City of Falls Church commits to preserving Vietnamese culture at the Eden Center

The Falls Church City Council approved the East End Small Area Plan June 26 that lays out the city’s vision for future reinvestment in a 10-block area that includes the Eden Center.

The city’s plan for the Eden Center is to enhance its position as “a cultural anchor for the Vietnamese-American community.”

The Eden Center has over 100 shops, restaurants, and food markets, the vast majority of them Vietnamese.

After the fall of Saigon in April 1975, thousands of South Vietnamese emigrated to the United States. Many of them settled and opened businesses in the Clarendon area of Arlington, which became known as “Little Saigon.”

In the early 1980s, when Metro construction began and land values in Arlington rose, many Vietnamese business owners couldn’t afford to stay in Clarendon and relocated to a shopping center farther west on Wilson Boulevard in Seven Corners. That retail center was later named the Eden Center after the upscale Eden Arcade retail center in Saigon.

A group called the Viet Place Collective, made up mostly of second and third-generation Vietnamese Americans, lobbied the Falls Church City Council for months to preserve the Eden Center. They solicited support from Eden Center business owners to ensure their needs are met and that they have a voice in the planning process.

Many of them worried that the Eden Center would be demolished or that redevelopment would price them out of the shopping center.

During the City Council meeting, Falls Church Mayor David Tarter told the public that the Eden Center must be preserved, noting its significance to the Vietnamese community.

“We’re encouraged by the Council’s unanimous vote to make anti-displacement a core goal for any investment or development in the area around and including Eden Center,” the Viet Place Collective stated after the vote. “We look forward to continuing to build a strong relationship with the city and all stakeholders to ensure Eden Center businesses and the Vietnamese community have an equal stake in the success of this area.”

“While we’re happy the plan incorporated most of the recommendations we developed with business owners, it is only the first step,” the statemen continues. “We will hold the city accountable for piloting and funding anti-displacement efforts.”

The Viet Place Collective had complained that earlier during the development of the East End Small Area Plan, Falls Church planning officials failed to reach out to the Vietnamese community. This spring, the planning department hosted four pop-up listening sessions at the Eden Center to hear from business owners, employees, and customers.

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The Viet Place Collective’s demands also called for a legally binding agreement to use tax revenue to fund anti-displacement strategies, infrastructure improvements, increased parking, and public art by Vietnamese artists.

Under the plan approved by the Falls Church City Council, the Eden Center would be officially recognized as a “cultural neighborhood.” Future planning efforts would draw attention to the area “without introducing any prohibitive measures.”

The plan says reinvestment in the Eden Center should include improvements to existing buildings and a clear plan for supporting and retaining existing tenants.

To prevent displacement, the plan calls for exploring ways to support “legacy businesses.” While Virginia law prohibits the use of public dollars to further a particular private interest, the plan suggests it may be possible to provide indirect support through investment in the public infrastructure.

The plan also calls for the exploration of opportunities for structured parking and a midrise boutique hotel that caters to out-of-town tourists visiting the Eden Center with community space on the ground floor.

Another recommendation in the plan is the creation of a flexible plaza space at the Eden Center that could be used for movie screenings, live performances, morning yoga, cultural festivals, night markets, and additional outdoor dining.

The plan also recommends bilingual street signs to enhance Vietnamese cultural identity, decorative light pole banners, Vietnamese designs on city amenities, such as light poles and benches, and crosswalk art.

The plan doesn’t include a recommendation put forth by some community members to rename the Eden Center and surrounding “Little Saigon” in recognition of the former Little Saigon in Clarendon.  

Several business owners and Alan Frank, the general counsel and senior vice president of Capital Commercial Properties, which owns the Eden Center, opposed changing the name because “Eden Center” is widely recognized as a main hub of Vietnamese culture on the East Coast.

“We are happy with the outcome of the small area plan for the east end,” Frank told DCist/WAMU. “We’ve done a lot of things ourselves, and the city has committed to making it better on their side of the property line. And so, that’s terrific because we feel like we’ve been a little left out over the years when other parts of the city have received more attention.”