Clarendon Project Underway

Clarendon is on its way to getting yet another apartment building. Zom Inc., which is developing USAA Real Estate's parcel at 1200 N. Irving Street in Arlington, finally began construction earlier this month on a 10-story apartment building with ground floor retail that will front both N. Irving Street and Washington Boulevard. The project was designed by Esocoff & Associates.

Formerly known as The Waverly at Clarendon Station, the development has now been christened The Beacon at Clarendon West, according to Greg West, chief development officer for the Florida-based Zom. "We’ve revised the design and rebranded the project," he said.

The company's original condo concept is off the table. Instead, the project will include 187 one- and two-bedroom units averaging 850 square feet, each with de rigeur hardwood floors, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. About half will have balconies, and a rooftop pool is included in the package.

The building will have "a very unique and interesting radius shape," said West. In part, that curvilinear facade is designed to take advantage of the lot's outline. On the ground floor, lining both N. Irving Street and Washington Boulevard - but not the corner itself - will sit 17,000 square feet of space designed for retail. Zom has hired Asadoorian Retail Solutions to fill the spaces, but West claims the development partners have not decided on a specific mix of types. "We have a lot of flexibility as to the size and variety of what we can take," he said. "We just want to find the best tenants who will provide a good amenity value to the building."

Construction of the project, which is being done by Donohoe Construction, is beginning with a major excavation to make room for two floors of underground parking. The development, which will incorporate an historic facade that’s still on the property, should be finished in about two years.

The site, located two blocks from the Clarendon Metro station, has a fairly long history. Zom bought it from Faison in 2006 but the property lay empty for several years. In 2011, USAA bought the property and is developing it together with Zom.

The partners are also involved in a second Arlington venture, located at 1919 Clarendon Boulevard in Courthouse. The Clarendon Boulevard project, which is also currently under construction, is similar to the N. Irving Street one: although it's five stories rather than 10, the development includes 191 high-end apartments and another 17,000 s.f. of ground floor retail. Asadoorian is screening tenants for that property as well. "We'll be selecting retailers soon," said West.

Arlington Virginia real estate development news

Penzance Announces Partner and Start Date for Clarendon Office Project

D.C. based Penzance announced today it has partnered with Invesco Real Estate in a joint venture to build its 2-building office project at 3001-3003 Washington Boulevard near the Clarendon Metro station, setting up development for a May groundbreaking.

The partnership with Invesco comes after Penzance had teed up the development, gaining county approval of plans for the 280,000 s.f. project in January, at which time it also leased most of the space - 173,000 s.f. - to federally-funded CNA (the Center for Naval Analyses), which will transfer 600 employees from its Mark Center location in 2014.

Penzance plans two office buildings - 8-stories and 10-stories - with shared 4-level below-grade parking deck and 28,000 s.f. of combined ground floor retail space with outdoor seating area. Several of the older buildings on the block will be kept intact during construction. Noritake Associates designed the project that is expected to earn a minimum ranking of LEED Silver, while holding out the possibility of a Platinum ranking for the site.

Penzance has developed and operates numerous properties throughout Washington D.C. and Arlington, including 455 Massachusetts Avenue in Mt. Vernon Triangle.

Arlington, Virginia real estate development news

Today in Pictures - Views at Clarendon

The Views at Clarendon is now complete after two years of construction and 5 years of lawsuits. The building was a collaboration between Arlington County, which lent money to the project, the First Baptist Church of Clarendon as the landowner, and the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH). The project began construction in October of 2009, tacking on a high-rise of 46 market-rate and 70 subsidized units to the existing church. Now ready for rentals, the residential portion has been christened Vpoint Apartments, with the first tenant scheduled to move in tomorrow. According to a spokesman for the community, 45 of the apartments have already been preleased.










Arlington, VA real estate development news. Photos by Rey Lopez.

Penzance Tees Up Clarendon LEED Office Project

D.C. based Penzance has announced it will submit its final plans to Arlington for development of its Clarendon Metro office project, a step that potentially puts the start date less than a year away for the 300,000 s.f. office project.

