Medical facility proposed for aging retail strip on Arlington Boulevard
The Virginia Hospital Center is proposing to tear down a retail strip on Arlington Boulevard in the Falls Church area of Mason District and replace it with a freestanding emergency department combined with an urgent care center and medical offices.
The shopping center, built in 1953, is anchored by Skyline Nail Supply and the long-closed Harvest Moon restaurant. The other tenants are Boost Mobile, Pho Golden Cow, a dental office, Modern Shoe Repair & Cleaners, Bien Hoa Oriental Supermarket, Carina’s Fashion, and Pupuseria Mana.
VHC is seeking a zoning special exception to build a 24,250-square-foot one-story building. Approximately 14,000 square feet would be taken up by the emergency and urgent care services, which would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. VHC estimates that facility would serve 19,556 patients a year.
The rest of the building would support other medical services, such as primary care, specialty services, and diagnostic imaging.
A statement of justification submitted to the Fairfax County Zoning Evaluation Division on Feb. 16 says the primary purpose of the hybrid health facility will be to relieve pressure on the emergency room at the Virginia Hospital Center campus in Arlington.
It also says the medical services “will be provided at a fraction of the cost for services typically furnished at conventional emergency departments or hospitals.” The facility would not include overnight stays. There would be “light ambulance service,” without flashing lights and sirens.
VHC is proposing to eliminate some of the access points on Arlington Boulevard and Graham Road, widen the sidewalks along those roads, add crosswalks, and improve the parking lot configuration.
The new building would be constructed with brick or stone with metal accents. A steel and glass porte-cochere would be at the main entrance to provide a cover for drop-offs and pick-ups.
According to the Washington Business Journal, VHC acquired the Graham Center retail strip in September for $12 million.
“…will be provided at a fraction of the cost.”
Read: this is for homeless and those with questionable immigration status, and therefore will attract crime.
The tired old trope “will attract crime” is baseless unless you provide stats to prove your point. So the men at Home Depot and 7-11 are criminals just because they’re hanging out looking for work.
Hank, your statement is incorrect because you failed to read the entire sentence:
“will be provided at a fraction of the cost for services typically furnished at conventional emergency departments or hospitals.”
Perhaps you are not familiar with the prices charged by conventional emergency departments or hospitals, but even if this new medical facility, if built, charges “a faction” of those prices, it will not be cheap.
Furthermore, whether or not this site — whether it remains in its current condition as a thriving consumer retail destination, or is replaced by the proposed medical facility — will attract crime depends much more on how the rest of the nearby area changes over time than on this particular site.
The new, fairly expensive, townhomes built on the large Graham shopping plaza near this site, and the many rebuilds and renovations of homes in the community near this site, are clearly signs indicating that this area will not experience more crime.
The one caveat is that if the voters of Fairfax County vote for representatives who do not enforce the laws against criminal conduct (or who change the laws to legalize criminal conduct); then yes, of course this site and other sites in Mason District will experience more crime.
I hope the planners include a garage for all those users! Parking can be tight in the area on days that the Graham Road Community Building has trainings and events.
The planners will need to give serious thought to the street access. The property is at the corners of Arlington Blvd. and Graham Road. Turning into the current parking lot quite difficult as back-up at the light often blocks the alley, parking lot, and frontage road access. In addition, the frontage road on the other side of the lot is just one-way, so leaving the other direction is not a good option.
Do we really need another emergency center when INOVA is nearby?
Huh? That’s like asking whether we need another Vape shop, or thrift store. The answer is always YES.
That shopping center parking lot is a nightmare – as are the drivers cutting across Graham Road to enter it (crossing two sets of double yellow lines!). Good riddance.
The last occasion for me to be there was the ‘Modern Shoe”. As far as ‘crime’; if I hadn’t felt as thou two individuals were watching me because they knew I had been watching them. I believe there was an exchange of illegal drugs; something BAD was taking place. My intention was to telephone the police; then I was uncomfortable even being there, with them watching me. I did not phone the police and regret it.
Melinda, you truly need to reread the article. GREAT mention was made regarding improvements:
“VHC is proposing to eliminate some of the access points on Arlington Boulevard and Graham Road, widen the sidewalks along those roads, add crosswalks, and improve the parking lot configuration.”
This tracks… since criminals are allowed to operate freely in this area (see atm murder, ambulance thief, illegal dumping, illegal housing, lottery machine thieves)… the physical injuries and body count of victims will be higher and medical services needed. Perhaps that’s why the mosque on Bradock wants a crematory to pump its smoke into the neighborhood during Sunday services? They’re anticipating more customers.