Get in on the ground floor at the new Whole Foods Market at The Boro at Tysons Corner when the soon-to-open store conducts interviews for key leadership and team member positions.

The store is rapidly staffing one of the largest Whole Foods Markets on the East Coast, a store that will offer an array of innovative, customer-centric shopping experiences.

Members of the Whole Foods Market management team will meet prospective supervisor and store support employees on Friday, October 4 and Saturday, October 5. Details for applying are here.

Day and night positions and skill requirements, paying $15 and up depending on experience, range from cashiers and housekeeping to meat and seafood specialists to prepared foods cooks and bakers. Product stockers are needed for each department, including body care, supplements and vitamins; clothing and gifts; and dry goods, bulk, dairy and frozen products. Specialty positions are open throughout the store, including cheese bar, coffee bar, and wine and beer bar.

No prior retail experience is required.

Industry-leading benefits include competitive health benefits, 20 percent in-store discounts, PTO cash-outs, career learning and development opportunities, and week-long health getaways for selected team members.

Begin your career with Whole Foods Market by applying today at this site.

Shoppers at Tysons Corner Center may have spotted some new additions to the mall, including a cafe serving up matcha drinks and the return of a Christmas pop-up shop.

A Christmas to Remember comes to the mall during the holiday season to sell a wide variety of ornaments, lights, gifts and collectibles. The holiday decoration store opened a few days ago by the Barnes and Noble on the second level and will stay open through January, an employee said.

Over by the entrance to The Plaza, Matcha Cafe Maiko started serving matcha-focused ice cream and drinks over the weekend.

The chain’s online menu features shaved ice, soft serve, lattes, teas, floats, sweet red bean soup and parfaits.

People looking to get in the mood for Halloween can find a costume and decor store on the first level by H&M, according to the mall’s directory. Spirit Halloween sells costumes for kids and adults, decorations and party goods.

Now Closed

While several stores have opened in the mall, a few have closed.

Candy store Sugarfina closed about a week ago in the mall on the first level by Macy’s, an employee at a neighboring store said.

Frozen yogurt eatery Fruity Yogurt closed a few days ago, an employee at nearby Auntie Anne’s said. The space has a generic wraparound covering it.

Coming Soon 

Canadian clothing brand Roots plans to open in the former Aldo space on the second level in October. The store is currently hiring along with Abercrombie Kids, which is planning to open in November on the first level near Nordstrom.

No new information on when Beauty Nail Bar or Moge Tee will open.

Cinnabon is temporarily closed on the first level in the food court area. A wraparound says that it is “reopening soon.”

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]

Chick-fil-A is now looking to hire workers as the restaurant chain prepares to open in the Town of Vienna.

The restaurant will be on the ground floor of an enormous castle-looking building that will also house a Flagship Carwash on the second floor at 540 W. Maple Avenue.

Franchise owner Jeff Hubley is looking to hire up to 100 people for full- and part-time positions, including leadership development, hospitality and training, according to a press release. Employees can expect to have Sundays off and scholarship opportunities for continuing education.

The Chick-fil-A is slated to open in November.

Construction is still in progress on the project, which was one of several new projects approved under the town’s contentious Maple Avenue Commercial (MAC) zoning process.

The site has faced a series of delays and public backlash.

Last image via Town of Vienna Planning and Zoning 

Tired of underpaid jobs and inconvenient hours, three entrepreneurial McLean teens decided to start their own company.

Their new company, TeenServ, aims to solve teenage unemployment with a platform that matches students and community members who need short-term assistance with various tasks. Website users can pick-up shifts wherever and whenever they want, making it convenient for hectic schedules.

Around a year ago, Jack Lannin, Quin Frew and another McLean teen were walking home together from the local pool where they worked as lifeguards, upset that they received a significant pay cut when they came up with the idea for TeenServ.

Lannin told Tysons Reporter that pay change “almost cut their salary in half,” and they wanted to find another job but there were few options.

“Aside from getting a real job, reffing sports or yard work, there isn’t really a good way to make money,” Lannin said, adding that even becoming a referee requires a significant startup cost for teens — around $70 — to pay for training and a uniform.

They started out by going door-to-door and asking community members if they would pay teens fair wages for short-term yardwork. Soon enough, they began gathering opportunities.

“For teens, it’s really intimidating going door-to-door,” Lannin said. “But for us, it wasn’t a big deal.”

With help from an entrepreneurship class at McLean High School and feedback from peers, the students were able to turn their idea into a reality. Currently, they said they are learning as they go, thanks to guidance from their class and feedback from customers.

So far, the website has employed more than 200 teens, according to Lannin.

The third founder, whom Tysons Reporter wasn’t able to receive parental permission to publish their name, said one of his friends has made more than $1,500 so far by taking on random jobs and managed to build a rapport with homeowners who request him for all their upcoming tasks.

