Eisenhower East Project With 800 Residential Units Approved In Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA — On Saturday, Alexandria City Council approved an application for a multi-phase residential development with 802 units in the Eisenhower East neighborhood.

The applicant, MidAtlantic Realty Partners, called for replacing two office buildings and surface parking lot at 2121 and 2111 Eisenhower Avenue with two connected residential towers. The two residential towers would have a total of 802 units, including 44 affordable units, connected by a parking garage. The development will be about 1,200 feet from the Eisenhower Avenue Metro station.

The project would be completed in two phases — one with 367 units and 20 to 24 stories and the second with 435 units and 22 to 28 stories. The towers would have varying heights — 20 to 24 stories in the first phase tower and 22 to 28 stories in the second phase tower. The parking garage connecting the towers would have 664 parking spaces, 424 bike spaces and 46 electric vehicle charging stations on six levels with one level below ground. A new roadway connection would be added between Mill Road and Elizabeth Lane as well as a mid-block pedestrian crossing.

The project would also include 24,850 square feet of open space on the sixth (above the parking garage), 21st and 23rd levels.

At the public hearing, numerous residents expressed concern with only 44 affordable units out of the 802 planned for the project.

Sam Epps with Unite Here Local 25, a hospitality workers' union, said 44 affordable units in over 800 is "unacceptable." Epps believes the project does not support those with service jobs but rather those applying for tech jobs at Amazon's new headquarters.

"My members work but cannot live where they work at, and they have to move further and further out from where they work," said Epps. "Their core is either in downtown [DC] or in Arlington and Crystal City where the hotels are, but many of them have to move out to Prince William County, out to Dulles and further and further out. We have members who live down in Fredericksburg."

"Our community, African immigrants and others who live in this city who work those jobs are in a housing crisis, because affordable housings are diminishing, and having a new development just to have 44 affordable housing built is not enough," said Bert Bayou with Unite Here Local 23 and African Communities Together.

After comments from residents, much of the discussion focused on an issue of disagreement between the applicant and city on the developer contribution to the Eisenhower East Implementation Fund. Cathy Puskar, the attorney representing the applicant, said she received a call from city staff 23 hours before the public hearing on a change to the contribution. While the applicant planned to provide a contribution based only on residential square footage, city staff indicated the contribution would be based on square footage of the residential and parking areas. That would have made an approximately $1 million difference in the developer contribution.

Before City Council approval, an agreement was reached for a developer contribution of $910,879.71 in the first project phase and $1,088,856.21 for the second phase.

Puskar noted the project would be the first to be built under the Eisenhower East Small Area Plan approved by City Council in March 2020. Puskar said the applicant is prepared to abide by the small area plan conditions in spite of challenges like rising construction costs during the pandemic.

"For you all to have in front of you today for 800 units in the city of Alexandria with 44 affordable dwelling units, $1.5 million in affordable housing units, $2 million of developer contributions for other improvements in the area is quite an enormous thing that my client is prepared to execute upon," Puskar told City Council.

Puskar also addressed the concerns about affordable housing, saying the over 800 units would increase housing supply. She said the 44 affordable housing unit total is compliant with the approved Eisenhower East Small Area Plan.

"The more supply there is, the more affordable the housing is going to be," said Puskar.

See the full city staff report and other documents in the City Council action docket.