Lidl’s recently announced expansion along the East Coast includes a new store in Merrifield Plaza.

Lidl announced yesterday that it plans to open 50 stores stretching from Delaware to South Carolina by the end of 2021 and close two stores in North Carolina. The Merrifield Plaza location, which Rosenthal Properties announced in June, is among the seven new stores coming to Virginia.

Lidl will take over the 30,000 square-foot space (2901 Gallows Road) currently occupied by Office Depot when the office supply retailer’s lease ends on Dec. 31, Billy Orlove, Rosenthal’s leasing director, told Tysons Reporter.

In addition to the upcoming exit from Merrifield, Office Depot is shuttering dozens of locations through the end of 2021. Lidl will join Korean-American supermarket chain H Mart at the shopping center at the intersection of Gallows Road and Lee Hwy.

“Lidl will bring additional fresh choices, convenient shopping and great savings to the community,” Jane Le, one of the leasing associates who represented Rosenthal in bringing Lidl to Merrifield Plaza, said.

Originally established in Germany, Lidl has grown its international footprint since the 1970s and now has more than 11,000 stores in 32 countries. In 2015, the discount grocery chain opened its U.S. headquarters in Arlington.

With the expansion, Lidl said in the announcement that it plans to invest more than $500 million in the new stores and create 2,000 new jobs.

Currently, Lidl’s closest stores to the Tysons area include ones in Fairfax and Springfield.

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge/Unsplash

An upcoming protest in Merrifield is part of nationwide mobilization at post offices across the U.S.

From Alaska to Florida, 602 volunteer-led protests are set to take place at 11 a.m. local time tomorrow (Saturday) to demand Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s resignation and “save the post office from Donald Trump.”

The protests are in response to DeJoy’s cost-cutting measures for the financially-rocky United States Postal Service, which critiques said could delay the expected surge of mail ballots for the November election.

After facing a backlash, DeJoy said he will pause the changes until after the election. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly slammed mail-in ballots, said he opposes more funding for the USPS because of mail-in voting.

The protest at the Merrifield post office (8409 Lee Hwy) will be wheelchair accessible, according to the event description. Protests will also take place in Reston and Arlington.

The nationwide mobilization is backed by several unions and organizations, including MoveOn, Service Employees International Union, the NAACP, the Working Families Party, The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights, American Federation of Teachers, Indivisible and Vets for the People.

Organizers are asking participants to wear face coverings, remain 6 feet apart from each other, bring hand sanitizer and keep the protests peaceful and nonviolent.

“Individual hosts are responsible for compliance with their own local laws and event requirements (including orders limiting the sizes of events),” the event description said.

Image via Google Maps

Bruster’s Real Ice Cream near the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station plans to close permanently tomorrow (Friday).

Renita Shelton, the eatery’s manager, posted the announcement earlier today on the Facebook page for the location (2672D Avenir Place).

Bruster’s is known for its variety of cold treats including ice cream, shakes, floats, sodas and cakes.

Shelton called the upcoming closure a “bittersweet moment,” sharing that “the decision to close the shop at this given point in time was necessary for your safety as well as ours.”

Shelton thanked customers who “traveled far and wide” to come to the shop and other D.C. area locations for the ice cream chain.

Tysons Reporter reached out to the store earlier today and will update this story if more information becomes available.

“Relay,” a new autonomous electric shuttle, made its first test run throughout Merrifield’s Mosaic District yesterday. 

Relay is a free, driverless transportation option that will take people from the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro Station to the Mosaic District. 

Yesterday’s testing was the beginning of a mapping process to teach the vehicle its route. In the learning process, the shuttle needs to stay on its route down to the millimeter, according to Dominion Energy’s Innovation Strategist Julie Manzari.

Testing and mapping usually take a few weeks or more with autonomous shuttles depending on the complicated nature of the route, according to Manzari. The route Relay will be taking is especially interesting due to busy roads. 

The project was launched by Fairfax County and Dominion Energy in partnership with EDENS, Virginia’s Department of Rail and Public Transportation and Department of Transportation, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and George Mason University.

Transdev will be in charge of the management and maintenance of the vehicle, which was made by EasyMile, according to the county’s website. 

In a YouTube video, EasyMile engineer Nathan Ramsey said that the shuttle has several different braking systems, uses GPS and has a LiDAR system, which observes the environment with infrared lasers.

“Using LiDAR, the vehicle can’t miss objects. It will see everything around it, and it will respond accordingly,” Ramsey said. “So if it needs to slow down or stop because somebody runs out in front of it — even if they dart out in front of it just a couple, mere feet — the vehicle will have no trouble stopping or slowing.”

Ramsey said that he believes the shuttle is safer than human drivers, noting that the technology can respond safely to human error.

The shuttle will be enforcing mask requirements and separation as much as possible to ensure COVID-19 safety. They plan on keeping a seat between each passenger and requiring passengers to wear their seatbelts, according to Manzari. 

“We have a lot of enthusiasm around the project,” said Manzari. “People are very curious about autonomous vehicles.”

Photo courtesy Peggy Fox/Dominion Energy

Dominion Energy plans to roll out an autonomous, electric shuttle named “Relay” for testing in Merrifield as early as next week.

The self-driving shuttle will make a loop between the Mosaic District to the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station. Fairfax County and Dominion Energy teamed up last year to start the pilot program to improve connectivity between the station and the shopping center, which are just under one mile apart according to Google Maps.

Peggy Fox, Dominion Energy’s spokesperson, told Tysons Reporter that testing is expected to start soon on the pre-mapped route. “It will be several weeks before we’re able to accept passengers,” Fox said.

Currently, the autonomous shuttle, which was made by the French company EasyMile, is in Alexandria awaiting its move to Merrifield next week, Fox said.

