With big changes ever promised for Columbia Pike, evidence of actual progress is worthy of comment, especially when that progress is on schedule. Such is the case of Penrose Square. The only remnant of the former tenants at 2405 and 2501 Columbia Pike is the sad Giant 
Food sign surrounded by trailers, fences and barbed wire, but the project is on track for its scheduled delivery of late 2011.Back in March, Foulger-Pratt Contracting won the $79 million construction contract for the building, and construction is now underway; Heffner Architects of Alexandria, Virginia have designed the project. There is little else new on the nearby strip, but Arlington continues to see the slow transformation of Columbia Pike with future plans for a street car with a stop at Penrose.
Carbon Thompson and B.M. Smith Associates will complete Penrose Square as a mixed-use development to include 325 rental apartments, 97,000 s.f. of retail space, and three levels of below-grade parking. Included in the retail space is a rebuilt, 57,000 s.f. Giant supermarket, with the residential units built above. The developers have also donated a parcel of land in front of the development for a new town square for pikers, also called 
Penrose Square, though right now it's all just one big hole.The property is bordered by Columbia Pike to the south, Adams Street to the east, 9th Street to the North. Despite the new density, the height will remain low; 6 to 7 stories along Columbia Pike tapering to 3 1/2 stories along 9th Street.
3 comments:
Wonderful. I love to see progress still being made despite the recession. Goes to show that long-term the place to be is inside the loop in the inner suburbs. I cannot wait to see the Pike transform, especially when the streetcar goes in. January 2010 will be a great time when the Pike is turned over from VDOT.
"There is little else new on the nearby strip..." Huh? The adjacent property--also a former grocery store, an old and tired Safeway--is presently being transformed into Siena Park. Siena Park is well under construction and will deliver 188 new apartments, 14,000 square feet of office space and over 32,000 square feet of retail space in less than a year.
Yeah, seriously -- Jim's right about Siena Park *adjacent* to this project... to say nothing of the new Halstead luxury apartment building that opened this year about two blocks away at the Pike and Walter Reed Drive.
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