As plans for what will replace the Potomac River Generating Station in Old Town North gradually take shape, the city is still working through the specifics of how exactly to tear down the building.
Deputy Director for Infrastructure and Environmental Quality Bill Skrabak said in a presentation yesterday to the Alexandria Local Emergency Planning Committee — full disclosure, this reporter is a member of that committee — that rather than one big demolition the building will most likely be taken apart piece by piece.
“They’re going to be cutting up the big metal pieces with cranes and demolishing it, hauling it out on trucks and salvaging as much metal as they can,” Skrabak said. “Once the buildings get down to the ground, that’s when they would shift to remediation and soils.”
Skrabak also said there’s still work to be done to determine just how contaminated the soil at the site is. There are two large underground oil tanks at the property, at least one of which leaked around 2013. A remediation project was ongoing from 2016-2019 for that leak, but that remediation was to the standard of an industrial site, not a residential one like what’s proposed.
Beyond just those two tanks, though, Skrabak said there are other smaller tanks buried around the site that could contain chemicals.
One concern raised in the public comment at the meeting by nearby residents is that it’s still unclear just how contaminated the soil is at the site.
“We don’t have a gosh darn idea what’s underneath that building,” One resident said. “All the soil sampling and water sampling has been done in relatively benign areas but we have no clue what’s underneath that building. But here we are looking at how Hilco is going to approach this with what seems to be a pretty risk-tolerant position.”
But Skrabak said there’s a logic to demolishing the building before doing extensive testing on the soil.
“They will be doing an abatement to remove the contaminants before they demolish the buildings but you can’t do the remediation until the buildings are gone,” Skrabak said. “They’ll have to do additional samples once the building is gone.”
Skrabak said the soil will be sealed or covered when it’s transported away from the site in trucks.
“There are state requirements during construction for that material; they have to do the best job they can to reduce the amount of pollution as best they can,” Skrabak said. “There are certain structures they have to have, like the installation of a silt fence. What we try to do, when they’re excavating contaminated soils… we want them to get it in a container and into a truck and not have a big stockpile of contaminated soil sitting at the site for weeks.”
While Skrabak also said there’s no risk of runoff flowing back into neighborhoods, the same can’t be said for contaminants making their way into the Potomac River during demolition and construction. As locals have discovered in recent years, heavy rainfall can cause overflow to many stormwater management systems.
“Depending upon the level of issues, typically they have a sediment basin where they try to filter as much of that and let it settle before it gets discharged,” Skrabak said. “I do want to forewarn people, it’s not possible to have that level of disturbance and not have some dirt and mud. They’ll have a basin and settling tanks before it gets discharged, but if you have a large event it bypasses the filter.”
That demolition is still at least a year way. Alexandria Living Magazine reported in November that Hilco Redevelopment Partners confirmed the demolition of the power plant won’t start until mid-2024 at the earliest.
Local nonprofit Housing Alexandria said it will break ground on a new 474-unit affordable housing project in Arlandria this summer at the intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue and Glebe Road.
The project — a pair of buildings the nonprofit announced will be called Sansé and Naja — will create 474 units of affordable housing, 36,000 square feet of commercial space and a two-level underground parking garage. All of the units will be affordable for households making up to 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI) with 105 units set aside as deeply affordable — available to those making 40% AMI.
According to the release:
The names Sansé and Naja come from Nahuatl (na-watl), a language indigenous to Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras with millions of speakers today. Sansé (san-say), the name for the larger building, means “unique” or “only one” and invokes a sense of a unified group. Naja (na-jah or na-ha), the name for the smaller building, means “me” or “myself”… The brand identity was developed by Moya Design Partners in consultation with residents of Arlandria-Chirilagua to create a brand identity that was by and for the residents of the neighborhood. Housing Alexandria expresses our gratitude to the participants in these focus groups, as well as Casa Chirilagua and Tenants and Workers United for giving us the space for these meetings.
Work at the site is scheduled to take around 3-4 years.
“The construction will be done in phases and barring any major interruptions (like the pandemic was at The Bloom) move-ins would begin starting in 2026,” said Kayla Hornbrook, vice president of community relations for Housing Alexandria.
The development made headlines last year when a Catholic diocese sued the City of Alexandria, alleging that it did not properly vacate an alley that divides the new development from the Saint Rita Catholic Church. The site underwent a redesign that did not use the alley, the City of Alexandria withdrew its vacation of the alley, and the lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
The proposed redevelopment of a pair of blue and white buildings, a former Burke & Herbert Bank and a former Walgreens, is heading back to city review next month.
The plan is to combine the two buildings into a single mixed-use development called The Mansley with ground-floor retail and three stories of residential space above.
