The Mather is now as tall as it’s ever going to get.
The apartment high-rise buildings for adults 62 and older “topped off” earlier this month, less than a year after beginning vertical construction.
Workers poured a final round of concrete onto the roofs of the two towers on Jan. 10, the nonprofit senior living developer behind the project, Mather, announced that day.
The buildings now reach 308 feet or 27 stories above ground at 7929 Westpark Drive in Tysons.
“General Contractor Whiting Turner estimates the project includes more than 50,000 cubic yards of concrete and represents almost 700,000 workforce hours to date, a number made even more significant considering the pandemic,” Mather said in the media advisory.
The Mather consists of two phases. The first phase, a 27-story high-rise, will have 179 apartment units, while the second 18-story high-rise will have 114 apartments.
The apartment homes range in size from 850 to 3,300 square feet, and entrance fees start at $646,700. Prices are dependent upon apartment size, location, service package, and health plan selected. The buildings will be connected at the third through fifth floors. Third-floor amenity spaces include a fitness center, spa, indoor pool, multiple restaurants, outdoor terraces, art studio, and more. The fourth and fifth floors will be home to a Life Centre with 16 assisted living apartment homes, 20 memory care suites, and 42 private skilled nursing suites.
The complex will also have 14,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, including a publicly accessible community center devoted to people 50 and older. The center is a “unique collaboration” with Fairfax County, according to Mather.
On track for a move-in date in 2024, The Mather is among six buildings currently under construction in Tysons, according to Fairfax County’s Tysons Tracker. One building — The Brentford apartments at The Mile — was completed in December, after the tracker was last updated.
The Monarch, a condominium building that’s part of the same Arbor Row development as The Mather, is expected to finish construction this spring. The units are 70% sold, and move-ins are scheduled to start in April and May, a public relations representative for developer Renaissance Centro said.
Other projects being built in Tysons include The Boro’s expansion and the Heming apartments in Scotts Run.
All that construction will add 3.2 million square feet of development in Tysons, including a total of 1,613 housing units, nearly 900,000 square feet of office space, and over 123,000 square feet of retail.
A new set of bills before the General Assembly would allow a casino to be built somewhere along the Silver Line corridor, Washington Business Journal first reported.
The casino could be placed somewhere around Tysons, the Reston Town Center or Herndon based on the stipulations of the proposed legislation, which would allow a casino in an urban county with at least 1 million residents.
Legislatively speaking, the casino isn’t a sure bet. It’s got a long way to go before it’s a reality, as it would still need to be approved by the Board of Supervisors and a ballot referendum.
The proposal comes amid a rush of new legislation around gambling, with several types being recently legalized over recent years. New casinos are planned in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Danville and Bristol.
The legislature is also looking at some ways to offer additional support for those suffering from a gambling addiction.
Man Fatally Stabbed in McLean Had Just Retired — “Alan Miller Kaufmann was just days into retirement from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development but was eagerly embracing post-work life. He wrote in an email to his sister that he had pored through six books, called old friends and watched a lot of sports…The day after Lauren Kaufmann read her brother’s email, Fairfax County police found Alan Kaufmann, 68, dead from a stab wound at his home in McLean” [The Washington Post]
Tim Kaine Will Seek Reelection in Senate — “Sen. Tim Kaine announced Friday that he will seek a third Senate term next year, a boost for Democrats who face a tough map in 2024. The 2016 vice presidential nominee’s decision follows months of suspense and rumors of a potential retirement.” [Politico]
Jury Sides With Police in Sex Trafficking Lawsuit — “A woman from Costa Rica who sued a former Fairfax County police chief and three former officers, alleging that they conspired with a sex-trafficking ring in Northern Virginia, was unable to convince a jury to support her claims.” [The Washington Post]