TeenServ pays students up to $18 per hour — well above Virginia’s minimum wage of $7.25.

The boys say the platform is mutually beneficial for community members and teens. The community members enjoy working with teens because it gives them an opportunity to interact with someone they otherwise wouldn’t, and teens feel like they are giving back to the community, they said.

If the customers are unsatisfied with the work, the three founders will come back to finish the job free of charge. The founders said they only had to take a customer up on this once or twice so far.

“For the future, we really want to start with McLean and expand as large as possible thought the area,” the third founder said.

Photo Courtesy TeenServ 

The Weekly Planner is a roundup of interesting events coming up over the next week in the Tysons area.

We’ve scoured the web for events of note in Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield, McLean and Falls Church. Know of any we’ve missed? Tell us!

Tuesday (Aug. 27)

• Drink the Extinct — 6-8 p.m. at Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant (7861 Tysons Corner Center) — Beer lovers will have the opportunity to talk about the history of Chesapeake Dark Lager and try it for themselves. Tickets are $15.

Wednesday (Aug. 28)

• Yoga with Alyson — 10 a.m. at Caboose Tavern (520 Mill Street NE) — For $10, participants can take part in a yoga class. All experience levels are welcome and guests should bring their own mats.
• 7-Eleven Job Fair — 2-5 p.m. at Tysons Corner Center (Level One) — The upcoming 7- Eleven is looking for employees for its new location. This open house invites anyone who may be interested to learn more.

Thursday (Aug. 29)

• “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” — 8 p.m. at Wolf Trap (1551 Trap Road) — Peter Grosz, Negin Farsad and Faith Salie will compete in this NPR trivia show about current events. Tickets are $45.

Friday (Aug. 30)

• U.S. Open Party –5:30- 7:30 p.m. at the Mc Lean Swim and Tennis Association (1700 Margie Drive) — The McLean Tennis Association will open up their doors for a round-robin tennis tournament and party. Registration is free, and there will be prizes for winners. There will be kids and adult leagues.

Saturday (Aug. 31)

• Middle Eastern Food Festival — 11 a.m.-11 p.m. at Holy Transfiguration Melkite Greek-Catholic Church (8501 Lewinsville Road) — This free event gives attendees the chance to try a variety of Middle Eastern Food and engage in cultural activities, including dance lessons and a petting zoo.

Photo via Wolf Trap

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) once again faces a transportation dilemma as it looks ahead to the upcoming school year.

The county recently made an all-call for new bus drivers. The district is short-staffed by roughly 100 drivers — primarily in the McLean area, FCPS Director of Transportation Francine Furby said.

There are two hiring events coming up on Tuesday, July 31, at Cedar Lane School (101 Cedar Lane) in Vienna and the Thursday, Aug. 8, at Edison High School (5801 Franconia Road) in Alexandria. Both events will run from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

This isn’t the first time FCPS faced a bus driver shortage. According to WAMU, there was another county shorage in August of 2017, when drivers were paid $18.82.

Furby said that the issue is ongoing and exacerbated at a national level, not just in Fairfax County. “I think it’s because of the economy now,” she said, explaining that bus drivers tend to take on other positions within the school district due to promotions.

Now, the county will offer drivers a raise to $19.20 per hour — $0.19 cents higher per hour than the salary for the previous school year.

Furby said that FCPS transportation office workers would be pulled out of their current positions answering phone calls from parents and instead be asked to drive students.

While some of the office workers are all set to start in their new roles, Furby said that the other office workers will receive the training and resources required for FCPS bus drivers.

She also said that there is a recruitment bonus of $1,000 for existing employees who refer a friend for a bus driver position.”We do know recruiting people by word of mouth is very effective.”

Qualified candidates need to be able to pass a physical and a drug test, clear a background check, have a safe driving record, take a 5-week course and obtain a commercial driving license. Drivers will be assigned to where they are most needed in the county, according to Furby.

“It can cause students to get into school late and get home late,” she said.

File photo

A company that provides air traffic surveillance systems is expanding in Tysons, bringing more than 50 new jobs.

Aireon LLC currently leases more than 26,000 square feet at 8484 Westpark Drive, Suite 300 in Tysons.

“The company is moving its headquarters within the Tysons area of the county and will increase the square footage of its office space by nearly 150 percent, accommodating more than 50 new jobs over the next three years,” according to a press release.

Aireon’s job creation will be supported by the Virginia Jobs Investment Program, which provides state-funded services for employee training, the press release said.

“Aireon chose to remain in Fairfax County and expand the headquarters due to its proximity to downtown Washington, D.C., the Federal Aviation Administration and the area’s regional and international airports,” Rich Nyren, the chief financial officer of Aireon, said in the press release.

