Arlandria Redevelopment Project Could Get Rolling in 2014

Alexandria’s Director of Planning and Zoning said the city is hopeful the redevelopment of the Mount Vernon Village Center in Arlandria can begin in 2014, more than two years after the project was approved.

“We’re hopeful that Mount Vernon Village Center will start construction sooner rather than later,” Faroll Hamer said at Saturday’s public hearing before City Council. “We think we’ll have more news about that maybe in the coming year.”

Council will receive an annual report on a wide range of projects and endeavors in Arlandria in January.

According to a recent city report on Arlandria, the redevelopment project team is preparing its final site plan submittal and anticipates starting construction in late 2014.

The Mount Vernon Village Center project—which drew some controversy at the time of its approval in December 2011—is seen as a potential stimulus to spur other redevelopment in Arlandria, including the old Safeway site on W. Glebe Road.

The Mount Vernon Village Center plan calls for demolishing the existing shopping center along Mount Vernon Avenue and replacing it with two, six-story mixed-use buildings that will include 53,000 square feet of street-level retail space and approximately 478 multi-family housing units. Parking for the development—a total of 940 spaces—will be available underground. The development will include 28 affordable housing units available for 30 years.

Construction is expected to be phased in two parts. The south end of the current shopping center (where CVS vacated in June 2012) would be razed to construct the first building. MOM’s Organic Market, one of the few remaining tenants in the shopping center, would then move into the new building. 

The north half of the center (where MOM’s currently resides) would then be bulldozed to make way for the second building. 

The complex would back up to Four Mile Run Park and to the Birchmere, eliminating the large lot that currently exists to the east of the shopping center.