Contact Sports Reportedly Banned at Mantua ES — “Mantua Elementary School in Fairfax County has temporarily banned contact sports at recess, according to a letter sent to parents Friday…Principal Linda Shannon cited increasing conflict, injury, and poor sportsmanship as reasons for the change, and said the school is working to find ways to conduct the sports safely.” [ABC7]
FCPS Superintendent Addresses Merit Commendations — “This is not a war on merit, nor was it a concerted system-wide effort to deny recognition to these students. I sincerely believe the current antiquated process of how the certificates are provided to individual schools across the nation, and the absence of an FCPS system-wide approach to timely notification, contributed to the inconsistencies in the notification process and recognition of student achievements.” [Dr. Michelle Reid/FCPS]
Amazon Web Services Plans Big Data Center Expansion — “Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), plans to invest $35 billion by 2040 to establish multiple data center campuses across Virginia…This announcement of planned investment will create at least 1,000 total new jobs across Virginia.” [Office of the Governor/ARLnow]
Tysons-Based Capital One Plans Layoffs — “McLean consumer-lending giant Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) is eliminating hundreds of technology jobs, according to multiple reports. More than 1,100 employees are impacted, according to Bloomberg, which was the first to report on the cuts.” [Washington Business Journal]
Mount Vernon Will Be Featured on PBS — “The Mount Vernon area will be featured on the next episode of WETA’s ‘If You Lived Here’ series, scheduled to air Monday, Jan. 23 at 9 p.m. The popular house-hunting and neighborhood history show…is hosted by John Begeny and Christine Louise, who spotlight various neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C. metro area while accompanied by a realtor.” [On the MoVe]
Vienna Church Seeks Volunteers for Shelter — “During the winter season, rotating faith community sites in Fairfax County typically host the hypothermia program, which provides overnight shelter and food to the homeless. Vienna Presbyterian Church is scheduled to host the hypothermia program from Jan. 29 to Feb. 12 and is seeking volunteers and donations.” [Patch]
It’s Monday — Light rain in the morning. High of 46 and low of 38. Sunrise at 7:23 am and sunset at 5:20 pm. [Weather.gov]
A Town of Vienna employee returned to work after the holiday weekend for Martin Luther King Jr. Day to find a pungent surprise in his vehicle.
“An employee reported someone entered his unlocked work truck and put dog feces on the steering wheel,” the Vienna Police Department said in its crime report for the week of Jan. 13-19.
Published today (Friday), the report says that the incident — which has been classified as vehicle tampering — occurred at Vienna Town Hall (127 Center Street South) sometime between 5 p.m. on Jan. 13 and 10 a.m. Tuesday (Jan. 17).
Other notable incidents from the report include a Cedar Lane School student in distress running into traffic:
Emotionally Disturbed Person 23-000333
Cedar Lane School
101 Cedar Lane, SE
January 12 8:46 a.m.
School administration reported a juvenile was in their office acting disorderly. When officers arrived, the juvenile fled from the office and ran out onto Cedar Lane where she continued to act disorderly, obstructing traffic and causing a hazard to herself and the officers. MPO Tremont arrested the juvenile on an Emergency Care Order and transported her to a mental health facility for evaluation and treatment.
In addition, Vienna police responded to the 200 block of Locust Street SE at 7:39 a.m. last Friday (Jan. 13) after “a resident reported he received an email in 2020 he believed might be threatening.”
Photo via Vienna Police Department/Facebook
Live Fairfax is a bi-weekly column exploring Fairfax County. This recurring column is sponsored and written by Sharmane Medaris of McEnearney Associates. Questions? Reach Sharmane at 813-504-4479.
Have you been here YET?
Are you a coffee lover? Do you search for the best local spots? I definitely do! As a regular at today’s spot, we are giving you the insider look at one of the hottest coffee cafes in Downtown Fairfax, De Clieu.
We met with the infamous Jazzii, one of the best baristas around to highlight what makes De Clieu set apart from the rest.
From the opening diverse atmosphere, to house made syrups and drinks that will make you come back again to in-house made bakery yumminess to those amazing sandwiches (can we say Breakfast all day).
Pro-Tip: it’s walking distance to Van Dyck Park, Old Town Square, and Fairfax Library so you can definitely have more fun!
Explore Fairfax with Sharmane Medaris of McEnearney.
