After years of stalls and starts with various redevelopment plans, another developer has scrapped its vision for the Del Ray North Shopping Center.
Last month, Alexandria Planning and Zoming staff got an email from MRP Realty‘s attorney indicating that that the company would not move forward with its plan to redevelop the shopping center.
“The email cited ‘worsening economic conditions’ making the project infeasible for MRP at this time,” Alexandrias Planning Director Karl Moritz told ALXnow.
MRP Realty, which did not return calls for comment, is one of several developers to abandon the shopping center in recent years. Their Mount Vernon Village project was envisioned as a mixed-use development with 593 apartments above 23,000 square feet of retail.
Actively leasing
Finmarc Management, Inc. is now actively leasing the property, which has more than 23,000 square feet of empty retail space, including a former CVS store that did not renew its lease due to redevelopment plans nearly a decade ago.
The property manager told ALXnow that the company has no plans for redevelopment and that the property is actively being marketed for leasing.
When the CVS and its pharmacy left the shopping center, it left a community need, said Alexandria City Councilman Canek Aguirre.
“I got my fingers crossed for this shopping center, because this community needs more positivity and more freshness,” Aguirre said. “When CVS went it left a big hole within the community for folks who could not just get pharmacy prescriptions, but also day-to-day items.”
Aguirre continued, “I guess at this point I’m somewhat encouraged that some of these empty retail storefronts will be filled, and hopefully soon.”
Anchored by a MOM’s Organic Market (3831 Mount Vernon Avenue), the shopping center is also home to a Subway, a Topper’s Pizza, the La Bona Nail Bar & Spa salon and a Virginia ABC store.
There are also several vacant storefronts, including:
- 3809 Mount Vernon Avenue — The former McCormick Paints, 3,900 square feet
- 3811 Mount Vernon Avenue — The former CVS, 11,342 square feet
- 3813 Mount Vernon Avenue — 3,035 square feet
- 3819 Mount Vernon Avenue — The former Neighborhood Health vaccination clinic, 3,359 square feet
- 3823 Mount Vernon Avenue — The former Soigne Salon, 1,807 square feet
The shopping center is also near the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation‘s (AHDC) Mount Vernon and Glebe project, which promises to bring hundreds of affordable housing units in two new apartment buildings by late 2025 or early 2026.