Whole Foods Is Hiring — The new store in Tysons is holding hiring events on Friday and Saturday. [Patch]
Tysons Development Moves Forward — “The 3 million-square-foot View at Tysons, featuring what would be Greater Washington’s tallest office building… just emerged from a long staff review with a recommendation for approval.” [Washington Business Journal]
Chefs Compete In Tysons Challenge — “An epic battle of chefs from six local restaurants competed in ‘Tysons Challenge,’ a Charity Classic event sponsored by The St. James at The Tower Club in Tysons Corner, Va. on Friday, Sept. 20.” [Inside NoVa]
Trail Links Up Tysons to Vienna — “A web of trails snake through the Vienna and Tysons area in northern Virginia, but for decades, they didn’t connect to each other… Now, after 20 years of work, residents are celebrating the final link in that network.” [Greater Greater Washington]
Lawsuit Continues Over Tyson Man’s Death — “The family of Bijan Ghaisar, who was fatally shot by two U.S. Park Police officers in November 2017, has refiled its lawsuit against the federal government after it was dismissed from the case on technical grounds earlier this year.” [Washington Post]
Debates Begin For County Chair Contenders — “Candidates for Fairfax County Board of Supervisors chairman on Sept. 23 offered starkly different visions of the county and its prospects during a forum at the Fairfax County Government Center.” [Inside NoVa]
Tysons may not have the liveliest nightlife at the moment, but that could soon change as more late-night restaurants and places to hang out open. “Tysons After Dark” will highlight a different spot every week.
Thursdays are for karaoke. Several restaurants around the Tysons area let people step up to the mic to sing popular songs.
TD Karaoke (2980 Gallows Road)
Locals can find a modern interior with karaoke and bar grill in Merrifield. Private rooms are available to book from $30-$180 per hour. TD Karaoke is open from 4 p.m.-2 .m. Monday-Thursday, 4 p.m.-4 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 1 p.m.-2 a.m. on Sundays.
Clare and Don’s Beach Shack (130 N. Washington Street)
The “beach shack” serves up Floridian food with vegan and vegetarian options in Falls Church. “Boardwalk Karaoke” takes place from 9:30 p.m.-1 a.m. on the first Saturday of each month (Oct. 5, Nov. 2 and Dec. 7) through the end of the year. Dogs are welcome.
Mark’s Pub (2190 Pimmit Drive, Suite E)
Formerly known as Art’s Tavern, the Falls Church area sports bar has karaoke every Saturday at 9:30 p.m.
Tysons Biergarten (8346 Leesburg Pike)
Every Thursday from 4:30-9 p.m., people can sing to old and new songs. There’s no cover charge. During the beer garden’s happy hour (3-9 p.m. on weekdays), people can order $5 beers.
Photo via Tysons Biergarten/Facebook
The Vienna Police Department is investigating two recent reports of stolen bicycles.
The first incident occurred between Thursday night and Friday morning (Sep.t 19-20). A Park Street SE resident reported that someone stole his bicycle from his front porch, police said.
Then on Sunday (Sept. 22) shortly before 6:30 p.m., a man parked his bicycle outside of the Exxon as 395 E. Maple Avenue while he ran in to make a purchase, police said. His bicycle was gone when he returned.
Aside from the stolen bicycles, Vienna police also responded to a report of a suspicious package that employees at Navy Federal Credit Union (820 Follin Lane SE) received in the mail on Monday (Sept. 23).
“The package was placed in a safe area, and the Fairfax County Police Bomb Squad responded to examine the package,” police said.
The bomb squad determined the package, which contained bank statements, was not a threat.
Photo via Facebook
Metro ridership might be plummeting overall, but ridership in the Tysons area is continuing to increase.
All four stations in the Tysons area saw increased ridership in the spring of 2019 as compared to the year before, continuing an upward trend this year.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission’s new stats compared ridership in April, May and June of 2019 with the same period in 2018.
Ridership at the McLean Metro station by the new Capital One headquarters has continued to spike. Out of the four, the McLean station saw the largest increase in ridership during the three-month period, rising 25% over the last year.
On the other side of Tysons, the Greensboro Metro station spiked to 18%.
Meanwhile, ridership at the Spring Hill station increased 7% and Tysons Corner station increased 5%.