Sharmane Medaris | Live Fairfax | www.soldbysharmane.com | [email protected] | @soldbysharmane | 813-504-4479 | 374 Maple Avenue Suite 202, Vienna, VA 22180
The preceding sponsored post was also published on FFXnow.com
A new report from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) found a “startling increase” in the number of pedestrian fatalities in Northern Virginia last year.
Along with the increase in pedestrian fatalities, DMV found a smaller increase in overall traffic-related fatalities in the region.
“In 2022, 56 pedestrians were killed as a result of crashes in the Fairfax region, compared to 37 in 2021,” the DMV report said. “This is an increase of 51%. Overall, based on preliminary numbers, there were 203 traffic-related fatalities in the region in 2022, a 3% increase compared to 2021.”
Crashes increased by 4% throughout Virginia last year.
A report compiled by the Traffic Records Electronic Data System (TREDS) put the number of total traffic fatalities in Fairfax County at 65, with 4,922 injuries.
Last year was the deadliest year for Fairfax County pedestrians in over a decade. With 32 deaths, the county was the site of over half of the pedestrian fatalities in Northern Virginia last year.
“We provide this data to give folks a look at what’s going on right now in their communities,” acting DMV Commissioner Linda Ford said in the release. “We hope drivers will be motivated to make a change and put a stop to the behaviors that we know contribute to these devastating crashes. Each of these numbers represents a real person and many are people in your community.”
“We provide this data to give folks a look at what’s going on right now in their communities. We hope drivers will be motivated to make a change and put a stop to the behaviors that we know contribute to these devastating crashes,” said Acting DMV Commissioner Linda Ford.
— Jordan Pascale
(@JWPascale) January 19, 2023
The battle over transgender student rights has taken center stage in the race for the Fairfax County School Board’s Providence District seat.
Consultant and Vienna resident Jeff Hoffmann officially launched a campaign on Tuesday (Jan. 17) to challenge incumbent Karl Frisch, who announced last week that he’ll seek a second term in office this November.
“It really is time for change on the School Board in Fairfax County,” Hoffmann wrote in a statement on his decision to run. “The current incumbency has become too comfortable, and they choose to vote a Party line agenda versus listen to us, the parents and other taxpayers who invest a high percentage in education.”
Founder of the Virginia Parents First Coalition, a political action committee (PAC) that says it backs candidates “who believe in traditionally conservative education principles,” Hoffmann drew the local LGBTQ community’s attention this weekend with a stunt phone call to the Inova Pride Clinic, where he claimed to be the stepfather of a transgender kid.
Started last June to coincide with Pride Month, the clinic is the first health facility in Northern Virginia to provide primary care specifically for LGBTQ individuals. It serves patients 12 and older.
As reported by NBC4, Hoffmann told a receptionist at the Falls Church-based clinic on Saturday (Jan. 14) that he was looking to schedule a nurse visit for his transgender stepdaughter based on advice from Fairfax County Public Schools staff and a teacher.
Asking if the clinic works with FCPS Pride, an advocacy group for LGBTQ employees and families in the school system, he said his kid would be accompanied by a teacher but not her unsupportive biological father, an apparent attempt to see if a student could get medical services without their parent’s knowledge.
Admitting that the kid he described in the call doesn’t exist, Hoffmann says he wanted to raise “awareness” that gender-affirming care is available to local adolescents, who he claimed are being referred to the Pride Clinic by FCPS Pride.
FCPS Pride said in a statement on Saturday that some of its members obtain services from the clinic, but the group has no direct affiliation.
“FCPS Pride does not have a relationship with the Inova Pride Clinic, does not operate in schools, and does not give any medical advice or make medical referrals,” the group’s executive board said.
Though he says this is “not a priority issue in my campaign,” Hoffmann has a history of opposing FCPS’s policy supporting the right of trans and gender-expansive students to be treated in accordance with their gender identity, criticizing it as a distraction from issues like addressing learning loss and other impacts of the pandemic.
