Construction ‘practically’ finished on Vienna Market development

After a noisy couple of years, construction is wrapping up on the Vienna Market development that now looms over Maple Avenue.

Replacing the former Marco Polo restaurant at 245 Maple Avenue West, the complex consists of 44 condominium townhomes and 8,200 square feet of ground-floor retail space. It broke ground in mid-2019 after a lengthy planning and design process.

“The construction is practically completed and we have received our occupancy permits for all of the homes and closed most of them,” Stephen Collins, senior vice president of Northfield Construction and Development, told FFXnow.

According to NV Homes, which partnered with Northfield on the project, all residences have been sold out. The 38 townhouses at the back of the site were finished first and have seen occupants move in over the past 18 months.

Northfield built the six remaining townhomes fronting Maple Avenue and the retail podium underneath them. Collins says those residents closed within the past week and have or are in the process of moving in.

The retail portion of the project will be transferred to a new owner who’s expected to take over “soon” and has been working on the leasing, according to Northfield.

First, though, Vienna Market will return to the Vienna Board of Architectural Review tonight (Thursday) to address some design tweaks made during construction.

“It is not unusual to do this with such a complex project and the nature of detail in the original approvals,” Collins said.

According to a town staff report, the requested alterations primarily relate to the building façades and the “corner park,” a small landscaped area on the corner of Maple and Pleasant Street NW.

A change in size and location of the building’s transformer required adjustments to the park’s sidewalks and planting locations, including the elimination of planter boxes at the end of each leg.

“Without the vault that had previously serviced the site, a second transformer was required as well as additional primary lines. To run adequate power to the site, and maintain a safe distance from the townhome units, this design and location was required,” the report said, noting that the changes were requested by Dominion Power.

Northfield is also seeking approval for metal canopies added over the storefronts on Maple and Pleasant as well as the removal of columns shown in previously approved renderings on a retaining wall facing the adjacent Bank of America.

According to the report, the wall needed more room to place the columns than anticipated, so adding them would’ve required workers to go outside the property line.

Vienna Market was approved by the town council in May 2018 as only the second project to advance under the town’s short-lived Maple Avenue Commercial zoning code, which was intended to promote more pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use development along the main street.

“We think the final project looks tremendous and it’s been a great development partnership with the community and Town throughout the entire process,” Collins said in a statement. “We look forward to tying up all the loose ends over the next few months and hopefully we can find another project to work on with them.”

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