“Ridership at the McLean station has now gone up dramatically for three quarters in a row: first by 18.6%, then 20.6% and now 25%,” Tysons Partnership tweeted, thanking Capital One and The MITRE Corporation.
As for Greensboro, the partnership pointed to Meridian Group’s The Boro development.
“Ridership at the Greensboro station has now gone up dramatically for two quarters in a row: first by 18.4% and now by 18%,” Tysons Partnership tweeted.
Graph via Tysons Partnership/Twitter
A luxury tower with condominiums in The Boro development is preparing to open.
The 25-story-tall tower known as Verse will feature 140 residences for sale.
Verse is slated to open later this fall, Meridian Group and KETTLER announced yesterday in a press release.
The building includes a private outdoor lounge and fitness spa. International firm Cecconi Simone designed the interiors.
People can choose between one-, two- and three-bedroom condos. One-bedrooms start at $500,000, two-bedrooms at $850,000 and three-bedrooms at $1.2 million.
Image via Verse
A Muslim woman is suing a Merrifield-based company, claiming that she was denied employment because of her faith.
Shahin Indorewala said she applied for a job at Fast Trak Inc. (2735 Hartland Road, Suite) last fall. The interview process was going well, she said in announcing the federal suit this week, but things allegedly went south when discussing prayer breaks with the company’s CEO.
The lawsuit alleges that the company denied her request to shorten her 90-minute lunch break to take two short five-minute breaks for prayers as an observant Muslim. The lawsuit also alleges that the company’s CEO mocked her religious headscarf in front of the company’s staff and refused to hire her.
“I was shocked and there were other people around me. There were other employees, there were other interviewees there, and I just felt very humiliated,” Indorewala said yesterday.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed the discrimination lawsuit Tuesday (Sept. 24) in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Indorewala and her attorneys are seeking a jury trial.
CAIR Attorney Gadeir Abbas told Tysons Reporter that Fast Trak will have about a month to respond to the lawsuit.
“It’s an extremely strong case,” Abbas said, adding that he has seen increasing levels of anti-Muslim sentiments in recent years. “The workplace reflects society.”
Fast Trak CEO Ramses Gavilondo told the Associated Press that he didn’t hire Indorewala because she “wanted to preach her religion” and that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigated and found no wrongdoing. Fast Trak has so far not responded to Tysons Reporter’s requests for comment.
Photo via CAIR/Facebook
Squash players in the Tysons area now have a new place to practice at.
Play Squash Academy held a grand opening earlier this month for its spot at 8455-L Tyco Road.
The Tysons location is the third one for the squash academy, which offers programs for junior and adult players in McLean and Potomac, Md.
The new facility has three internationally sized courts. The academy programs include clinics, private lessons and match play.
Photo via Play Squash Academy/Facebook
Locals want more eco-friendly guidelines as Fairfax County looks ahead to the next 10 to 20 years.
Roughly four dozen attendees showed up to the meeting at Marshall High School last night (Wednesday) to provide feedback on the county’s preliminary strategies.
After brief presentations by County Executive Bryan Hill and James Patterson, the manager of the countywide strategic planning process, attendees were able to choose three out of the nine areas they wanted to learn more about by talking to team members.
Attendees were given copies of the preliminary strategies — 166 in total — and asked to provide feedback to the teams.
The county is especially interested in these nine areas:
- cultural and recreational opportunities
- economic opportunity
- education and lifelong learning
- effective and efficient government
- health and environment
- housing and neighborhood livability
- mobility and transportation
- safety and security
- self-sufficiency for people with vulnerabilities
The nine areas have five shared themes: affordability, equity, sustainability, innovation and collaboration, Patterson said.
Many of the people told the various teams that they support environmentally-friendly strategies, urging the staffers to strengthen or add language that would reduce pollution and waste. “I feel like the environment is critical,” one attendee said.
Locals talking to the “Health and Environment” team pushed for replanting of older instead of younger trees and stronger recycling rules.
People also suggested mandating that businesses recycle, adding urban gardens to schools and reducing food waste. Several attendees expressed frustration about unclear recycling rules and suggested that Fairfax County use stickers and more communication to clarify its glass recycling rules.
“We’re a wealthy county,” one person said. “Give us a glass recycling bin.”
While attendees seemed to come to a consensus that they want stronger protections in place to protect the environment, not everyone agreed on the specifics. In response to a suggested plastic ban, an attendee pointed out that plastic bans can hurt low-income families.
