Board OKs Major Site Redevelopment in Clarendon

The Arlington County Board late Tuesday approved a redevelopment plan that will help preserve some of “Old Clarendon” as “New Clarendon” builds upward.

After three hours of testimony and deliberation, the board unanimously approved a site plan that will add more than 284,000 square feet of office space and more than 22,000 square feet of ground-level retail space in the heart of Arlington's original downtown.

The space will be divided into one 10-story building and one eight-story building on the 1.13-acre block bound by 11th Street North and Washington Boulevard on the north and south, and by North Highland Street and North Garfield Street on the east and west. It's about a block from the Clarendon Metro station.

The board's move also preserves two buildings deemed “important” on the county's – the /Kenyon Peck building at 2825 Wilson Blvd. and the / building at 2901 Wilson Blvd. – by transferring the development rights from those properties to the new structures, allowing the latter greater height and density than otherwise would have been allowed.

Further, the frontage of the building that currently houses the 11th Street Lounge and – the former McQuinn’s Sporting Goods Store and an ABC liquor store – will be preserved and incorporated into the northwest portion of the planned 10-story building. That building is listed as “notable” on the Historic Resources Inventory.

Board Chairwoman Mary Hynes thanked those who worked on historic preservation and the transfer of development rights, saying they proved it was a “labor of love.”

“Those of us who live in Clarendon or visit Clarendon will enjoy this for years and years to come,” she said.

The parking plan worked out by the developer, Penzance Clarendon Assemblage, the county and the various neighborhood and civic groups that participated in the process also adds nearly 300 underground night and weekend public parking spaces. Those spaces will be available at reduced rates for their first three years. Eleven new street-level spaces will be added, too.

Hynes called it a “precedent-setting solution to a real problem.”

The new development will replace a , the 11th Street Lounge, Potomac Crossfit, monument shop, and a vacant establishment.

A county spokeswoman could not immediately say what would happen to those businesses.

At least one major tenant already has been announced for the new site – the Center for Naval Analyses, which does research and analysis for the military and federal, state and local governments in a wide range of areas, including the environment, health care and security. CNA, currently in the Mark Center area of Alexandria, will bring about 520 employees, its chief operating officer, Katherine McGrady, told the board.

Board member Chris Zimmerman called landing CNA “a real coup” and said, “It fits in with what's becoming a real strength of the western end of the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.”

The developer will contribute about $1.2 million to the county's Affordable Housing Investment Fund, $56,500 to the county's utility fund, $150,000 for transportation and transit improvements in and around the Clarendon Metro area, and up to $24,000 for the installation of parking meters. It will set aside $426,000 over 15 years for a county-overseen fund that will be used to encourage carpooling, cycling, bikesharing and walking. And it will install public art or pay at least $75,000 to the county's public art fund.

Penzance will provide the county nearly $296,000 as a guarantee it will achieve LEED Silver certification as a green building. Failure to meet certain environmental standards will result in the forfeit of part of that security.

The developer also will replace 450 feet of an 8-inch water main that was constructed in 1927 and provide one-time, pre-paid SmarTrip cards with $65 on them to every new on-site employee, office and retail tenant on their first day.

The developer reached a series of compromises with the various civic associations and the condo association that neighbor the property, particularly regarding parking, sidewalks and streetscaping.

Clarendon resident and civic activist Peter Owen called those compromises “a profound victory for the Arlington Way.”

“Let this be a lesson to us that the four-year investment of community and staff time into the Clarendon Sector Plan was worthwhile,” Owen said. “By establishing a detailed, written plan, we provided the predictability that the private sector could lean on and further community goals.”