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Grocery, Office, and Apartments Proposed for Broad & Washington

By Stephen Siegel
Falls Church Times Staff
July 2, 2015

Just months after purchasing the northeast corner of the busy Broad & Washington intersection, the new owners have announced a major new development plan that includes a long-rumored grocery store, 324 apartments, and 36,000 square feet of office space.

Currently housing a variety of businesses, including the Applebee’s restaurant, a former medical office building, and the large building at the hard corner, the new development would again be a major change in style and density to the existing infrastructure, which now includes large surface parking lots.

The new proposal would feature four stories of underground parking and provide an array of new restaurant and retail amenities — and new revenue for the City.

Developer Broad & Washington LLC, a venture of Arlington VA-based Insight Property Group and Reston VA-based Kiddar Metz, say the 3 acre property would, when completed bring the City a net increase of $3.3 million annually, which would be more than any other mixed-use project to date.

City officials will do their own revenue projections that could end up being more or less than the developer’s projection, and the number could change based on changes to the plan required by City officials as it moves through the planning process.

Nevertheless, this project appears to be truly more mixed-use than many, with the large office portion and the supermarket. City officials favor both of those types of development because they bring in large amounts of revenue without any corresponding school costs.

But the 324 apartments proposed could once again be a flashpoint for controversy, as that will bring density and a possible cost to the schools, depending on the size of the apartments that are built.

Richard Hausler, CEO of Insight Property Group, said in a statement, “Broad & Washington will bring new life and energy to Downtown Falls Church. This project falls within the City’s adopted Core Entertainment Area, which already includes existing restaurants and the The State Theatre. We believe this area of the community will really come alive with this project and grow into a local and regional destination.”

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July 2, 2015 

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Comments

8 Responses to “Grocery, Office, and Apartments Proposed for Broad & Washington”

  1. SS on July 2nd, 2015 11:22 am

    Is this going to be Whole Foods?

  2. Brian Rye on July 2nd, 2015 11:56 am

    Here’s a May 2015 “economic impact” report from the City that contains the number of students from each of the new developments. Regarding strains on school infrastructure…given that condos are contributing fewer students, I’m surprised that all the new developments (Northgate, Rushmark, Tinner Hill, Mason Row, Broad/Washington) are putting up more than 1,000 apartments and virtually no condos.

    http://www.fallschurchva.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/3832

    Pearson Square: 230 apartments, 120 students (0.52 students per unit)
    Northgate: 105 apartments/rental townhomes, 20 students (0.19)
    Spectrum: 189 condos, 19 students (0.10)
    Broadway: 80 condos, 11 students (0.14)
    Byron: 90 condos, 13 students (0.14)
    Read: 26 apartments, 0 students (0.00) – Maybe some lessons here?

  3. Brian Rye on July 2nd, 2015 12:44 pm

    Also, from that same spreadsheet, the net annual fiscal impact of each development, as calculated by the City (note that condos kick in significantly more):
    http://www.fallschurchva.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/3832
    Spectrum: $1,189,503
    Byron: $666,810
    Broadway: $601,238
    Northgate: $272,228
    Read: $106,685
    Pearson Square: NEGATIVE ($3,635)

  4. TFC on July 2nd, 2015 2:35 pm

    What about the rumored public-private partnership for parking that might include designated municipal parking?

  5. Dale walton on July 3rd, 2015 5:08 pm

    This is something where there should be a lot of enthusiasm unlike the project that continues to change but which is still seriously flawed…that developers are trying to stuff into the more midtown location of West and Broad where it is a misfit.

  6. raindrops on July 4th, 2015 8:54 am

    I would love to see this happen. What an improvement for that corner.

  7. Hillel Weinberg, Falls Church on July 4th, 2015 7:06 pm

    Now, if we could get the grocery-appropriate square footage up to about 100k, maybe more, we MIGHT get a Wegman’s. With all due respect to the Harris Teeter and Whole Foods chains, both have stores within a stone’s throw.

  8. Brian Rye on July 17th, 2015 4:00 pm

    FWIW, article in today’s Washington Post about a group that we are presumably targeting with all these apartments:
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/digger/wp/2015/07/17/the-millennial-boom-is-over-in-d-c-and-thats-okay/?postshare=71437148833889

    “The Millennial Boom Is Over in D.C.”
    “Surrounding counties, including Arlington, Montgomery and Fairfax, have become even less attractive. Each lost more millennials than they added from 2013 to 2014.”

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