Dumpster Fire Broke Out at Tysons Building — Firefighters responded reports of smoke from a dumpster fire in a Tysons building in the 1500 block of Boyd Pointe Way Sunday (Sept. 22) afternoon. The fire sprinklers were activated and the fire was extinguished. No injuries were reported. [Fairfax County Fire and Rescue]
McLean Community Garage Sale Recap — “More than 100 people stood in line to enter the Fall Community Garage Sale hosted by the McLean Community Center, where more than 50 vendors had set up shop on Saturday morning.” [Connection Newspapers]
Falls Church Group Home Wins Award — “The City of Falls Church will be presented the “Community Health” Innovation award by the Virginia Municipal League (VML) in recognition of the Miller House, a group home for adults with disabilities. The award will be presented to the City at the annual VML conference in October.” [City of Falls Chuch press release]
Tysons Tech Center Renovated — “Element Critical, a leading provider of data center and IT infrastructure services driven by customer-centric solutions and backed by engineering expertise, today announced completion of a major renovation and transformation of its 280,000 square foot Tysons Technology Center on its 14.5 acre campus near Tysons.” [Yahoo]
McLean Makes Best Places to Live List — Dranesville landed on the #14 spot on Money’s “Best Places to Live in 2019” list. [Money]
Tysons Office Sells for Millions — “Brandywine Realty Trust has sold 1900 Gallows Rd., here for $35 million. The buyer of the 210,000-square foot building is Foulger-Pratt.” [GlobeSt.com]
Tysons-Based Tegna Acquires 11 TV Stations — “Tysons-based Tegna Inc. has completed its $740 million cash acquisition of 11 television stations from Texas-based Nexstar Media Group… The 11 stations were among 19 divested by Nexstar for a total of $1.32 billion to meet federal antitrust requirements as it acquires Chicago-based Tribune Media for $7.2 billion.” [Virginia Business]
Mental Health Awareness Walk in Tysons — “More than 400 supporters came out to Tyson’s Corner on Saturday to raise funds for programs that help people cope with depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.” [Local DVM]
Glass Still in Falls Church Recycling Bins — “With some surrounding jurisdictions ditching the one-size-fits-all mentality when it comes to recycling, the City of Falls Church is continuing to accept all kinds of items — including glass — at the curb while joining local governments in informing residents to remove other disposables from recycle bins altogether.” [Falls Church News-Press]
Falls Church Has Nearly $3 Million Surplus — “The City of Falls Church scored a whopping $2.4 million surplus over budget for the Fiscal Year 2019, which ended June 30, the City’s Director of Finance Kiran Bawa reported to the F.C. City Council at its work session Monday night.” [Falls Church News-Press]
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.
Today is National Pepperoni Pizza Day and to celebrate, Tysons Reporter has rounded up eateries and pizza chains in the area serving up pepperoni pies.
New York-style pizza fans are in luck — many of the pizzerias in the area offer that type.
Here’s a list of local pizza places and mostly regional chains that serve up pepperoni pizza options:
- Crust Pizzeria Napoletana (8415 Old Courthouse Road): The locally-owned restaurant serves up Neapolitan pizzas, including a pepperoni one with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and fontina.
- Andy’s Pizza (2001 International Drive): Located in Tysons Galleria, Andy’s Pizza offers pepperoni pizza by the slice and whole pizza.
- Lost Dog Cafe (1690A Anderson Road): Known for its specialty sandwiches and dog-themed murals, the local cafe offers three gourmet pizzas with pepperoni — and diners also have their option to create their own.
- Paisano’s (8603 Westwood Center Drive): Diners have their choice between “Paisano’s Supreme” with pepperoni, sausage, ham, meatballs, onions, mushrooms and green peppers and “Meat Lovers ” with pepperoni, sausage, meatballs, ham and cheese. Paisano’s also offers a create-your-own option.
Some national chains in the area include:
- California Pizza Kitchen (7939 Tysons Corner Center, Suite L): The chain offers a variety of pizzas with pepperoni, like “The Works” with spicy Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, mozzarella, red onions, green peppers, olives and wild Greek oregano or the “Mushroom Pepperoni Sausage” topped with everything in its name. Diners can choose from thin cust, regular crust and gluten-free options.
- Sbarro (1961 Chain Bridge Road): Based on the “original New York slice,” Sbarro serves up a pepperoni pie and stromboli.