Penzance plans two office buildings for the site, an 8-story and a 10-story building with shared 4-level below-grade parking deck and 28,000 s.f. of combined ground floor retail space with an expansive sidewalk area to accommodate outdoor seating. Several of the older buildings on the block will be kept intact during construction.

Noritake Associates designed the project that developers say will "reinforce Clarendon’s status as a true live-work-play urban environment." The design is expected to earn a minimum ranking of LEED Silver, but developers say they are working toward a Platinum ranking for the site, scheduled to break ground in spring of 2012. Jones Lang LaSalle will market the property. A general contractor has not yet been selected.

Penzance has developed and operates numerous properties throughout Washington D.C. and Arlington, including 455 Massachusetts Avenue in Mt. Vernon Triangle.
Arlington, Virginia real estate development news

The Tellus: Arlington's First LEED Gold Project Delayed Further

Arlington's most sustainably designed apartment building will spend at least another year in planning mode, say its developers. Erkiletian's plans for the Tellus, a 254-unit apartment building in Clarendon, designed to achieve LEED Gold certification back in 2008, is still likely a year away from construction.

The apartments that will replace an outmoded apartment building at 2009 14th Street were approved by the county in early 2009, with an expected late 2009 start date. "The economy had a little bit to do with it" says development manager Bill Denton of the delay. Erkiletian is now hoping for an early 2012 construction start. The Tellus will replace one of Arlington's least attractive office buildings, and would be the first residence to earn LEED Gold certification in the county, if built according to the original plans. Erkiletian originally planned for environmentally-friendly facilities such as storm water retention, on-site irrigation, drought-resistant native plants on a green roof plaza, low-flow plumbing fixtures, bicycle and smart car options, power derived from a green sourced grid as well as on-site solar, a sustainable power source that has yet to achieve commercial viability and is rarely used on multi-family buildings.

Lessard Group designed the building to achieve the 2nd highest LEED ranking, but Denton says specifics are still in flux. Regarding use of solar panels, Denton says "we hope to, it will be part of the consulting document, trying to reach LEED Gold," but that such options are still being weighed.

Arlington Virginia real estate development news

Church and Housing Provider Vindicated in Clarendon Case

A church's involvement in affordable housing subsidies by the state doesn't violate the Constitution. So says another court in the ongoing battle at The Views at Clarendon, which has cleared yet another legal hurdle in its battle to build an apartment building heavily subsidized by the government in place of the First Baptist Church of Clarendon. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit this week upheld a ruling, issued last May, that found that Arlington did not violate the state or U.S. constitutions by subsidizing the church-led project.

The struggle may finally wrap up 5 years of lawsuits 7 years after the Church hired the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) to advise on an affordable housing project. The Church later sold the land to The Views at Clarendon Corporation, a non-profit, for $5.6m, with plans to build 46 market-rate and 70 affordable apartments. The Church retained 3 of 7 seats on the board, and will retain two floors within the new structure and a small building on the side. That lead to a neighbor arguing in Peter Glassman v. Arlington County, et. al that the subsidy amounted to unconstitutional support to a church, an argument that has been repeatedly rejected by both state and federal courts.

The news is a relief for the housing provider, not least because it began construction on the project last January (tearing down) and has just now begun building the 10-story structure, and the courts have refused to enjoin construction. While the case could be appealed - back to the same appellate court or to the U.S. Supreme Court - "further appeals are unlikely to be successful" says Raighne Delaney, an attorney Shareholder with Bean, Kinney & Korman, a law firm representing the non-profit. With plaintiffs having exhausted all automatic appeals, further appeals would be heard only at the discretion of the court.

"The county got a great bargain here," said Delaney. The nature of the bargain was a $13.1m loan the county gave to the developer, for which it got 70 subsidized apartments, with the feds kicking in a $14.5m loan and $20m grant for the project thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. "Constitutionally, the only thing that mattered here was what the church got out of it. Even if it was a bad deal, the government is allowed to make bad deals," said Delaney, who stressed that the transaction is unbeatable for the county. Delaney said the real test is not whether the state is doing business with the church, but whether there is any "excessive entanglement" with the church. "The answer to that really is no. The state is not disallowed from doing business with the church, prohibiting regular business with the church would be a sort of anti-religious bigotry, and that's not allowed either."

