Board approves land swap allowing apartments and county office building in Bailey’s Crossroads
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| The current land ownership in the Southeast Quadrant of Bailey’s Crossroads. |
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a land swap with the Weissberg Corp. at the same site in Bailey’s Crossroads where a similar deal with AvalonBay fell through last year.
The agreement, approved March 1, paves the way for new housing, “a future new county or private office building,” and a new road in the Southeast Quadrant area, bordered by Columbia Pike and Moncure Avenue.
After AvalonBay withdrew from a land swap agreed to by the BoS in February 2016, Weissberg, which owns the land AvalonBay had planned to trade with the county, expressed interest in a similar agreement, the BoS states.
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| After the land swap. |
Weissberg proposes to build a 355-unit apartment building called Columbia Crossroads on Moncure Avenue. The company would gain a 1.32-acre property currently owned by the county and occupied by the Bailey’s Crossroads Community Shelter. The shelter is relocating to land purchased last summer by the county on Seminary Road.
The land swap would give Fairfax County an adjacent 1.49-acre property on Columbia Pike owned by Weissberg.
In a separate transaction, the county will buy a 1.44-acre property owned by Landmark Atlantic occupied by the 52-year-old Bailey’s International Center. The county entered into a contract to buy the Landmark property last April, and it expects to close on the deal later this year.
As a result of these transactions, the developer will end up with a consolidated 4.47-acre property along Moncure Avenue for its proposed apartment project.
The county will own a 2.76-acre consolidated plot for a possible East County office building and a new road connecting Seminary Road and Columbia Pike.
The agreement “doesn’t commit the county to build an office building on its parcel,” the BoS states. “The consolidated county property could accommodate a possible East County Human Services Center as identified in the county’s Capital Improvement Program. This center would consolidate human services functions currently operating from various leased spaces in the area.”
The BoS says “the decision to build a new county human services center, or to continue leasing space, will be considered by the Board of Supervisors at a future time.”
Under the land swap deal, the county and the developer also agreed to seek a joint rezoning that will be needed before either can move forward.
The deal would allow the homeless shelter to stay open until Oct. 31, 2019, when the new shelter opens a quarter mile away at 5914 Seminary Road.
According to the BoS, the proposed redevelopment would help “advance the broader vision for a revitalized Bailey’s Crossroads.” In 2010, the county updated the land use plan for the Bailey’s Community Business Center to recommend the development of a “town center” with a mix of uses.
From 1998 to 2005, I worked in the building identified as "Landmark Atlantic." The building was a dump then, and it can only be worse now. Some good memories there, though.
Penny is working hard to get her Penny Palace!
Indeed! She can't be bothered to work on anything that her constituents actually want or inquire about; but she will see to it that her palace is built.
With office vacancy rates as they are, there is no chance in hell that a "private office building" will be built there. Not going to happen. The palace is all but built.
Thanks for nothing, Penny! We get a shiny new homeless shelter and a government service building. Oh, and a new apartment bujilding, among a warren of apartment buildings.
It is important to note that things like thwarting the DMV in Barcroft was all the work of residents, and the wonderful watchful reporting of the Annandale blog. Thanks again for your service to the community, Ellie.
"Oh, and a new apartment bujilding, among a warren of apartment buildings." That's known as the emerging new normal in Mason. Like it or not, large parts of Mason are becoming intensively urbanized. That will inevitably result in the area becoming more of an extension of the Arlington sprawl and less characteristic of the rest of Fairfax. In turn, that means the affected areas could eventually split off from Fairfax to pursue their own agendas. This won't happen oversight, but Fairfax is much too large to govern successfully and something has to change.
This is really good news. It would be nice to see this area developed as quickly as possible.
FFC, what about a full service community center like the Arlington Mill Community Center on Columbia Pike? You could put the human service offices on the top floors.
The soooner all of this goes thru the better.
There are no numbers in this story. Was there money exchanged? Wasn't it like $6 million the county was going to give to Avaolon Bay for the exchange, was this the case in the deal made last night? How much did the county agree to pay for the Landmark Atlantic area? Is the proposed road- if built, still going to be a single lane each way (which basically led to the proposed government building)? Is the new owner promising to make enough parking spaces for each apartment? Will there be any public information sessions on this?
All the nay sayers, shut up! We need this development to undump the dump and economically push out the MR 13 gangs that are dropping decapitated bodies in our parks.
To build for the sake of building, especially a Palace for government/social services, is no way to "undump the dump". In fact this type of development will only bring the government/social services building to a more convenient location for the MS 13 gang members' use.
I think you do not understand what is happening here. Penny is building her social service building that she has trying to do for years. My guess it will also host the day labor center that she also has been trying to add into the Mason District on tax payer dollars. Putting the Penny Palace into the Mason District will not help the Mason District at all but hurt it.