A massive plan to demolish the Montgomery Center in Old Town North unanimously passed through the Alexandria Planning Commission on Thursday night.
The two-acre project would demolish the 1970s-era shopping center and replace it with an eight-story 350,000-square-foot apartment building with 327 residential units, more than 25,000 square feet of retail and a 13,300-square-foot performance venue for up to 600 patrons.
Carr Companies bought Montgomery Center for $35 million from MRW Properties Inc. in 2021. There are about 25 tenants on the property, including The Art League, A La Lucia and Crossfit Old Town. The property is bordered by Montgomery, Madison, N. Royal and N. Fairfax Streets.
Ken Wire, the attorney for Carr Companies, said that tenants are being allowed to stay at the Montgomery Center until the end of 2023.
“We certainly understand and appreciate that change is hard,” Wire told the Planning Commission. “We are understanding that the loss of this building, with the small tenants, is difficult. There are 25 tenants in this space. We negotiated with every single one of them to keep them on the property as long as possible.”
The project includes:
- More than 13,500 square feet of publicly accessible open space in three locations, including a covered paseo connecting visitors from the north to south and connecting the open spaces
- Two levels of underground parking with 406 spaces
- A contribution of more than $900,000 to the Old Town North Streetscape and Implementation Fund
- An affordable housing contribution of $878,000 and 22 committed affordable units
- A $50,000 contribution to Capital Bikeshare
- $39,000 for parking meters
- A contribution of approximately $16,294 to the city’s Urban Forestry Fund
City Council will conduct a hearing on the project on April 15.