Arlington Virginia real estate development news

Clarendon: Urban Planners Taken with New View of Urban Churches

Late last year, the Views at Clarendon emerged unscathed from a cloud of lawsuits and officially kicked off construction. Now one of the region's more intriguing mixed-use projects is on schedule, and attracting national attention as a model for unique partnerships. The Views at Clarendon Corporation's mixed-use, mixed-income building will hold 70 affordable apartments and 46 market rate apartments, not so outstanding by itself, but that it was done through the auspices of the church is turning the heads of urban planners around the country.

As the First Baptist Church of Clarendon faced a budget shortfall a decade ago, it could have reacted in the typical fashion, selling out to a developer and moving to a cheaper, less urbanized community. That would have shut down the church's daycare center and local mission. Instead, the church chose to protect its historic building, stay local, keep the daycare center and double down on its mission by setting up a non-profit corporation to run an affordable housing project. First Baptist - now the Church at Clarendon - sold its air rights to the non-profit, of which it held 3 of 7 board seats, allowing the non-profit to cater to low-income and disabled residents, consistent with the church mission. Other urban churches have retained a portion of the new structure after selling its land, but the model of expanding its influence is a new one. Architect Michael Foster, a principal of Arlington's MTFA Architecture, thinks of this as a paradigm shift. "This has really been watched closely, and nationally, for mixing an existing church at the base of the building in this way. Most mixed-use is office-retail-residential. One that's dominated by public housing is not totally unprecedented, but as a land-use model, it helps us all think a little differently about preserving the role of churches and communities."

Not all the attention has been positive. Local groups tried to stop the in-fill project, then protested that Arlington's subsidies for the new non-profit Views at Clarendon constituted an Establishment Clause violation, and the organization found themselves twice in the chambers of the Virginia Supreme Court and several times the subject of Washington Post news fodder. Vindicated by the courts, the non-profit has now nearly finished excavating the site and underpinning the church, and expects to start building up by next month. The church "sandwich" will give them two floors as a condominium and a 3-floor building on the side, the non-profit will own the apartments above and the parking garage below.

Of the 70 affordable apartments, the majority will be priced at 60% AMI, six of the apartments will be 100% accessible (visitable and adaptable), 12 units will have "support of services" provided to those with disabilities, and six of them will be offered to families under 50% AMI. The church will continue to operate the 180-child daycare center, Arlington's largest, as well as expanding its urban ministry, all within a block of Metro. Foster, the project architect, thinks this will help churches remain active in the social fabric, and that the importance of this should not be underestimated. "This represents a dramatic change in how the church engages the community," and that planning organizations are taking note. "We've been getting many calls about this" says Foster, whose firm is also working on a similar type of project in Bethesda, with the church as developer rather than outgoing owner. The non-profit Views has hired Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) as a consultant to help them achieve their affordable housing vision.

The old steeple will remain the tallest structure, with the new building rising just below the steeple height by design. Foster says the building is meant to adapt a mid-rise to colonial architectural style. "The base of the building is designed to fit in with the colonial heritage with the church steeple and remaining school. Its not really meant to be pure colonial, and not meant to be neoclassical, but it does represent what remains on site and the compatibility with the adjacent neighborhood."

Arlington, VA Real Estate Development News

Clarendon Center Retail and Office Space Going Fast

By now, everyone inside the D.C. real estate blogosphere knows Trader Joe's is tantalizingly close to being named the major retail anchor at Saul Centers' Clarendon Center development. While it's not official, TJ's is expected to occupy the Center's 10,000 s.f. space as long as the County Board accommodates the grocery giant's request for 76 reserved customer parking spaces in the currently unrestricted, public garage. Developer Saul Centers filed the site plan amendment application on Friday of last week, and if all goes smoothly a hearing would likely happen on November 13th for the new Clarendon Center, with apartments now being readied for December 1st occupancy. County Officials wouldn't commit to granting approval to the exact amount of spaces being requested, but were confident, given the desirability of a tenant like Trader Joe's, that all involved parties will be able to work out an agreement. One doesn't have to gaze too far down the Wilson-Clarendon corridor from the potential TJ spot to recognize the traffic that popular grocery chains generate: horn-blowing SUV's queued around the block in hopes of a spot in the nearby Whole Foods parking lot is a regular rush hour sight.