Hoffmann’s campaign for school board continues a trend of candidates for local and state offices in Virginia running on anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans platforms, according to FCPS Pride co-president Robert Rigby Jr. Read More
Tim Kaine Expected to Announce Election Plans — “Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) will address his plans for the future when he appears at a news conference in Richmond on Friday, according to two people familiar with the senator’s intentions — which might mean he will reveal whether he will seek reelection in 2024.” [The Washington Post]
Man Sentenced in Springfield Shootings — “A Northern Virginia man was ordered to serve 20 years in prison — the maximum sentence — for fatally shooting two teens at a home in Springfield in 2021. Zachary Burkard, 20, was sentenced Thursday to 10 years for each voluntary manslaughter charge in the deaths of 17-year-old Ersheen Elaiaiser and 16-year-old Calvin Van Pelt. Once he gets out of prison he will have an additional three years of supervision.” [NBC4]
Future Route 1 Bus Stations Name Swapped — “Community organizations joined forces this week in a short-notice, but ultimately successful, effort to get the Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) to change the names of two future Richmond Highway Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) stations. As a result, the former ‘Hybla Valley’ station will now be known as ‘Gum Springs,’ and the former ‘Gum Springs’ station will become ‘Hybla Valley.'” [On the MoVe]
Merrifield Printing Company Announces Layoffs — “Custom Ink LLC is consolidating its production facilities amid what it says are ‘rising costs’ and a tight labor market.” The Merrifield-headquartered custom-printing firm will close sites in Charlottesville and Reno, Nevada, leaving one facility in Dallas, and lay off 338 employees. [Washington Business Journal]
Dulles Silver Line Station Doing Well — “The second phase of Metro’s Silver Line already is having an impact on travel to and from Washington Dulles International Airport. An average of 9 percent of travelers using the airport during the holiday period used the Silver Line, according to data discussed Jan. 18 by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s board of directors.” [Sun Gazette]
Reston North Task Force Prepares to Meet — “The Reston Town Center North Task Force will meet for the first time on Monday, Jan. 30, to discuss redevelopment on several parcels of land north of Reston Town Center. The meeting, which is open to the public, will take place at 7 p.m. at the North County Government Center, 1801 Cameron Glen Drive, which happens to be within the scope of the task force’s area of focus.” [Patch]
Fairfax Indian Restaurant Celebrates Anniversary — “Bollywood Bistro in Fairfax City dishes up good times with friends and family, plus delicious food in a warm and welcoming atmosphere. And customers and well-wishers flocked there recently to celebrate the restaurant’s 13th anniversary and building expansion.” [Connection Newspapers]
Seven Corners Fire Station Demolition Complete — “A new beginning. Old Station 28, Seven Corners, is no more. The site is being prepped for the foundation of the new Station 28. While construction is ongoing, crews and units are housed in a temporary structure just down the road.” [FCFRD/Twitter]
It’s Friday — Partly cloudy throughout the day. High of 54 and low of 41. Sunrise at 7:24 am and sunset at 5:17 pm. [Weather.gov]
The groundwork has been laid for a new townhouse development on Leesburg Pike in Pimmit Hills.
Vertical construction is expected to start late this spring on Tysons Ridge, a 104-unit complex replacing the circular office building at 7700 Leesburg Pike, according to developer EYA.
Built in 1976, the 150,000-square-foot office building has now been demolished. Fenced off and cleared, the 6.7-acre site is located across the street from Marshall High School and in walking distance of the Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library.
“We are currently projected to open for pre-construction sales around Spring of 2023,” Tara Rosenberg, a new home advisor for EYA, told FFXnow.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved EYA’s proposal last January after the developer agreed to install water treatment facilities and an underground detention system, among other steps, to address stormwater runoff concerns.
Per the site plan, the project will include 38,101 square feet, or 0.87 acres, of parkland, concentrated on the north side of the property. The plan shows fitness and play areas as well as an 11,210-square-foot central courtyard with a pergola and terraces called The Green.
