Landmark Mall redevelopment project moving forward
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| A preliminary illustration of the Landmark Mall project. |
More details are emerging on Foulger-Pratt’s plans for redeveloping Landmark Mall, the Washington Business Journal reports.
The 52-acre site will be anchored by a new Inova Health System hospital, which will replace the existing Inova Alexandria Hospital on Seminary Road.
New plans submitted by the developer to the City of Alexandria offer two options for how the site will be transformed with a mix of housing and commercial uses. Work is expected to start in 2023.
One scenario calls for about 2,500 housing units, 285,000 square feet of retail, 210,000 square feet of office space (including some medical offices for Inova), and a 52,000-square-foot fire station, according to WBJ.
Under the other option, there would less housing and more commercial development: just under 2,200 housing units, 298,000 square feet of retail, 400,000 square feet of office space, a 125,000-square-foot hotel, and the fire station.
With either option, the new hospital would be built the site of the existing Sears Auto Center, the article states. Apartments with ground-floor retail would take up eight blocks where the mall structure and some surface parking are currently located. A 2.7-acre parcel on the easternmost part of the property along N. Van Dorn Street would be all residential.
Related story: More details emerge on Landmark Mall redevelopment
The development will include a park next to the hospital, two central plazas in the center of the project, additional green space, and a car-free street on the eastern section of the site.
The development will include at least 74 affordable housing units, as required by the city. Those units would be affordable to people making no more than 60 percent of the area median income.
Foulger-Pratt is also considering another 200 affordable units co-located with the new fire station along Duke Street. In addition, the development could include housing for seniors, a public school, movie theater, health club, and grocery store.
A new transit hub on the eastern section of the property would serve existing bus routes and two new bus rapid transit lines planned by Alexandria. Part of the existing parking deck closest to Interstate 395 would be retained.
“We’re bringing a different type of public space to Landmark than is available anywhere else,” Foulger-Pratt Chief Operating Officer Brigg Bunker told WBJ. “That is really what is going to make this project distinct and different. It’ll be something for not just the Landmark community to enjoy, but a place to bring people together from all over.”
In the end, it will be a giant hospital complex with no commercial development, which is only marginally better than an abandoned mall. Mark my words.
Lets hope not!!! Something like Mosaic district would have been nice.
Oh yes, O Great Unknown Anonymous prophet, we shall
Sadly, I firmly believe you are right. Nothing coming here for current residents to enjoy.
And they're also adding yet another helipad in an area that's generating increasing numbers of helicopter noise complaints. Apparently it's not enough that the gang at Ft. Belvoir has turned this area into a playground for low level choppers. – Sparky
My entire house shakes whenever they fly overhead. Always seems to be between the hours of 9 pm to midnight, also.
It sounds like it is going to be Clinical City…….fun fun fun! NOT
So it's well known that originally a MetroRail was slated along Columbia Pike to Skyline/Bailey's.
Sooner than later there should be a serious considerations to build that line, going southwards from Bailey's to Mark Center and basically following the "West End Transitway" to Van Dorn Metro and points south.
SpaceX will have a fully self-sustaining Mars colony before that happens, and is actually poses less challenges. All they have to do is get the Starship flying and landing, perfect orbital refueling, solve the cosmic radiation problem, produce fuel, food, and water on Mars, and they should be good to go.
In contrast, we have to convince the DC area to spend $BILLIONS$ for a Metro line to nowhere (which is what they consider the Mason district to be). This same metro area can't build a bridge between their most affluent counties.
By comparison, SpaceX has it easy.
I'm under no illusions about the likelihood of this rail happening even in 20 years. But I'm going to keep bringing it up.
Let them keep thinking it's a Talking Heads song … some of us want LESS development, not MORE.
with any luck the housing will provide a place for those who work at the medical complex and office space. But that's a long shot with only 74 affordable housing units.
An improvement to what it is now, regardless