The mixed-use development consists of three buildings and takes up two whole blocks: two office buildings, and one residential. As local blogs like Arlington Now continue to roll out the news about new tenants, developers have confirmed that the buildings are sealed off, contractors are finishing up interior detailing, and everything will be ready for occupancy before the end of the year. The residential building, situated on the South Block, consists of 12 stories of totaling 244 rental units. The two office buildings will total some 170,000 s.f. divided between the six-story building on the North Block and the nine-story building to the south. Tea Party activists will soon be fed and bred to political perfection on one of the floors, as the Leadership Center ("Training Conservative Leaders") has reserved space in the new complex. The local investment firm Winston Partners has also reserved one of the eight floors in the southern building, leaving six stories available. And Airline Reporting Corporation has leased four of the six available floors in Clarendon Center North.

The 42,000 s.f. of retail space is also drying up. Counting Trader Joe's, half of the 16 spots are spoken for. Several restaurants including the BGR Burger Joint, Dupont's Circa Cafe, Pete's New Haven Apizza, Tangy Sweet Garden/Red Velvet Cupcakery, and Burapa Thai & Sushi Restaurant will join a local bank and a dry cleaners. It won't be long before more restaurants will sign up, as the crowded patios along Clarendon Blvd. attest to that fact that even on weekdays there is no shortage of hungry, moneyed young people in Arlington.

Torti Gallas designed the buildings, while Clark Construction has brought their plans to life.

Arlington, VA Real Estate Development News

Pete's Apizza Dishes Out Two New Locations

The owners of Pete's Apizza (pronounced \ah-bēts\) in Columbia Heights are taking that old real estate adage: "location, location, location" literally these days. Just two years after opening their popular, New Haven-style pizza joint in Columbia Heights (1400 Irving Street, NW), the owners have turned their attention to opening two additional stores in Metro-adjacent hot spots throughout the beltway.

First stop: A converted antique/interiors store at 4940 Wisconsin Avenue, NW in the Tenleytown-Friendship Heights neighborhood, opens for business tomorrow (June 16th).

"We're right between two metro stops and [the location] has the buzz factor we were looking for," says Michael Wilkinson, a co-partner in the family and friend-run endeavor. The team toyed with the idea of locations ranging from Navy Yard to Dupont Circle but ultimately decided on the 3,400 s.f., 84-seater in Tenleytown because of its "high concentration of families," fair amounts of foot traffic, and limited (read: crappy) pizza options.

Northern Virginia gets its own slice of the strangely-pronounced, pizza craze by 2011: a Pete's Apizza is slated for the construction-laden, corner of North Clarendon Boulevard and North Garfield Street.
"What we love about this location is that we could have gone to Rosslyn or Ballston, but being situated in Clarendon gets us right into the grouping of five metro stations, within transit-oriented development" says Wilkinson.

Talks with retail brokers went faster than expected and now Pete's Apizza's Clarendon location is happening "a year sooner than we thought it would," says Wilkinson. With building permits already submitted and a construction timeline that spans three months or less, a 4,000 s.f. pizza space could be up and running as early as the end of this year.

Washington DC Real Estate and Development News

Clearer Views at Clarendon

The Views at Clarendon Corporation (VCC) is one step closer to realizing its vision for a 10-story affordable housing project in the center of Clarendon now that a U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the Views at Clarendon on all counts. With a victory in hand, developers hope to start construction within months on 46 market-rate and 70 affordable apartments one block from the Clarendon Metro station.

Planning for the development began back in 2003, when the First Baptist Church of Clarendon conducted an assessment that soon lead to the vision for the subsidized apartment community, but has been mired in lawsuits almost since its inception. Several groups of parties have contested the development as a violation of the Establishment Clause in the U.S. and Virginia constitutions, and have fought the use of county tax dollars on a project that would buy land from the church - a struggle that has twice landed in the lap of the Virginia Supreme Court and was covered extensively recently by the Washington Post. While this week's ruling is expected to be appealed, the decision is a welcome ruling for the project's promoters.