According to the Tysons Ridge website, the townhomes will start in the $800,000s and come in four floorplans. Prices for units equipped with private elevators will start at $1.1 million, though a “more concrete” pricing list and more detailed floorplans will be available closer to opening, Rosenberg said.
Move-ins are expected to come sometime in 2024.
Tysons is making good progress on fulfilling Fairfax County’s goal of turning it into a place where people live as well as work, county staff say.
Since the Tysons Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2010, the urban center has seen its population jump from 17,000 to 30,124 residents, according to data shared last week with the Fairfax County Planning Commission’s Tysons Committee.
Over that time period, the housing stock has increased from 8,943 units to 14,253, with another 1,613 units under construction, as of July 2022.
That influx of residents narrowed the ratio of jobs-to-households from over 11-to-1 in 2010 to about 6-to-1 in 2022. Aiming for 100,000 residents and 200,000 jobs by 2050, the plan posited a ratio of 4-to-1 as an ideal mix for Tysons.
“Tysons growth continues to be in line with plan growth projections, and we think residential is tracking probably at a faster pace than we anticipated, but there is still capacity in the pipeline,” Fairfax County Department of Planning and Development Urban Centers Section Chief Suzie Battista said at the Jan. 12 committee meeting.
Based on data compiled for the Tysons Tracker, an interactive platform that launched in 2021 and is currently being updated annually, county staff project that development will fall about 9 million square feet short of the 69.9-million-square-feet goal set forth in the plan for 2024.
Battista noted that the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and completion of Metro’s Silver Line extension are still unknown, but she doesn’t “think there’s any cause for concern.”
From August 2021 through July 2022, developers finished five buildings with 1.3 million square feet of space, including Capital One Hall and the Hanover apartments. Another 3.2 million square feet is under construction, and projects totaling 1 million square feet got site plan approval.
About two-thirds of the upcoming development is residential, which has grown by over 6.6 million square feet since 2011 — exceeding the roughly 3 million square feet of added office space.
Notably, the increase in housing has included 773 affordable or workforce dwelling units to date, not including the planned, all-affordable Dominion Square West and Somos projects. Tysons had just 40 units of affordable housing prior to 2010, according to the tracker.
Battista says developers seem open to the county’s revamped ADU/WDU policy for Tysons, which reduced the percentage of affordable units required in each project but lowered the targeted area median income (AMI) levels.
“We were finding from the development community, some of the higher tiers, that wasn’t really getting at the goal of what we were trying to accomplish with affordable housing just based on the AMIs in this area,” she said.
While heartened by the housing growth in Tysons, planning commissioners warned that the county also needs to focus on maintaining the area’s status as an economic engine, which means supporting commercial development as well.
The closer ratio of housing to jobs partly reflects a decline in the latter, Braddock District Commissioner Mary Cortina noted, with the estimated 88,304 jobs currently in Tysons falling short of the 105,000 jobs that the comprehensive plan had forecast by this time.
The jobs estimate is slightly outdated, since it comes from numbers reported to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments in 2015, according to Battista. An update is expected this year after being delayed by the pandemic and Census.
“That’s a good point,” DPD Deputy Director Chris Caperton told Cortina. “As excited as we are that the residential numbers are looking robust and people see this as a place to live, as a destination living spot, we do have to be mindful of the office numbers and our employment base out there.”
The need to balance housing and employment has made county staff cautious about supporting proposals to convert vacant or underutilized offices, particularly next to Metro stations, where the county wants to concentrate its job centers, Caperton said.
While office-to-housing conversions have become trendy, the viability of those projects tends to be very site-specific, since the uses have different needs in terms of design, amenities, schools, transportation and other factors, according to county staff.
The county has one conversion proposal for a Tysons office building under review, and more are in the works but haven’t been officially submitted yet. Battista says some of them show “good potential,” but there are others that staff have advised the developers not to pursue.
“[We want to make sure] we’re not making knee-jerk reactions based on the market to a long-range plan that we’re less than 15 years into,” Battista said. “…We want to see development, but it has to be an appropriate development that’s not going to hinder us in the future, because Tysons, we want it to remain the economic engine of the county and be competitive.”