Over at the “Mobility and Transportation” station, people pushed for more frequent bus transit, suggesting different size buses — like double-deckers and buses of various lengths — to accommodate more riders.
Brent Riddle, a transportation planner for Fairfax County, said that the staffers are exploring different ways to add more cross-county transportation, like adding buses between Annadale and the Mosaic District and creating bus-only lanes.
“Public transit is more oriented as a feeder system into D.C,” Riddle said about current transit options.
Overall, attendees said that it’s better to incentivize group travel than disadvantage single-occupancy vehicles — possibly hurting lower-income communities in the process.
Some of the strategies that attendees showed strong support for include:
- Increase the walkable access (within half-mile or 10-mile walk countywide) to parks, facilty entrances or trailheads to connect people to nature and receational experiences, prioritizing implementation in areas with disparate health outcomes and other equity measures.
- Prioritize and incentivize the use of high-occupany vs. single-occupant vehicles; this includes transit buses, vanpools and carpools.
- Shift the design of selected roadways away from a sole focus on automobile traffic to a multi-modal focus by incorporating sidewalks, bike lanes and high-occupancy vehicle and bus lanes and rail lines.
The meeting last night was the last of six recent meetings to seek community input. Currently, county staffers are working to develop and refine strategies before finalizing the draft by the end of the year, Patterson said. Early next year, the draft will get publicized and adopted by the Board of Supervisors.
The county plans to use the input to identify priority areas and success metrics for the county-wide strategic plan.
People can still submit feedback on the preliminary strategies through an online survey that is available in English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Urdu and Vietnamese.
(Updated at 9:40 a.m.) Two apartment buildings are now open in The Boro development in Tysons.
The Rise and Bolden buildings in Meridian Group’s 1.7 million-square-foot development opened last weekend, according to tweets.
“The Boro offers the perfect blend of a spacious, airy, and accessible living environment with an urban, amenity-rich retail district designed to connect people to everything around them,” Tom Boylan, the senior vice president of The Meridian Group, said in a press release.
Both apartment buildings (8305 Greensboro Drive and 1660 Silver Hill Drive) started leasing in the spring.
The 32-stories-tall Rise has more than 400 apartments, while Bolden, which sits atop the upcoming Whole Foods Market, offers 133 residences.
Both Rise and Bolden include a fitness center, yoga studio, club room with entertainment kitchens, indoor bike room and pool with a lounging area. They share an elevated outdoor sky park with a theater, bar area, fire pits and lounges.
Architectural firm Shalom Baranes Associates designed both of the buildings. Rise’s interior was designed by Perkins Eastman, while the Bolden’s was done by RD Jones + Associates.
The apartments include washers, dryers, dishwashers and walk-in closets.
The least expensive apartment listed in the online brochure is a one-bedroom, one-bathroom in Bolden starting at $2,098. The most expensive one listed is a two-bedroom, 2.5 bath apartment with a den in Rise for $5,488. Some of the rents are not listed and require inquiry.
“The opening of Rise and Bolden at The Boro marks a significant milestone in the transformation of this Tysons’ community into a walkable urban place, or ‘Walk-UP,'” Boylan said.
The new Scotts Run Fire and Rescue Station 44 in Tysons East officially broke ground today (Wednesday).
The new fire station in the Tysons East neighborhood is meant to relieve the overburdened Fire Station 29 by the Spring Hill Metro station. Fairfax County Fire and Rescue tweeted earlier today (Wednesday) that the groundbreaking was set to take place at 10 a.m.
Construction of the fire station was part of a proffer for Cityline Partners LLC’s mixed-use development called Scotts Run Station South.
Herndon-based TRINITY Group Construction is building the new station, which was designed by Samaha Associates. It will be located at 1766 Old Meadow Lane — near future adjacent athletic fields.
The two-story fire station will have three bays, offices, living quarters for up to 12 crew members per shift and restrooms that people using the Scotts Run Station South athletic field can use.
The parking lot for the fire station will have 22 spots for staff members and four public parking spaces.
Fairfax County planners want the building to achieve LEED certification, according to TRINITY.
The fire station is set to be completed by the end of next year.
Ground breaking for future home of Fire Station 44, Scotts Run happening at 10 a.m. #FCFRD #FairfaxCounty pic.twitter.com/y7qfsMckTr
— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) September 25, 2019
Images via TRINITY Group Construction