The Bozzuto Construction Company began site preparation work in January, and developers expect the project will begin construction in earnest this summer. The legal decision comes 7 years and 5 lawsuits after the Church hired the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) to consult on the need for affordable housing in the region, a study that culminated in the Church selling the land to a non-profit entity for $5.6m, with a set of plans for a 10-story building. The Church intends to use its funds, party derived from the sale, to purchase back two floors within the new development.

Nina Janopaul, President of APAH, says the ruling is consistent with fairness of the transaction. "There are many, many precedents for church and affordable housing projects, including the Macedonia project here in Arlington. We did the same thing there; in a slightly different set of circumstances...the church in this case gets compensation for the sale of its property, as is appropriate." Janopaul says the transaction was arms-length and did not disproportionately benefit the Church. "The sale price was well below the $14m appraisal for the property. That's pretty reasonable for a full acre of land in the heart of Clarendon...Clarendon literally has no affordable element in any of the new housing that has gone up."

Arlington developers face of choice of providing affordable housing or contributing to a fund for that purpose, some of which was used to provide a low-interest loan to the non-profit owner of the project. Janopaul says that while repayment of the loan to the county is always a struggle for a low-income housing provider, the market rate element of the Views will expedite that process. "Mixed-income properties are a little more robust in paying back those loans."

The residence is being designed by Arlington- based MTFA Architecture, Inc., which plans to achieve LEED Silver status for the project. Views at Clarendon will be operated by Bozzuto Management.

Arlington Virginia real estate development news

Clarendon Center Approved and On Schedule

Clarendon Center looks likely to accomplish a feat many other construction projects cannot these days - delivering both planned elements of a project at the same time, on time. Impressive too because the project required complicated excavation, demolition and construction work close to the subway tunnel that runs under Clarendon Blvd. Developer Saul Centers Inc. (SCI) expects both buildings, which offer a mixture of office, retail and residential, to be finished and ready for tenants come the 3rd quarter of 2010.

Construction began in summer of 2008 on the south buildings of the large mixed-use project that sit directly across from the Clarendon Metro. The south buildings topped out in late October and the six-story north office building just received an above grade building permit in late November, for 171,000 s.f. of office space and 42,000 s.f. of retail space. Chris Sowick of Cassidy & Pinkard claims "significant interest" in the project, adding that the buildings do not necessarily require a large anchor tenant; the smaller floor plates of the 6-story north building mean a tenant could rent a space "as small as 7,800 s.f." The south buildings offer 9 stories of office and retail space and 12 stories of residential space, which includes 244 rental units. Nothing is leased on the south building either, though Mary Beth Avedesian, the Vice President of Acquisitions & Development at SCI, said there has been a lot of interest in the project given the proximity to the metro, especially from restaurants. Avedesian indicated the group is in "various stages of negotiation," but nothing finalized. Avedesian offered that rents seem to "still be holding up" at the expected level around $50 to $70 per s.f. for retail space. Construction for the project is by Clark Construction. The buildings were designed by Torti Gallas. 

Clarendon real estate development news

The Dirt On...Clarendon

Even if you haven’t heard it, the Arlington Rap bears no need for repeating. Its kitschy, incessant observational diatribe aside, the piece bathes in obviously stereotypical traits of those neighborhoods in North Arlington with lyrics that could describe any other well-to-do residential area in America today. It should then make sense that the author of the “song” is a product of the environment he chastises, and, hey, maybe that’s the crux of the material. I can empathize. As a resident of Clarendon, I find myself nitpicking the commercial and residential aspects of the neighborhood; for every Cheesecake Factory customer, there’s another with a trusty Whitlow’s mug for Thursday nights. For every Apple Store employee, there’s an indie kid covering Death Cab for Cutie at Iota. For every multimillion condo building, there’s a hollowed out 1930s house converted into several one-bedrooms. You get it. Classifying Clarendon as just another white-bread pocket of Arlington is a slippery slope, and it’s easy as a resident of the area to be slightly offended by any labeling that would be a detriment to the various elements that comprise the charming, pseudo-urban streets which knit together one of the best offerings of the DC Metro Area.

