forever to get anywhere by bus. We all want “walkable” communities, but it is unrealistic to think that people will dump their cars. This owner should create temporary spaces for the existing businesses during development until the new space is ready. There should be a community gathering space here for events and special occasions also that has trees and space to enjoy. That would truly be a “town center”.
We already constructing a community gathering space, they are adding a public space and civic plaza I think that is making more of a town center. No information on trees but if you want more tree canopy it would be more relevant to support Fairfax’s parking reduction and canopy overhaul to add more. I get very fed up with anyone who complains about parking here, the developers and people seeking parking reductions know way more than any of the ordinary person here, its 1.3 because the vast majority of people living in this one bedroom apartments are young people who only have one car. You would not be complaining if you would actually want walkable areas, the 48 parking spaces for the retail is good enough since they arrived on it. Its not gonna be a huge amount and considering the national and local problem of underused parking lots and the 12 acre parking lot you mentioned I think a much better improvement.
The problem is the apartments will not be inhabited by only one or two people. It will be more like 4-6 people with the corresponding number of cars. This is evident by the number of single family homes in this area that are becoming multiple family (not really family) homes. You could say this proves the argument for needing more affordable apartments. However, these won’t be affordable apartments. The rent will be on the higher end. I have lived in Annandale for over 20 yrs on what was a quite little street and neighborhood. I have witnessed the four houses both on the left and right of me and the two behind me become multi-family homes. Parking has gotten out of hand. The house that is right next to me on the left sold in May. Now supposedly two families live there but they have no less than 6 cars and up to 11 cars day and night that park on the street. The house next to them is also a single family home turned multi-family home that has 5 cars. The house on the right a single family turned multi-family home has 5-6 cars. The house next to them has turned into a multi-family home with 4-5 cars. The same with the two homes behind me. These neighborhoods were not meant to be multi-family homes and are not designed for the number of cars that are parking on them. Yes, something has to be done to address the need for additional housing but John Marr is not the right location.
I think you have some zoning laws that are being broken on your street. You can always have fairfax county check it out for you. I has happened in my neighborhood and they have been moved out.
Two or more persons related by blood or marriage and any number of natural children, foster children, stepchildren, adopted children, or children in kinship care, and with no more than two roomers or boarders;
One or two persons with their dependent children, including natural children, foster children, stepchildren, adopted children, or children in kinship care, functioning as a single household;
Up to four persons not related by blood or marriage functioning as a single household;
A group residential facility; or
A group household (only permitted in certain zoning districts and only with Board of Supervisors or Board of Zoning Appeals approval, as part of a rezoning, special exception, or special permit).
The property management should do a better job of enforcing the rental agreements about the max number of occupants. A “one bedroom” apartment should have no more than TWO people.
Ahhhh… I completely agree that parking should be reimagined. But the current proposal is one that only enriches the developers, not the residents, and there is absolutely NO mention of tree canopy or creating more “green space”. A county that is 400 square miles will have much difficulty creating “walkable” communities, particularly when they don’t put money into mass transit to encourage people to get out of their cars. They are pretending cars won’t be necessary. So unless your Doctor lives next door good luck finding parking.
Not impressed. Definitely not what Annandale needs. Just a continuation of Arlington and Alexandria..
No thanks.
That would be an absolute shame. Losing valuable businesses for a soulless, ugly apartment building? Is this what the pro-development people want?
Why didn’t this owner develop the parcel into apartment buildings when it consisted solely of an abandoned k-mart?
Because the county wouldn’t let him. They probably won’t let them do this either. The county hates Annandale. I sure hope the new supervisor actually does something here to help.
I can only hope that the county will reject the proposal again.
Where will the Block relocate to? I like the idea of new development but let’s not sterilize the place for profit. Bring back the businesses to the first floor. Without retail life the area will be dead.
i am not surprised you did not bother to read the article before finding something to complain about, it says the existing retail could be integrated in the ground retail. Like you suggested.
This would be a mega bummer, I love The Block and think it’s got a great vibe.
The block could be continue to exist in the ground floor, so the headline is slightly misleading.
Ah, thanks for pointing that out, my mistake
There is no guarantee that any retail will be there. That apartment building development going up on Columbia Pike across from the Trader Joes etc. was initially supposed to have ground floor retail, but it was nixed in planning.
Fairfax leaders – turning Fairfax into another DC…thanks – no wonder Fairfax is losing population…stuff like this and the failing public schools…
Sigh. If you have nothing positive to say, please keep quiet. I’m very tired of all the naysayers on this site. There is nothing wrong with affordable housing and I really would like Annandale to make it’s way out of the 50s and be more modern and livable.
No one cares if you’re tired. Please keep quiet. I’m tired of people complaining about people complaining.
See how that works?
Everyone has an opinion. Just may be different than yours.
I hope The Block is integrated into this new mixed development, but overall, this is a wonderful opportunity to catapult Annandale into the 21st century. It’s about time!
I will be really disappointed losing the block. My family loves that place. I really hope they do something to accommodate the impacted businesses. I’m really excited about the possibility of new growth to this area with modern buildings to pull it out of the 50s.
