County considering new uses for former site of Annandale Adult Day Center
Fairfax County hasn’t yet determined what to do about the space at 7200 Columbia Pike in Annandale that will become vacant after the county shuts down the Annandale Adult Day Center in early January.
The center serves mostly elderly people who need supervision during the day. Most of the clients have already transferred or will relocate to the Adult Day Center at the Lincolnia Senior Center or a similar facility.
“The Department of Neighborhood and Community Services is currently developing a process that will be used to determine the best use for the space once it is vacated,” said NCS spokesperson Ben Boxer. “That process will include an in-depth analysis of community needs and existing services, as well as a community engagement component.”
“We don’t have a predefined list of potential options for the space,” he said. “Until we have completed our thorough review of available data, we do not want to enter the process with any preconceived notion of what programs or services should be considered or not.”
Fairfax County owns the building, which also houses the Child Development Center run by Annandale Christian Community for Action. The building was originally Annandale Elementary School.
24 responses to “County considering new uses for former site of Annandale Adult Day Center”
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Great, space for another Walgreens!
Hmm… how about the county use it as a SCHOOL to alleviate some of the overcrowding at the facilities being used as schools? Novel concept, I know….
No one has transferred yet. Admissions were halted in Spring. All new people have been going to the Lincolnia Adult DayCare Center or other centers since that time.
That building is too out of date to serve any governmental purpose without spending too much on upgrades. It's also too small and poorly located for a school. The property should be sold and the proceeds applied to reducing the Country's huge debts.
Are you kidding me? They put a school in the seven corners intersection.
And what did they put it in? A modern building with an up to date physical plant that meets contemporary safety code requirements. There's no comparison between that modern building and this dinosaur.
They spent $21 million to retrofit that existing office building into 1/2 of a school. An entire school was built for $14 million demolishing the dinosaur Lacy Admin building to create the new Mason Crest Elementary.
"They spent $21 million to retrofit…" Wrong. From the Upper Bailey's website: "The total budget for this project is $20,877,000. The purchase cost of the building will be approximately $9,370,000. The balance will be used to renovate the project. …."
Your cost figure for Mason Crest also doesn't include what the County would otherwise have had to pay for the land the building occupies.
It looks like that adds up to $21 million.
The former Lacy Building already belonged to the School system so there was no purchase cost involved.
From the article above "Fairfax County owns the building, which also houses the Child Development Center run by Annandale Christian Community for Action. The building was originally Annandale Elementary School."
So, no purchase of land needed.
I think anything can be retrofitted these days – they do it on HGTV in shells of bldgs that are from the 17th century.
That's a generic post-WW II brick school building. They built thousands of them all over the country in response to the post-war baby boom. Willston School is another example. There's nothing historically noteworthy about them. Bringing this building into to full compliance with modern safety standards would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's just not worth it. Occasionally they'll expand a building similar to this one like they did at Sleepy Hollow School. However, the school has to be on a bigger footprint and better located than this one. It's time to strike this relic from the county's real estate inventory.
"the school has to be on a bigger footprint and better located than this one."
Please explain why you are making these claims? Have you never attended/observed an inner city/community school?
Are you not aware that is what it was built to be? While renovation may be expensive, giving it away is an exorbitant price to pay for something that can never be replaced in the community.
And there is the dictum, Save the Community of Annandale. Better a school than a pawnshop.
Amen to that!
Personally I do not think this is a good location for a school. I am not sure what could be done with this building.
This school does not have to be a big school it could be a smaller school then most but can still help with the overcrowding in the area. There is a large field behind the school as well so it has many advantages. The field also belongs to the county. The school could serve the neighborhood directly behind the school. It is a small neighborhood so it would be perfect.
Developers make up stuff so that they can buy land at deep discounts under cover of 'public-private partnerships', otherwise know as shameful land grabs by private interests.willing to help incumbents with their campaign financing issues. This is a feature of Mason District politics and why we have a 24 year term Supervisor. Why not just ask Penny make us an offer for the whole District so we can recover some of our costs?
Does the ACCA day care center need to be expanded? Perhaps another (full price) day care center for little ones could go in. Arts center? Though this doesn't bring in revenue. How about pop-up stores? Trendy and fun. Space for a gym since the owner of the Silverado shopping center doesn't seem interested in renting the unused spaces. Rentable meeting/event space?
There are many families waiting for space at the day care center, they should expand….it makes total sense
There are plenty of day cares in the area.
The ACCA child development center is not your run-of-the-mill "day care." It serves lower-income families on a sliding-fee basis and gives their children from 3 months of age to 5 years old high-quality, developmentally-appropriate education that at-risk children don't often have access to. It serves an important function and does it well.
Other that ditching the Senior Day Care Program in Annandale (making it uber difficult for area people to navigate traffic to get loved ones to Lincolnia), what does our illustrious Supervisor have planned for this site?
Now that she's back in her catbird seat we're in for 4 more years of secretive land use planning that ultimately destroys the hopes and dreams of area residents.
Seems like a great spot for a Starbucks and Chipotle.
Put in a cash for gold/car title as well so users don't have to risk crossing the street for 200% annual interest loans.
Expand the ACCA CDC program!!!!