The Potomac Yard development process is moving forward, with the in-person meetings now switched to virtual sessions with the city hosting a second town hall planned tomorrow (Wednesday).
At a meeting Wednesday from 7-8:30 p.m., the Virginia Tech Foundation and JBG SMITH are scheduled to give a public update on the project and describe plans for the southern group of buildings. Those are the office and residential buildings closest to the Potomac Yard Metro station.
There will be no tax increase on the city manager’s proposed fiscal year 2021 budget, as the City Council swept through its budget public hearing on Saturday, paving the way for approval next Wednesday, April 29.
Council also unanimously approved the plan for the construction of the southern access to the Potomac Yard Metro station. The access will be a bridge that connects to the northern entrance, and will open at the same time as the station in March 2022.
While city business has mostly been limited to pandemic related emergencies, the Alexandria City Council is moving forward with time-sensitive decisions about southwest access to the new Potomac Yard Metro station.
Southern access to Potomac Yard was a selling point for businesses and organizations moving into the parts of that area, but was cut back to save money on the project. The new plan does not include the full southern entrance as originally envisioned, and instead replaces it with a bridge that connects to the northern entrance.
Virginia Tech has released drawings of what its first of three academic buildings will look like.
“This project is a bellwether for what we are trying to achieve through our new campus, creating a place that provides the space and environment to foster collaboration and the creation of bold new ideas,” said Lance Collins, the incoming vice president and executive director of the Innovation Campus, said in a statement.
The developers behind the Oakville Triangle redevelopment say the project has been dramatically reshaped by the decline of brick-and-mortar retail.
Early designs for the project were of a predominately retail district set up across several blocks near Mount Jefferson Park, but Doug Firstenberg, a principal with development investment firm Stonebridge, said in a video that the 13-acre project near Potomac Yard is being reshaped.
In addition to a series bus line closures due to coronavirus, Metro is suspending service of Metroway-Potomac Yard — a bus line running between Pentagon City and Braddock Road.
The Metroway runs between Arlington and Alexandria through Crystal City and the Potomac Yard Shopping Center. The move comes after a day after Metro shut down several stations, including the Eisenhower Avenue and Van Dorn stations in Alexandria.
(Updated 6:15 p.m.) The long squabble between the City of Alexandria and Metro over the Potomac Yard Metro station’s southwest access entrance has ended with an agreement within the initial $50 million framework.
Over the last year, the City has been in dispute with Metro over whether or not southwest access to the station could be achieved within the $50 million in funding from the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Federal Transit Administration.
Inova Alexandria Hospital plans to accommodate development at National Landing and Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus by expanding it services with a new HealthPlex in the city’s Oakville Triangle neighborhood.
The proposed facility will offer emergency room services, an outpatient care center and medical offices. Construction is expected begin next year, and the facility is slated to open at the corner of Fannon Street and Richmond Highway in the fall of 2023.
Alexandria has released conceptual drawings of what the proposed buildings might look like in the North Potomac Yard development.
The drawings of the 817,853 square-foot development include three Virginia Tech Innovation Campus academic buildings and five other buildings near the under-construction Potomac Yard Metro station. It will replace the existing Regal movie theater and parking lots.
After months of stalled discussions over the cost of adding southern access to the Potomac Yard Metro station, Mayor Justin Wilson said the city could start the process of financing it over again.
The Potomac Yard Metrorail Implementation Work Group “expressed a great amount of frustration at the amount of time we have spent working with WMATA and their contractor to come to an agreement on a potential change order for improved southwest access,” Wilson said at the City Council meeting last night (Tuesday). “The message that was crystal clear from PYMIG was to set a date to have pencils down regardless of where we’re at and pursue going back to market to bid out the improved southwest access.”
Gusty Winds Expected Today — “The Flood Watch has been cancelled, but now the wind is the next possible hazard… The National Weather Service has issued a Wind Advisory from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. Gusts of up to 50 mph are expected.” [ARLnow]
Architects Chosen for Potomac Yard Redevelopment — “Five architectural firms have been selected to design the nine buildings that are planned for the first phase of the North Potomac Yard overhaul, including the Virginia Tech campus. The use of multiple firms, similar to the choice made by the developers of The Wharf on D.C.’s Southwest waterfront, is meant to avoid having a neighborhood of buildings that look too alike.” [Washington Business Journal]