- Famous Famiglia (1961 Chain Bridge Road): Don’t want a whole pizza? The Famous Famiglia chain offers pepperoni pizza by the slice, in addition to whole pizzas and pepperoni strombolis.
- Papa John’s (8501 Tyco Road, Suite 1A): Diners have until midnight to decide if they want a pepperoni or meatball pepperoni pizza from the chain at its Tysons location.
- Manhattan Pizza (8365 Leesburg Pike): Located along Leesburg Pike, the pizza place sells the “Brooklyn Meat Pie” with tomato sauce, pepperoni, Italian sausage, ham and meatballs and the “Manhattan Supreme” with tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, Italian sausage, onions, green peppers and mushrooms.
- &pizza (1961 Chain Bridge Road): &pizza offers gluten-free and vegan dough options. While people can create their own pizzas, one of the popular pizzas there is the “American Honey” with spicy tomato, mozzarella, pepperoni, arugula, goat cheese, hot honey and red pepper flakes, according to the website.
- MOD Pizza (8350 Leesburg Pike): The newly opened eatery in Pike 7 Plaza offers artisan pizzas. The “Mad Dog” has mozzarella, pepperoni, mild sausage, ground beef and red sauce, while the “Tristan” has mozzarella, asiago, roasted red peppers, mushrooms and pesto.
Photo via Lost Dog Cafe/Facebook
The Vienna Police Department wants people to beware fraudulent calls from people pretending to be Vienna police officers.
A man reported one such scam call last Friday, Sept. 13, around 1 p.m.
“A man who resides in Fairfax County came to the Vienna Police Station advising he was on the phone with someone claiming to be a Vienna police officer and they were attempting to defraud him of money,” according to a police report.
When a police officer tried to speak to the caller, but “the caller hung up when the officer identified himself,” police said. The phone number that the call came from was the Vienna Police Department’s non-emergency number.
Police told the man that the call was a scam and advised him to report it to the Fairfax County Police Department for the attempted fraud, according to the report.
“Spoofing telephone numbers is a common scam that is used in an attempt to defraud citizens out of money. Our department does not make calls in an attempt to collect money,” the police department said.
If anyone lost jewelry at Caboose Tavern (124 Church Street NE), Vienna police may know of its whereabouts.
“A member of the Vienna Optimists Club advised a citizen found a piece of jewelry and turned it over to them at the Caboose” on Saturday, Sept. 14, according to police.
Photo via Facebook
A community space for textile and fabric arts is now open in the City of Falls Church.
TINT opened last weekend at 417 W. Broad Street, Suite 100, according to a Facebook post.
“TINT is a space for modern makers quilt, sew, knit, spin, crochet, and more,” the website says. People can also find fabric, yarn and other materials for sale.
TINT plans to offer workshops and classes, and starting next week, people can take part in a lunchtime series of workshops about self-care. Art therapist Jennifer Baldwin is scheduled to stitch a fabric mandala on Wednesday, Sept. 25, from noon-1 p.m.
The space is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturdays, noon-4 p.m. on Sundays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. on Wednesdays and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Fridays, along with appointment-only times, according to the website. TINT is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Photo via TINT/Facebook
Locals may spot a new sculpture outside Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library in the near future.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is slated to approve a public art donation from Promila and Krishan Chhabra at the meeting next Tuesday (Sept. 25).
The Chhabras want to mount a bronze, life-size sculpture by artist Dennis Smith of a girl reading a book outside the library’s front window.
The piece is meant to help beautify the library, according to county staff.
More from county staff:
After she retired from the Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) system in 2017, Ms. Promila Chhabra and her husband, Krishan, looked for a way to express her gratitude to the county for her fulfilling career as a library aide at the library. The couple became inspired by the idea of donating a monument for installation on the library grounds…
The donors envision mounting the bronze on a 3-foot cinderblock pedestal with brick siding and a polished black stone pedestal top, with a small plaque on one side of the pedestal that states the dedication is made “in honor of Promila Chhabra’s years of service” to the library.
If the county board OKs the donation, the Chhabras would then select the contractor and pay for the construction costs.
Photos via Fairfax County
About 40 protesters joined a climate strike this morning in the City of Falls Church as part of a nationwide climate change strike ahead of the UN Climate Change panel.
Protesters gathered outside of Brown’s Hardware (100 W. Broad Street) around 8 a.m. today (Sept. 20) with signs demanding “Climate Action Now” and dogs.