The applicant, The Silverman Group, said the exterior will mostly resemble the buildings as they exist today, with the additional 24 multi-family units of residential development kept mostly away from the King Street frontage. According to the application:
The project includes the adaptive reuse and rehabilitation of two early 20th-century buildings. 615 and 621 King Street will be combined into a single building with ground-floor retail space and three stories of residential space above, as well as one level below grade to be utilized as commercial support space. The two distinct building typologies will be retained along the King Street frontage, and the building will step back by 12 feet on the upper two levels so that the buildings read as commercial with traditional window proportions.
The Silverman Group is heading to the Board of Architectural Review on Wednesday, April 19, for a concept review and a permit to demolish. The project won City Council approval for rezoning and development at a meeting in September last year.
The 1.1 million-square-foot Inova at Landmark project got unanimous approval by the Alexandria City Council on Saturday, giving the hospital system the green light to build the future home of Alexandria Hospital.
Inova wants to start construction on the former Landmark Mall site in 2024 and have the four-building hospital campus finished by 2028. The hospital building is designed to face I-395, making it a gateway for drivers traveling north.
After years of stagnation, Alexandria started working with Inova on the site about three years ago — while the City was starting to shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“To be at this point at this time is really transformational, and this is a big deal,” Mayor Justin Wilson said. “I do think this is really important and it’s gonna be really a gateway for our community for a long time to come.”
Inova at Landmark includes a 569,000 square-foot hospital center, a 111,000 square-foot cancer center, an 83,000 square-foot specialty care center and a retrofitted 550-space parking garage. A 1,488-space below-grade parking garage is also planned with at least 19 parking spaces set aside for electric vehicle charging.
“It is our duty to ensure that our new hospital is not only a state-of-the-art facility, but also a place where compassion, excellence, and innovation come together to provide the best possible care for our community” said J. Stephen Jones, president and CEO of Inova in a statement. “We are thrilled with Council’s action and are excited to make this vision come to life.”
Inova can build up to 250 feet, or 23 stories, for the tallest structures, the main hospital building and the cancer center, although the latter is proposed to be only 77 feet tall.
Inova currently plans to build a 184-foot tall main hospital building (nearly 17 stories) with a two story glass atrium at its entrance, above which would be a six-story Z-shaped inpatient tower. Inova anticipates that the building will be 184 feet tall to hide hospital mechanical equipment inside a “mechanical penthouse.”
“As one of the individuals who was born in the now soon-to-be old Alexandria Hospital, I look forward to having new generations of Alexandrians have quality care and to be born in a state-of-the-art facility,” said City Council Member John Taylor Chapman.
Each building will be constructed under LEED Silver guidelines. According to a city staff report:
The campus buildings will feature window glazing and building design to minimize heat gains, low-flow faucets and fixtures, high indoor environmental air quality, and will participate in Dominion’s Renewable Power Program with a goal to achieve a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030.
Inova will also dedicate 64,000 square feet to open space on the site, in addition to building a 14,810-square-foot central plaza in Block Q. Inova must also submit a “consolidated and coordinated” public art plan for the hospital campus.
Landmark Mall first opened in 1965, and was the first mall in the region to feature three anchor department stores (Sears, Woodward & Lothrop, and Hecht’s). By 2010, the mall had nearly no tenants and in 2021, the city bought the 11-acre parcel of land for $54 million from The Howard Hughes Corporation. Inova signed a 99-year ground lease for the property that same year.
Stephanie Landrum, president and CEO of the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, said that the project makes Inova Alexandria Hospital an anchor that “redefines one of our largest neighborhoods and is a tangible and visible signal of the strength of the Alexandria economy.”
“This helps us attract additional investments, employers, and residents that will bring the WestEnd project to life,” Landrum said.
The project takes up a fifth of the total land use on the 52-acre West End Alexandria development. It was designed by Ballinger and Ennead Architects and is managed by Inova.
City Council is back for our March Public Hearing.
Today we are considering the final approval of our new Alexandria Hospital at the site of the former Landmark Mall. pic.twitter.com/voMQXaEt4j
— Justin Wilson (@justindotnet) March 18, 2023
Three West End neighborhood associations say that a proposed residential development at 1900 N. Beauregard Street will create too much density.
The Seminary West Civic Association (SWCA), Seminary Heights Condominium Association and the Seminary Park Home Owners Association wrote City Council discouraging the proposal by Monday Properties.
The developer wants to replace a three-story 1970’s-era medical office building with a six-to-seven-story multifamily residential building with 340-to-350 apartments, a parking garage and a swimming pool.
“The Seminary West Civic Association (SWCA), a community of approximately 600 townhouses and detached homes in the immediately adjacent neighborhood, urges the City to reject this proposal,” wrote Owen Curtis, SWCA president. “Trying to turn North Beauregard into something that resembles Crystal City or the Carlyle or any other dense urban neighborhood is wholly inappropriate.”