Nyren added that the county has “world-class public transportation, shops and restaurants and attracts some of the most educated workforce from the abundance of globally recognized local universities.”

First two photos courtesy Aireon, image 3 via Google Maps

(Updated at 3:50 p.m.) Earlier this week, the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority announced that it had poached Arlington’s top economic development official, Victor Hoskins.

Currently the head of Arlington Economic Development, Hoskins recently wooed Amazon and its HQ2 to Arlington County. Come August, he will become FCEDA’s new president and CEO — one year after its now-retired and longtime leader, Gerry Gordon, announced his plans to leave.

Tysons Reporter talked to Hoskins about how he plans to head up one of the largest economic development agencies in the country.

“I’m done in Arlington.”

Hoskins said he entered the process for the FCEDA role back in May during the agency’s second hiring search for the position.

Back in December, he told ARLnow that he planned to work for Arlington County until the office vacancy rate dropped from its then-18 percent rate to 10 or 12 percent.

With a current rate of 16.7 percent, Hoskins said that Arlington County has “nothing to worry about” with Amazon coming in. Hoskins said that the career move is coming at the right time — “Yes, I’m done in Arlington.”

“If you look at my history, I pretty much do what I need to do and move on,” he said. In the case of both his former economic development role in D.C. and his Arlington County job, Hoskins, who describes himself as a person who likes to finish projects, said that he leaves once he’s accomplished the specific challenges of a job.

New Challenges Ahead 

“What I look for in a career change is a challenge,” he said. “This is a different kind of challenge. Just the size of the market is pretty amazing.”

Hoskins said he is looking forward to encouraging companies in Fairfax County to recruit and train more top workers with a talent-focused strategy.

“We already have a lot of talent residing [in Fairfax County],” he said. “We need to keep the people we have.” A part of that will include offering more opportunities to retrain employees with skills like cybersecurity coding, he added.

He also said he would like to see FCEDA get more closely involved with the county’s Department of Housing and Community Development, in addition to continuing work with the Planning Commission, Virginia Department of Transportation and other county agencies to set priorities.

Additionally, Hoskins said that the county could use more work on placemaking.

“The size of Fairfax County makes it difficult to create places — concentrated nodes of activity,” he said, which could include creating more urban villages around the Silver Line stations and making “a nexus between residential and commercial nodes.”

Another area Hoskins wants to work on is making Fairfax County more attractive to millennials.

Some ideas he has: creating places where people want to work and eat outside, offering more housing choices, making “interesting environments” and strengthening mass transportation.

Hoskins was quick to note that many of the challenges he mentioned are not unique to the county, which he praised for its global reputation and competition with places like London and Paris.

“Fairfax is amazing right now,” he said, lauding the county’s quality of life, including its public schools and parks. “Fairfax has it all. What we’re trying to do it to move it to the next level.”

Amazon’s Impact on Fairfax County

While Fairfax County lost its bid for Amazon, Hoskins said that the tech giant will impact Northern Virginia, from adding a plethora of new job opportunities to a “back and forth between employees and employers” with Amazon and local companies.

Hoskins also mentioned a recent report by the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors and the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis, which estimated that roughly 33 percent of Amazon’s workforce would live in Fairfax County, while 16.4 percent would live in Arlington.

“It’s a higher percentage than [Amazon employees who] will live and work in Arlington,” Hoskins said.

On a larger scale, Hoskins said Amazon will transform Northern Virginia into a more innovative environment that will increase the private sector.

“[Amazon will bring an] innovation focus to the region where companies begin thinking differently about how they work,” he said.

Hoskins starts his new role on Aug. 5. Until then, he said he will help with the leadership transition at his current job before having two to three days off.

“Building an economy is more like solving a very complex puzzle,” he said.

Photo courtesy Fairfax County Economic Development Authority

Updated at 1:40 p.m. — Corrects description of MicroStrategy and lease renewal date.

MicroStrategy Inc. scored $1 million to expand in Tysons.

The Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors approved grant funding from the Commonwealth at its meeting on Tuesday (May 21).

The funds will help the company with its tenant build-out of its facility (1850 Towers Crescent Plaza) in Tysons, which could lead to 300 new jobs at the facility, according to county documents.

Last March, MicroStrategy, which provides a data analytics platform, renewed its lease for its Tysons headquarters for $150 million, keeping the company based in Northern Virginia for another 13 years, the Washington Business Journal reported.

As part of the grant, Fairfax County must provide a local match, which will be in the form of accelerating construction on the Magarity Walkway project, a roadway improvement that is already planned and funded in the county budget. The road improvement was identified by coordinating with the Fairfax County Department of Transportation.

Fairfax County competed with another jurisdiction for the expansion of MicroStrategy’s headquarters, according to county documents.