“It’s very important to act locally to do good global things,” Councilmember Phil Duncan said. “It may seem small to start locally, but locally is where [the action’s] at.”
Shaun Dakin, the organizer of the local strike, told Tysons Reporter that he posted information about the strike earlier this week on the global climate strike’s website and on Facebook with the hopes that two or three people would show up.
“I’m totally surprised,” Dakin said about the turnout. “It shows the power of social media.”
Dakin, a Falls Church resident who is the social media director for Moms Clean Air Force, said that the strike is a way to show people that they get involved with activism locally.
“You don’t need to go to a big march with millions of people,” Dakin said,
The nationwide strikes were inspired by Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old who Dakin said has sparked climate change activism among young adults and kids.
Dakin said that he wants people who care about climate change to head to the polls in the upcoming election and vote for politicians who will take action on climate change.
Babs Williams, a protester who brought her 14-year-old dog Katie in a stroller, said that she heard about the event from a friend.
“I feel like if you love your children and grandchildren, you should try to turn this toxic climate change mess around,” she said, adding that people need to vote for politicians who will protect the environment.
“Mine is not too radical a message,” Williams said. “It’s just common sense.”
A woman-owned consulting firm recently announced that it packed up its boxes and moved its headquarters from Arlington to Tysons.
Founded in 2004, eGlobalTech provides management consulting and IT solutions. The company was previously located at 3865 Wilson Blvd, Suite 700.
“We outgrew our previous headquarters in Arlington and chose a location closer to our key customers. The layout of the new space was designed with our employees in mind to foster collaboration and innovation,” Joe Zimmerman, the company’s chief operating officer, said in a press release.
Now, the company is located at 1900 Gallows Road in the Old Courthouse neighborhood in Tysons.
The new headquarters includes a dedicated space for a technology lab, which “serves as an incubation engine to solve client-related technical challenges by building repeatable, leading-edge solutions and capabilities,” the press release said.
We’ve moved to a new headquarters in Tysons Corner! Our new HQ allows for more collaboration and innovation as we continue to grow as a company. Learn more about our new HQ here.https://t.co/TQ8xaDKtmO pic.twitter.com/LyFrFxYbq6
— EGlobalTech, a Tetra Tech Company (@EGlobalTech_EGT) September 17, 2019
Image via Google Maps
Tysons may soon get a new athletic field in connection to The Mile development.
The developers behind the previously approved The Mile project now want to create a youth-sized athletic facility in the Old Courthouse neighborhood of Tysons to fulfill one of the development’s proffers.
The developers want to create the field on a site along Boone Blvd that currently has an 8-story-tall office building and surface parking lot. The site was previously approved for an extended stay hotel that was never constructed.
The developers propose to convert the parking lot into a field measuring 180 feet by 330 feet. The field would be surrounded by a black chain link fence between 10-24 feet high to prevent balls from escaping and include portable toilets, bleachers and bike racks.
The parking lot would get reconfigured to serve both the athletic field and office building, which houses Cel-Sci Corporation and Liberty Tax Service. While the developers would own the field, Fairfax County Park Authority would operate and maintain the park.
“So we’re able to take advantage of that which I think is a creative way to find land in Tysons Corner that is much needed for athletic fields,” Elizabeth Baker, a senior land use planner for Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley & Walsh, told the Fairfax County Planning Commission last night (Wednesday).
Baker said that while the athletic field is “youth-sized” because it is smaller than a full-size athletic field, she expects adults will use it as well.
“I think it’s a field that is going to be well used,” Baker said. “Obviously it’s an older building. It was built 40 years ago so it a site that’s been around for awhile, but is a large parking lot with excess parking in it.”
At-Large Commissioner Mary Cortina asked if restroom buildings could replace the portable toilets at the site.
“The Park Authority model of providing those porta-potties I think is really a holdover — even though we continue to do it — from another era when we were more suburban and there were no services in some of those park areas,” Cortina said. “This is right in the heart of Tysons.”
Baker said that having portable toilets at the site is no different than Ken Lawrence Park or Quantum Field in Tysons, “so it is meeting the standards for the Park Authority and that’s what we’ve provided here.”
Still, Cortina made a plea to the Park Authority to do away with portable toilets in the future.
“As we’re doing urban design we can’t forget the toileting needs,” Cortina said. “To continue to have these porta-potties throughout this urban development, it just seems to be incongruous with the rest of the streetscaping et cetera.”