Monday Properties submitted a concept plan last month for an apartment complex with 343 apartments — 36 studios, 180 one-bedroom apartments, 121 two-bedroom apartments and six three-bedroom apartments. The company also wants a 110-foot height allowance (10 stories) and construction of a public roadway between the property and its neighbors. That new parallel roadway is drawing the ire of neighbors, who are calling it a dealbreaker after residents successfully lobbied for its removal from the Beauregard Small Area Plan.
Seminary Heights Condominium Board President Dodi Baker said that his community “vehemently opposes the newly proposed redevelopment,” and Seminary Park President Les Jackson wrote that his neighborhood’s board of directors voted against it.
“This proposal seeks to break promises made to our community by inserting a parallel road we fought to have removed from future city planning,” Baker said.
Monday Properties wants to remove the existing 57,600-square-foot office building, which is the home of the Alexandria Workforce Development Center. The development is also next door to The Blake, a 300-unit residential apartment complex that Monday Properties opened last year. Neighbors say that, if the plan is approved, the area would be too crowded with more than 600 residential units within two blocks.
According to the three citizen groups:
In addition, across the street from The Blake and 1900 North Beauregard developments on Seminary Road, more than 95 additional residential units have been approved to be built in the “Upland Park” development. Nearly directly across from North Beauregard Street and adjacent to the Alexandria Hilton, 367 more residential units have been approved for construction as part of “The Rutherford” building. And only a few more blocks away on Seminary Road, an office building was recently converted from office space to 212 residential units. When combined these developments total over 1300 new residential units within several short blocks and developed within a shared compressed time period.
The neighborhood associations are also supported by Bud Jackson, a member of the Beauregard Urban Design Advisory Committee, which reviews many land use applications in the West End. Jackson says the development goes against Alexandria’s Beauregard Small Area Plan, which calls for less density and more roadway development.
“This proposed development seeks to avoid key provisions established by the Beauregard Small Area Plan (BSAP) and, if allowed to proceed, goes back on promises made to the Seminary Heights community – including promises made that are now memorialized within the BSAP,” Jackson wrote in a letter to City Manager Jim Parajon. “For me, this plan is dead on arrival and should not even be presented to BDAC in its current form. It asks our city to hand out special use permits like candy without regard to the neighborhood, abutting neighbors, and the loss of benefits our city should expect in return for the privileges being granted.”
A public meeting on the proposal is scheduled for Thursday, March 23, at 6:30 p.m. at 1800 N. Beauregard Street.
One of Alexandria’s last waterfront warehouses is becoming a tavern.
According to a press release, the squat brick warehouse at 10 Duke Street is going to be converted into a market, tavern and event space called Cooper Mill, a throwback to the site’s history of making barrels for the Alexandria Flower Company.
The warehouse — once used as a mess hall and commissary by Union soldiers during the Civil War — is in the Robinson Landing development and was left intact while the rest of the buildings around it were rebuilt.
The release said the new tavern is being helmed by Noe Landini, who operates the eponymous Landini Brothers Restaurant (115 King Street) and Junction Bakery & Bistro (1508 Mount Vernon Avenue), and boutique builder Murray Bonitt.
“When [Bonitt] brought this opportunity to me and asked me to participate, it was a no-brainer,” Landini said in the release. “An incredible building as it stands, but Murray shared his vision, and I simply couldn’t resist. It wasn’t long before we were drawing out a concept on the back of a napkin and before you knew it, we were off.”
According to the release:
The current plans for the two-story 6,400 square-foot warehouse building will consist of a small upscale market at the rear of the building, with a casual tavern on the first floor, and a 3,200 private event space upstairs. The market will feature grab-n-go breakfast foods and coffee, sandwiches, soups, prepared foods, fresh breads, and baked goods from Landini’s various locations, as well as beer, wine, and other high-demand market items. The tavern will have a relaxed casual vibe consisting of repurposed materials from the building to create a warm rustic, yet urban feel. The special event space upstairs will be the crown jewel of the building, Bonitt says, with lots of light, exposed brick, balconies with views of the park and river, repurposed roof trusses and flooring, with the ability to host events up to 120 people.
The project is expected to open sometime in late spring 2024.
Alexandria is preparing to launch a massive overhaul of its housing zoning with a kickoff event later this month.
The Zoning for Housing/Housing for All initiative was announced late last year but has been in the works since 2020. The initiative is essentially a top-t0-bottom review of the city code to rewrite the city’s zoning code to emphasize affordability and equity.
According to a release:
The Zoning for Housing/Housing for All initiative began in 2020 and supports the City’s commitment to housing production and affordability and acknowledgement that Alexandria’s zoning policies have perpetuated historic and systemic discrimination, and how those policies can be changed to reflect our tenet that housing is a human right.