Annandale does not need a bunch of studio or one-bedroom apartment units. No amount of bus routes will bring in higher income tenants to Annandale, and we will not get light rail or trolleys in the next 50 years (Arlington killed the trolley by allowing closer in high rise development on the Pike). Reducing the parking is a recipe for a traffic disaster for the rest of us. Fairfax is a car place unless on metro line and even then most now drive due to disease. This would be better as condos (bigger units – 1 to2 bedroom min.) with 2 dedicated parking spaces per unit. The owner would have to be a developer and sell part of property. That would help our community.
You need to update your thinking; work from home has lessened the importance of commuter transportation. Young people who seldom go into offices will move to places where there are things to walk to. This will ultimately benefit Annandale. Contrast the new development there with 7 Corners, which is basically unwalkable.
If the BoS had any brains, which they do not, they would be looking into elevated mag lev sky trams. These hang from a single track and the tram is moved by magnetic levitation. This makes them quiet, and because they hang from a single track the overhead construction does not block any light and is actually quite delightful to look at. These are being used in China where subterranean trains are too expensive.
I can see this going down Columbia Pike from the Pentagon. The pluses are these are much less expensive than traditional rail to build and operate and there is no conflict with vehicular traffic; thus getting one to where one needs to go much faster than any other mode of transport.
Dream on Vax, NOVA does not have the will power or the smarts to build such a novel transportation mode. So yes you are right, single people are not gonna ride on busses to Annandale.
The only reason this area has any heartbeat is because of the Block. This shopping center has rode on the shoulders of The Block and is now thriving. What once was an abandoned KMart now has the best retail in the area and a slew of great ethnic food and the boring staples coming in. Why would you disrupt the forward progress and upside??
$$$$
The Block’s concept and crowd has outgrown the current place. I bet their plans is for a much larger Block concept with more vendors inside. While it sucks they will be displaced, I bet they’ll come back a much more modern and larger concept with all glass windows, like their Maryland location. It’ll be the anchor business of that development.
I love The Block (still miss Mama Mei’s) and it could naturally fill the retail space of the proposed building. If The Block needs more space, that should be first. FWIW, The Block has its MD outpost at Pike & Rose.
Property owner clearly has a vision and my only concern is the whole K Mart parcel should come in vs. piecemeal as they did with the pad site where Patient First is going and now this. The pad site site was probably allowed via existing zoning since they demo’d the Wendy’s. More coordinated could provide quality spaces and others highlighted by the comp plan for Annandale.
I’m all for this change.
are these affordable housing?
Fairfax has mandated every apartment dedicate 8% of its units to be affordable housing.
The high density housing model will be ruinous without true public transportation where there is none. Mosaic works because it is a short bus ride to metro. This location is car dependent with no metro nearby. In addition, to more cars with less parking – what will be the demographic renting these – will it bring in more families with no new schools?
There seems to be little holistic planning in the NoVa area.
Again as the developers have said the parking lots are reduced because the renters background are gonna be young professionals, who are not gonna have children any time soon. Also they all have one cars which is directly stated. Transit should be there but it isn’t needed. We need developments like this for public transportation to thrive, no one will take the bus if the stops are are dangerous or uninviting shopping malls
I don’t know where you get the idea that all the renters will be young professionals who don’t/won’t have children and don’t drive cars. It is far more likely that each occupant has a vehicle, especially because this area is NOT pedestrian friendly and does NOT have adequate mass transit infrastructure. The plans to reduce parking aren’t realistic or reasonable until and unless the county makes major investment in public transit infrastructure. I’ve lived in Mason District for 26 years and have yet to see development that truly benefits and enhances our community.
This is the worst idea I have ever heard. Leave Annandale alone. That shopping center is wonderful with the restaurants and K Market and plenty of parking. Don’t ruin it and add apartments to take up more parking and traffic congestion. This is a terrible idea!!!!!
A parking garage is a wise move… but the county needs to enforce the existing housing codes or all the development is pointless. Police need to start ticketing and towing vehicles … arresting and prosecuting shoplifters and burglars. So many of the basic elements of a sound and healthy community have been stripped away from Annandale because the County and politicians see it as a “low income” area… ignoring the desire of homeowners and business owners and churches to maintain a vibrant community. —- comment re a bold regional transit plan is spot on. Hub and spot mag-lev or lite rail system w/ dedicated bike paths would reduce traffic massively. But that requires bold leadership and vision and coordination between many municipalities with a notorious NIMBY contingent (Arlington, OT Alexandria, DC).
I hope that the Block is able to keep running for as long as possible during development and that it and the other affected businesses are offered the retail space (as suggested) to spring back strong. They are a great part of our community.
In any case, if this development is built, the county should invest in making major intersections nearby more pedestrian friendly—installing or improving cross-walks and sidewalks to other parts of downtown Annandale and across Columbia Pike and Little River Turnpike into the neighborhoods. Especially if the idea is to lure in low- or no-car tenants to a building with limited residential parking and to reduce available retail parking for the rest of the community. (Is 48 retail spots gained in the garage less than the number of spots that will be lost in the lot? That’s actually unclear to me.)
Thats the plan we also need to redesign the roads to be put more bike lanes and and far less car lanes. A BRT lane would also be really good but that seems like it won’t be prioritized until very a long time.
Don’t be surprised if they fail to attract medum to high income tenants and the percentage of units occupied by Section 8 skyrockets over time.