Inova to relocate Alexandria Hospital to Landmark Mall site
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| The new plan for Landmark Mall. |
The City of Alexandria, Inova Health System, and three development companies announced an initial agreement Dec. 22 to build a new hospital campus and mixed-used urban village on the site of the former Landmark Mall.
Inova would invest $1 billion in the medical campus, which would be anchored by the relocation and expansion of Alexandria Hospital.
Other development plans for the unoccupied shopping mall include “residential, retail, commercial, and entertainment offerings integrated into a cohesive neighborhood with a central plaza, a network of parks and public spaces, and a transit hub,” Inova states. The transit hub would serve a new bus rapid transit (BRT) line, Alexandria’s Dash bus service, and Metrobus.
The development would also include affordable workforce housing built on top of a new fire station.
The development partners are Foulger-Pratt, Howard Hughes Corp., and Seritage Growth Properties. Seritage owns the Sears site. Howard Hughes owns the rest of the property.
The initial agreement provides a starting point for further engagement and review by the community, City of Alexandria staff, the Alexandria Planning Commission, and the Alexandria City Council.
A virtual community information meeting on the Landmark redevelopment project is scheduled for Jan. 4, 7-8:30 p.m. More information on the meeting will be posted here.
Construction at Landmark could begin as soon as 2023, with the first buildings delivered in 2025.
Related story: Framework for Landmark redevelopment takes shape
“This plan for the future of the Landmark site is exciting, long-awaited news for our community,” said Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson. “The project would be a catalyst for the West End, providing significant benefits for Alexandria and the region at a time when focus on our long-term future is critical.”
The 52-acre Landmark site, just east of the Fairfax County border, is one of the most desirable large-scale underdeveloped properties remaining inside the beltway. Redevelopment of the site has been under discussion for years.
As the new location for Inova Alexandria Hospital, the Landmark site would allow for comprehensive, patient-centered programs and services that include a larger emergency room, private patient rooms, and the Inova Schar Cancer Institute at Alexandria Hospital, which would offer full cancer services, including radiation and infusion.
The hospital would be one of only three Level II trauma centers in Northern Virginia, seven statewide, and 270 nationwide. It would provide 24-hour specialty services for brain injuries, complex fractures, and other trauma care. The Inova facilities would employ more than 2,000 healthcare workers.
The addition of a medical office building would allow an estimated 50 specialty physicians to see patients on the same campus as the new hospital.
The Landmark redevelopment proposal includes the use of $54 million in public bond financing to allow the City of Alexandria to acquire the land for the hospital and lease it to Inova, as well as $76 million in public bond financing for site preparation and infrastructure at the Landmark site and adjacent Duke Street and Van Dorn Street corridors.
These investments are expected to generate $778 million in tax revenue over the 30-year life of the bonds, which will cover the principal and interest on the bonds as well as contribute to public safety, schools, human services, transportation, environmental protection, and other expenditures in Alexandria’s general fund.
Related story: Mixed-use redevelopment proposed for Big Lots site across from Landmark Mall
As part of this collaboration, Inova intends to seek a rezoning of the current Alexandria Hospital site on Seminary Road to permit residential uses. That would help Inova sell the property before relocating the hospital to the Landmark site. There will be a virtual community meeting Jan. 6 on the Seminary site rezoning.
Landmark Mall opened in 1965 as an open-air shopping center and was transformed into an enclosed mall in 1990. The Howard Hughes Corp. has been discussing redevelopment of the site since 2013. All the stores except Sears had closed by 2017. Sears closed in July.
The redevelopment of Landmark will be a positive only if it includes significant changes aimed at easing traffic flow. As it is, it's practically impossible to get across the Duke Street/Beauregard intersection in either direction at certain times of day and the exits from 395 are a mess. Let's hope the roads and intersections will be substantially improved as part of the redevelopment.
This is disappointing. I'm going to just go ahead and assume that the mixed-use portion of this development will not happen, and we will get yet another giant medical complex. All we get are new senior centers, hospitals and medical facilities, thrift stores, and discount grocery stores.
Nah, it's in Alexandria City — so we won't be bound by the eternal disappointments of Mason District redevelopment.
I know. It’s fricking horrible having quite possibly the best health care on the east coast readily available to me. I’d definitely prefer having another Cava slightly closer to my house than world class cancer care.
You are disappointed because…you make an uninformed assumption and then presume what you think is the worse that will happen will happen. I am disappointed in this obvious trolling.
Sounds like a great idea except for the "affordable workforce housing". Nothing like a brand new hospital with retail, entertainment, and commercial space interspersed within a ghetto.
Did you miss the part where it was on top of a fire station? I’m pretty sure they aren’t going to put a “ghetto” (and I urge you to look up what a true ghetto is) on top of emergency services. But then that wouldn’t fit your narrative about complaining all the time.