Housing for All, the equity component of Zoning for Housing, will explore the extent of past discriminatory housing policies and their continued impact, especially on people of color and/or low income.
According to the release, the initiative’s focus is a gallery of some of the most discussed housing and density issues in Alexandria over the last years, from the trade for bonus height to questions about housing in single-family zones.
According to the release, the initiative will examine:
- Historic Development Patterns
- Coordinated Development Districts and Affordable Housing
- Expanding Housing Opportunities in Single Family Zones
- Industrial Zones Analysis
- Expansion of Transit Oriented Development
- Residential Multi-family Zone Analysis
- Townhouse Zoning Analysis
- Office to Residential Conversions
- Bonus Height Text Amendment
Kickoff events are scheduled for Monday, March 20, from 5-9 p.m. and Tuesday, March 21, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Alexandria – Carlyle (2460 Eisenhower Avenue). The kickoff events are the start of a community and civic engagement process scheduled to run through the rest of the year.
Alexandria’s Board of Architectural Review can be infamously picky about urban design, but the board unanimously voted to approve a large new project in Old Town with significant enthusiasm.
Applicant City House Old Town, LLC is applying to have the office building at 1101 King Street — currently a mostly vacant office space called the Tycon Building — changed into a residential development with 210 units.
The current office building was built in 1983, predating new regulations for density in the area set in 1992. The new plans won’t add any density to the building, but still require a special use permit because they aren’t compliant with current limits.
While the interior is undergoing significant changes, the exterior changes are relatively minor. The developer is proposing new railings and balconies, along with some cosmetic changes to the coloring of the building’s exterior.
The Montgomery Center redevelopment is heading to Alexandria’s Planning Commission later this month.
The proposed development, first announced last spring, is a sweeping overhaul of a block at the heart of Old Town North.
The plan is to replace the current structure with a mixed-use development, featuring 327 residential units and 25,273 square feet of ground-floor retail. As part of a trade for bonus density, developer Carr Companies will provide 22 on-site affordable housing units and a monetary contribution.
Carr is also looking for city or public funding to aid in the construction of a three-level garage — or a two-level garage if no public funding is made available.
With the writing on the wall, some of the current tenants of Montgomery Center have been struggling to find a new home. Seichou Karate, a longtime martial arts school in the Montgomery Center, has been struggling to find a comparable new location. Local bike shop Wheel Nuts closed last December.
The project is heading to Planning Commission review at the March 30 meeting.
After more than six months of delay, the renovation of Mount Jefferson Park is complete.
City inspections now stand between the park reopening to the public, according to the city. That process could take another two months.
Developer Stonebridge agreed with the city to renovate the 4.6-acre park as part of its deal to construct the massive Oakville Triangle project. The park has been shut down since construction began between the 300 Block of E. Raymond Avenue and Richmond Highway (Route 1) in January 2022. The project, which includes removing invasive species and reshaping trails, was initially scheduled to wrap last September.
“They’ve (Stonebridge) encountered supply chain issues, weather delays, as well as some design revisions that occurred last fall that they’re trying to work through,” Alexandria Park Planner Judy Lo told ALXnow.
She said the city has not done any inspections on the improvements since the park was closed down last January.
“We definitely want to make sure all the improvements are constructed according to the approved plans and that the park is safe for the public to use,” she said.
Alexandria has had plans to renovate the park on the books since 2015.
Today, Friday, Del Ray resident Ron F. was walking his dog near the park when he shared with ALXnow his desire to see the park open soon.
“How long does it take to inspect a park?” asked Ron, who only gave the initial of his last name. “It looks ready to open. It looks safe.”
City inspections are scheduled between March and May, and the park could be opened sooner than May if inspections are completed, Lo said.
“If inspections go well, the park will open,” Lo said. “If there’s a section that can open, we can definitely look at opening it in sections.”
Ron contends the process should not take that long, saying “it’s trails and trees.”
According to the city:
The City, in conjunction with the Oakville Triangle/Route 1 Corridor planning process, developed a plan in 2015 for the Mount Jefferson Park & Greenway between East Raymond Ave. and Route 1.
The approved plan draws inspiration from the site’s former use as a railroad, and seeks to balance the natural characteristics of the park through enhanced landscape plantings and the preservation of the nature trails south of Fannon Street.
Improvements to the 4.6-acre park area include site drainage and stormwater infrastructure, an ADA multi-use permeable trail and trail connectors, an expanded off-leash dog exercise area, native plantings, invasive species removal, a new speed table at Raymond Avenue to slow vehicular traffic, a new water meter, new park wayfinding signage, and new historical interpretative features.