A representative from the Park Authority said that restroom buildings are considered for fields and parks connected to larger developments and that portable toilets are appropriate for standalone parks.
Baker reassured Cortina that the portable toilets are in a corner of the site so that they won’t be visible to people walking or driving along Boone Blvd.
The Planning Commission voted to approve the proposal, which now heads to the Board of Supervisors.
“This new synthetic turf field will be a welcome addition to the Park Authority’s inventory of playing fields in Tysons,” Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner, the commissioner for the Providence District, said.
First image via Google Maps, images 2-3 via Fairfax County
Tysons is poised to have a revamped brand early next year with a more “sophisticated” approach than water tank decals and streetlight banners.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is considering investing up to $1 million in the Tysons Partnership, which plans to rebrand the area while establishing a “sustainable business and funding model” for the nonprofit association.
The funding could get allocated toward placemaking events, branding efforts, sponsorship and media outreach Joe LaHait, the debt manager for the Department of Management and Budget, said during a Budget Committee meeting Tuesday (Sept. 17).
Any funds granted by the Board of Supervisors would also be matched, LaHait said.
Tysons Partnership is aiming for the rebranding study to be completed by the end of the year or early 2020 and has already brought on a global design firm at a cost up to $250,000 to help develop the place-branding strategy for Tysons, LaHait said.
Several of the board members said that the funding could benefit the county by revitalizing Tysons.
Providence District Supervisor Linda Smyth said she’s hopeful that Tysons Partnership will learn from past mistakes for the new rebranding effort.
“I remember the first rebranding exercise in Tysons where we had the banners on the streetlight that faded and fell apart and we had all of those negotiations with Dominion that were very painful,” she said at the meeting.
Smyth said she wants some of the money to go toward looking at the partnership’s business and financial model, along with regular reports on the rebranding progress and how the money is getting spent.
“I would like to see some latitude in this so that it could be used for that exploration of different financial and business models along the way because that’s actually part of this,” Smyth said. “You can’t just brand. You have to have a body that’s going to maintain it.”
Sol Glasner, the president of Tysons Partnership, agreed with Smyth’s assessment that the partnership needs a new business model, calling the current members dues-based model “not sustainable.”
“It’s gotten us to this point but it will not carry us for the years to come,” Glasner said. “So we are exploring a variety of options and our plan is to transition to a different business and financial model by the middle of 2021.”
Glasner said that Tysons Partnership is working with Gensler.
“This is a one-to-one match from our own membership and the idea is to jumpstart the implementation of a far more sophisticated branding campaign than banners and shrink wrap,” he said. “That was something done in the early stages of the partnership.”
Jeff McKay, the representative for the Lee District, said that the rebranding effort in Tysons can serve as a role model for other areas in the county.
“Not only is this good for Tysons, which is good for the county, but it’s also good for us as other groups pursue similar structures to learn from what you have evaluated, what you’re already doing because there are other parts of the county that are ripe for a partnership-type entity,” McKay said.
The county staff recommends that the Board of Supervisors OK the funds.
“We view this as an opportunity to get them off the ground and provide them with the seed money,” LaHait said.
“It’s a million, which looks like a lot on this chart, but in the context of what our return on our investment is, it’s a very small investment in the future of Tysons,” McKay said.
LEON, a U.K.-based eatery, plans to open in the Mosaic District this winter.
This will be LEON’s first Virginia location at 2905 District Avenue, Suite 160, according to a press release. The expansion into the Mosaic District is part of the company’s plan to open 15 new restaurants by the end of 2020.
“LEON chose EDENS Mosaic District for its vibrant, sophisticated environment that connects families and friends together through a curated mix of unique retail, restaurant and entertainment experiences,” Glenn Edwards, the U.S. president of the brand, said in a press release. “It allows LEON to bring our mission to a family-focused clientele.”
Founded in 2004, LEON brands itself as “naturally fast food” with menu options for a variety of dietary needs, including vegetarians, vegans and pescatarians.
The online menu features breakfast items like an English Breakfast Box and a salmon and egg muffin and all-day dishes including gluten-free chicken nuggets and a vegan sweet potato falafel hot box.
The restaurant chain currently has three locations in D.C. and more than 60 locations in the U.K., Norway, the Netherlands, Spain and Ireland.
Photo courtesy LEON
