Developer proposes converting Annandale office building to housing
Nicholas Development is proposing to repurpose an office building on Little River Turnpike in Annandale to multifamily housing.
The company’s affiliate, Nicholas LRT LLC, submitted an application to Fairfax County to rezone 7620 Little River Turnpike from a commercial designation (C-6) to a planned development commercial district (PDC).
The developer is proposing to add two stories to the six-story building plus rooftop amenities. A second-floor outdoor amenity space would be added over the existing surface parking lot, the application states. The exterior walls would be “replaced with a more updated, residential-appropriate skin.”
Related story: Residential conversion proposed for Annandale office building
The building, constructed in 1973, is currently vacant except for a Wells Fargo bank branch on the ground floor. That tenant would be expected to stay. Another commercial space, currently vacant, would be retained.
A nine-story building on the property would remain an office building. According to the Washington Business Journal, a golf practice facility with a kitchen and additional retail would be added.
An industrial building on the property would get an updated exterior and would be converted to a café with another tenant, possibly a fitness studio, on the second floor.
The project would include a public plaza, the conversion of surface parking to open space, landscaping, and fewer entrances from Little River Turnpike.
If the developer commits to offer at least three pickleball courts as amenities for the residents of the converted office complex, the Board of Supervisors should expedite the approval and conversion of this property, and the converted housing would no doubt be a great financial and commercial success.
The commenters on this site have made clear by the numbers and vociferousness of their comments that nothing NOTHING, is more important to the people of Annandale than convenient access to pickleball courts.
Not reduced taxes, not reduced crime, but more pickleball courts.
I am not a property developer, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express recently, and this developer should commit to providing pickleball courts, NOT a café or possibly a fitness studio.
Sure, it might cost more money to build and maintain pickleball courts, but the saying that “it takes money to make money” is a saying because it is ACCURATE.
take that, pickleball advocates — you’ve been roasted!
Would any portion of the housing be affordable? I hope it will be.
rent controls are not the method to solving the housing affordability issue. Increasing the number of homes available in a desireable location is. When supply dramatically increases and demand remains relatively stagnant, the cost of the product goes down. This is econ 101. Too bad our BOS didn’t take that class though and took Progressivism 101 and Saul Olinsky’s Rules for Radicals 101.
We need to cut the red tape and free our developers to do what they do best, turn underutilized properties into something else that can be fully utilized. The best idea would be to automatically upzone all residential subdivisions inside the beltway to R-5 at a minimum, or 5 houses per acre. All commercial properties inside the beltway should be automatically rezoned to Mixed use.
Absolutely agree we are in dire need of an increase in housing supply and have been for years
Moving to R-5 would make everything be townhomes (at best)!at the same price that which is zoned R-2 (minimum 1/2 acre) with a house and land. It would also definitely impact many different neighborhoods and not provide relief. Yes the BOS should be taught economics 101, as most politicians need it. However, the R-5 proposed “cookie cutter” approach is not rational or workable nor worthwhile.
We need to make zoning one home per acre – they were more affordable before all these clueless progressives concocted “affordable housing” which…is never affordable and never sustainable….
Yes, fewer dwellings will certainly drive down housing costs, says man who’s never taken a single economics class.