The balance between cultures within Clarendon isn’t the result of any absolute dichotomy. With George Mason’s law school just a half mile from Clarendon Station, and K Street just four Metro stops away, the nightlife atmosphere blends professional and academic to great success. Commuters litter the residential pockets that line the commercial ‘downtown’ of Clarendon, with condo buildings and apartment complexes providing a sort of transitional skin into a more settled environment. Small businesses cohabitate easily with a subliminal corporate presence, which appears to be tamed by the fact that Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, the Apple Store, etc. are all located at close quarters in Clarendon Plaza. This makes the Plaza a sort of financial nucleus, drawing residents from DC and further south in Arlington to the area. (And of course Whole Foods, the organic grocery Mecca is a Prius magnet, and 9 out of 10 that make the drive have District plates.) It’s also a clever sleight of hand that sort of tricks people into noticing the rest of the neighborhood, whether they came for it or not.

And there’s the charm. Clarendon’s small businesses aren’t so much allowed to exist as they are encouraged to thrive. The farmers market right off the metro on Wednesday afternoons is always well attended, and independent restaurants are clustered and crowded with customers. Nightlife booms toward the West, with the Clarendon Ballroom, Mr. Days, and Clarendon Grill all hosting happy hours conscious of their customers. Some bars try to go higher end, and succeed in pleasing the folks that bother to show up and deal with the pretty shoulda-woulda crowd that couldn’t bother with a short cab or metro ride into DC. (I’m looking at you, Eleventh.) Dinner outside in the spring and summer is unavoidable, it seems, as sidewalks are full of people enjoying Faccia Luna, 3, Harry’s Taproom, or Rien Tong.

Commerce aside, living in Clarendon is as easy as it is enticing. On the high end, established streets like Franklin Road and Key Boulevard present some of Arlington’s finer fare, with single family homes ranging anywhere from $700,000 to just over $1 million. Given that everything in the area seems to be on top of everything else, location is less a determining factor in price than, say, age or square footage. Garfield Street stretches back into an expansive neighborhood shaded by oak and pine, with sleight hills traced in well-kept sidewalks. Emerge from Garfield onto Wilson and find yourself in the shadow of commercial construction (to be completed in 2010) and shouldered by bars and restaurants. Further down, on the other side of Clarendon Boulevard, apartments are stacked over popular nightlife to the tune of $1900 a month to $4000, depending on, again, size and age. The neighborhoods down 10th Street across Lombard, toward Courthouse and Rosslyn, are a mixed bag of old Virginia ranchers, brick colonials, townhomes and apartment buildings with slightly more reasonable prices, whether you’re buying or renting.

Ten minutes from DC by Metro, maybe even ten with a car (we know how that goes), Clarendon enjoys island-like qualities, even though it’s one of the most connected neighborhoods to the District. In the end, it’s the odd mix of the urbane yet surrounding modest suburbia that draws its residents in and urges them to stay. Or at least it was for me.
Editor's note:
And for those of you who somehow never saw it, the Arlington Rap...

James Mitchell is a resident of Clarendon and a brave soul for contributing to our series of neighborhood features.

Arlington and Clarendon Real Estate News

Looking Forward at Views at Clarendon

The Bozzuto Construction Company will break ground this weekend on the Views at Clarendon, a mixed-use, mixed-income development just steps from the Clarendon Metro station. The Views at Clarendon Corporation (VCC), a joint venture between the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) and the First Baptist Church of Clarendon, have planned eight stories of apartment homes atop two stories of existing occupants, The Church at Clarendon and the County’s largest child daycare center. Though not without epic drama, the project is moving forward with an expected completion in 2011.

The Class A apartment community will consist of 46 market-rate apartment homes and 70 affordable apartment homes, of which 12 will be supportive housing for very low income households. The residences will be a mix of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. The current MTFA Architecture, Inc. design is planned achieve LEED Silver status.

The project was first approved in October 2004, and was then tied up in a zoning dispute that stretched all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court. After two years, a $200,000 lawsuit, and a “technical adjustment” to the applicable zoning ordinance, the county provided salvation to the church by giving approval in February 2007.

Views at Clarendon is being co-developed by Bozzuto Development Company and Chesapeake Community Advisors. Bozzuto Construction Company is the general contractor and Bozzuto Management Company will professionally manage the community. The Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing has served as consultant to the project since its inception.