It was a busy fall week in Alexandria. Here’s the rundown.
Our top story this week was on a plan to completely close off the 100 block of King Street as a pedestrian-only zone. The plan has been in the works since 2019, and was put into action last year. ALXnow’s poll on the subject had very one-sided results, showing 91% (791 votes) in favor of a permanent change.
The sprawling Carlyle Crossing development that aims to completely transform Eisenhower East is inching closer to completion as the first of the apartment buildings starts pre-leasing.
The first of the properties to start pre-leasing at the property is Reese, a 161-residence tower at 2495 Mandeville Lane. The building will have a 3-acre, 60-foot-high elevated terrace park that connects to another residential building, Dylan. Reese opened for pre-leasing earlier this month, with residents starting move-in later this fall. A third apartment building, Easton, will open this winter and the Dylan is scheduled to open early next year.
For five years Port City Publius has let fly. The anonymous blogger won’t shy from criticizing the superintendent, or blasting “NIMBY” residents who favor changing the leadership of City Council.
Who is this writer? Is Port City Publius more than one person?
There is lots of new development coming to North Old Town, and for locals interested in getting to know the area more, the North Old Town Independent Citizens Association (NOTICe) is planning a tour of what’s coming up.
The tour is scheduled to run from 5:30-7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 23, followed by a social hour at the North Old Town location for St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub (529 Montgomery Street) from 7-8 p.m. The tour is self-guided but representatives will be on-hand at each of the locations to provide information on what’s planned.
A former office building turned residential complex in the West End is headed back to the City Council on Saturday, Sept. 18, for some new amenities — like replacing a surface parking lot with a dog park.
The Park + Ford apartment buildings at 4401 Ford Avenue opened earlier this year but developer Lowe Enterprises Real Estate Group is already back to the city looking to add to the project. The developer is proposing to replace a pair of parking spaces across the street from the building with a new amenity space and a dog park — both private, unfortunately for West End locals looking for an alternative to the Shirlington Dog Park.
Gun used in murder belonged to suspect’s bondsman — “The homicide of Alexandria resident Karla Dominguez last summer sparked widespread uproar because her alleged murderer, Ibrahim Bouaichi, had been released on bond in April despite having been indicted for allegedly raping and assaulting Dominguez in October 2019. Now, new information reveals that the bondsman who posted bail for Bouaichi knew him beforehand and that both the vehicle and weapon Bouaichi used to commit the murder belonged to the bondsman, Man Nguyen.” [Alex Times]
Twenty years later, residents recall the September 11 attacks — “Two residents had been on the plane that hit the Pentagon and many more residents had friends and other people from their lives who had been killed or impacted by the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon and the crash in Pennsylvania. On Friday, Sept. 14, the city held a candlelight vigil at Market Square, with residents filling the area in front of city hall and overflowing onto King, Cameron and Fairfax streets.” [Alex Times]
(Updated 9/8) Alexandria has many charming, attractive neighborhoods — the Mark Center isn’t one of them. But while it’s unlikely the highway-adjacent office park will be competing with Del Ray or Old Town anytime soon, a new pair of land-use changes could open the door down the road to the start of something of a transformation for the area.
Two parcels in the Mark Center Coordinated Development District (CDD) are headed to the Planning Commission on Thursday, Sept. 9 — the Hilton Hotel site at 5000 Seminary Road and the IDA site at 4880 Mark Center Drive. The applicants are asking for changes to open up some of the allowable uses on the site for future commercial and residential development.
What a busy week in Alexandria. Here’s the rundown.
Alexandria City Public Schools reopened their doors to full-time in-person instruction on Tuesday, and there have been a few hiccups. On Friday, we published a video taken of a brawl inside Alexandria City High School, and a teenager was hit by a car while walking home from school in Del Ray on Thursday.
What a week in Alexandria.
Public uproar over Sunday’s flooding spilled out throughout this week, which continued to be threatened by near-daily flash flood advisories from the National Weather Service.
One of the most brought up terms in Alexandria development discussions is Development Special Use Permit — or DSUP — but despite being one of the building blocks for city planning is also one of the more confusing aspects of development.
Karl Moritz, Director of Planning and Zoning for the City of Alexandria, said a DSUP is a type of permit that comes up whenever a development could be seen as having a substantial impact on the neighborhood around it.
The lunch hour around Potomac Yard restaurants could get a little busier this fall.
Two years after the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) first broke ground on its Potomac Yard headquarters, the national security nonprofit announced plans to move into the headquarters by the end of the year.