Yes, but it doesn't matter. When you mix "affordable housing" into a plan like this, eventually the law abiding, tax paying community suffers. Can't wait to see cop cars on every corner in this new development just like over at National Harbor in beautiful PG County.
Wow, the best part of this article was learning about the BRT initiative by the City of Alexandria. How did I not hear about this before?! Glad to see that they are taking steps to improve transportation. I haven't got a chance to read completely through the West End Transitway information but I hope it includes mostly separated bus-only lanes in the proposal. Metrobus, Dash, and Connector are a joke. They are purely an afterthought to alternative transportation. It would be great if Fairfax County considers a larger BRT network to connect to the West End Transitway and connect more of Northern VA to public rapid-transit.
The envision route 7 BRT I believe will intersect with the west end transit way at Marc center as a transfer point.
I have been a proponent for the region to consider planning of one more BRT line along little river turnpike, to connect landmark, lincolnia, Annandale, and then it would briefly go up 395/gallows to hit up Inova and Merrifield before ending at Dun Loring.
With Metro being in absolute financial shambles though, I don’t know what current appetite there is to plan new expansion beyond what is already in the works. But once Metro stabilizes post pandemic (hopefully), hopefully this kind of thing can be revisited. I believe supervisor Walkenshaw has voiced approval for similar concepts before.
Nice to hear they are considering a Route 7 BRT, hope they can make it happen without too many obstacles throwing the project into disarray…
I like your idea of a 236 BRT, would be nice if it extended also on 236 into Fairfax and then GMU.
Recently I have started to think that Fairfax County should just rely on themselves and not WMATA to serve public transportation needs. We desperately need smart transportation planning for our growing region, and we can create a rapid-transit system of our own. It's why I vote yes to transportation bonds and I hope others feel the same.
It all sounds as a bad as another Penny Gross disaster. More Section 8 housing, screeching ambulances, traffic congestion and no good mass transit. Is the BRT going to fly overhead without a dedicated traffic lane? Goodbye to what could have been a successful Mosaic, say hello to a new ghetto.
Like, none of these things are happening. You need a new tin foil hat.
I too was hoping for something like the mosaic distric. It would have been nice. Too bad!! Ka?
The description is almost exactly like the Mosaic District with one big, meaningful difference – there will be a public service anchor (INOVA) which will provide significant stability. Even the picture representing the development is very Mosaic-like. Does anyone read the articles at all?
Lol of course not James
Inova is a non-profit and as such they are not subject to corporate taxes. The taxpayers of Alexandria would have been better served by bringing a Mosaic-style mixed use plan with better direct access to and from the express lanes. Adding a tax drag such as Inova seems unnecessary and not in the interest of the taxpayers.
Inova plans to relocate the Alexandria hospital on Seminary Road to the Landmark site. The Seminary site will be developed with non-tax-exempt housing.
a tell tale of areas that are in general economic decline need to be bailed out by either a full blown or quasi government entity as the private sector flees from economic decline of these socialist enclaves.
Lol what
Exactly! Like a failing enterprise like Amazon relocates to a collapsing governmental jurisdiction like Arlington, bringing 25,000 low-wage, tax-sucking employees to drive housing prices down and force the nearby communities to convert their struggling political systems to Communism. The Howard Hughes Corporation obviously doesn't realize that Landmark Mall – located 8 minutes from Washington, on two major highways, 10 minutes from an expanding airport, down the road from a new university in Potomac Yard – is just a land development scam by the city of Alexandria to rip them off. Finally, because I must go on – it is these kinds of desperate billion-dollar investments that consign neighboring communities like Mason District, to fall even further into decay – every smart person knows that a gigantic development to replace an empty mall will never ever ever increase property values 200 yards away. And the traffic will turn our desperately starving community into more of a road hellhole, unless of course someone plans to fix up the roads.
You are my real Christmas gift dude, L.O.L.
Hahaha, Anonymous is not very smart.
Another CRAM development by the City of Alexandria without regard to the environment. No significant dedication of property for parks where people can excercise, relax. Building setbacks seem too be minimal. While the plan may enrich developers and indirectly feed funds into the re-election offers of city council members it will do nothing to improve the aestheics of the property and will make it more of a concrete jungle with higher level of pollution generated by the increased density. Would a little SERIOUS reforestation on the site to absorb carbon and noise – and lower temperatures in the Duke Street – I-95 road complex really be so bad. Meanwhile, the city is subsidizing the INOVA medical monopoly with the city's bond authority. This is not a development plan to brag about.
The traffic already a nightmare on two land Lincolnia, Beauregard, Beauregard and Little River Turnpike and Duke. I can't believe they would consider this…..bumper to bumper now on all these streets. We are losing the brains in City of Alexandria. Why could we not have a nice Reston Town Center or a Mosaic……how does the traffic move?
Losing? We already have lost all the brains in the West End and Mason District.