According to Dominion Energy, Relay is the first test of autonomous public transportation in Northern Virginia.

Photos courtesy Dominion Energy

A new Indian restaurant is now open in the Tysons area.

Bansari Indian Cuisine held its grand opening on Sunday, July 19, at 2750 Gallows Road in Merrifield, according to a Facebook post from the restaurant. Diners can find it near Lost Dog Cafe — between the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station and the Mosaic District.

The restaurant posted that it offers patio dining, take-out and delivery. People can order from the restaurant on Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub and Seamless.

The menu includes a variety of dishes, including butter chicken, tandoori chicken, hakka noodles, egg curry, lamb curry and biryani.

The restaurant is open from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday and until 11 p.m. Friday-Sunday, according to the restaurant’s website.

Image via Google Maps

Traffic Stop Near Gallows Roads — “A Virginia state trooper is on administrative leave and faces a criminal investigation for his conduct against a Black driver during a 2019 traffic stop in Fairfax County.” [Patch]

Falls Church Scales Back Summer Camps — “Covid-19’s spread throughout the country influenced the City to scale back or outright cancel certain camps, making “fun” one of the lesser known, but more persistent casualties of the pandemic.” [Falls Church News-Press]

COVID-19 Rules for Businesses — “Virginia on Wednesday became the first state to adopt uniform workplace safety rules related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Among the new regulations, employers in Virginia are required to mandate physical distancing and face coverings for employees in customer-facing positions. Coverings will also be required in workplace situations where social distancing is not possible.” [Washington Business Journal]

PPP Loans for Black Businesses — “Black business owners are more likely to be hindered in seeking coronavirus financial aid than their white peers, a new study has found. The study looked at how more than a dozen Washington-area banks handled requests for loans under the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program.” [Washington Business Journal]

Impacts on Falls Church Development? — “Workplaces transitioning out of the office and into being permanently remote could be one part of the “new normal” stemming from Covid-19’s global outbreak. That potential reality would be trouble for the City of Falls Church’s West End development that is relying on office tenants to help occupy some of its nearly 10-acre footprint, though the minds behind the project believe this adaptation won’t become a fixture once coronavirus’ danger lessens.” [Washington Business Journal]

Crescendo Studios will soon have drive-in summer concerts in Merrifield.

Located in the former MHz Studio at 8101 Lee Hwy, the studio has partnered with DC Music Review for the series.

For each show, the opening show will play outside from 8:15-8:45 p.m. before the headling act hits the Black Box performance space on Fridays and Saturdays. “The video will be projected onto our 180″ screen outside of our building. Audio will be transmitted via FM transmitter to your car radio,” according to Crescendo Studios.

The line-up for the summer series includes a variety of music genres and local artists. There’s bluegrass, folk-pop, indie rock and even a Phish tribute band.

The concert dates are:

• July 24: Lindsay Collette, Nah.
• July 25: Jahnel Daliya, Carly Harvey
• Aug. 1: The Last Rewind
• Aug. 8: Modell, Soderstorm, and James
• Aug. 14: Annie Stokes, Ashleigh Chevalier Band
• Aug. 15: Kemi Adegoroye, The NRIs
• Aug. 21: Griefcat, Two Ton Twig
• Aug. 28: S.N.R.G.

People can either stay in their cars or set up chairs outside. Crescendo Studios is asking that audience goers socially distance. Face coverings will be required if people want to purchase food or use the bathroom at the studio.

Tickets went on sale yesterday. An individual ticket with a parking pass is $20, a single passenger ticket is $20 and the “full car” (four tickets plus the parking pass) is $70.

Crescendo Studios notes that the rules are subject to change.

The studio, which opened last year, offers private lessons, a band for kids and camps.

Photo via Crescendo Studios/Facebook

Latest Unemployment News — “The Virginia Employment Commission reported Thursday that 5,279 Northern Virginia residents filed initial claims for unemployment benefits in the week ending June 20. That was down 9.2% from the preceding week and marks the 11th straight week of declines since a high of 47,708 claims filed in the week ending April 4. However, it is still 10 times pre-pandemic levels.” [Inside NoVa]

Finding the Funding — “McLean’s ID.me Inc. is raising new capital while riding a wave of momentum fueled by the pandemic. The digital identity management company has nabbed about $8.3 million out of a $12.5 million equity offering that began June 9, it reported in Securities and Exchange Commission filings.” [Washington Business Journal]

Sights Set on Space — “Los Angeles-based aerospace manufacturer Relativity Space announced Wednesday that McLean-based Iridium Communications Inc. has signed a contract to deliver up to six of Irdium’s satellites into orbit.” [Virginia Business]

New Merrifield Park — “The Fairfax County Park Authority Board on June 24 approved initial scoping work to develop a new park on the eastern edge of Merrifield.” [Inside NoVa]

Dominion Energy will be trimming trees away from power lines in Town over the next 2 weeks. Blue lines on the map indicate where trimming will be taking place. For questions about how & why Dominion Energy manages trees and plants near power lines, visit https://t.co/SANub32tjv. pic.twitter.com/6q0WQemiVM

— Town of Vienna, VA (@TownofViennaVA) June 25, 2020

Highpoint Pub at #TheBoroTysons @WholeFoods has reopened with indoor and outdoor seating, following all VA Phase 2 protocols! Their hours for now will be Mon-Fri, 3pm-9pm and Sat-Sun, 12pm-9pm. They will be limiting groups to no more than 4 people to start! 🍻 pic.twitter.com/XnVh6FsXEV

— The Boro (@TheBoroTysons) June 25, 2020

CVS announced dozens of new drive-thru testing sites for COVID-19 in Virginia with a few near Tysons.

Of the 39 pharmacies offering the tests, two locations are near Merrifield and one is in Great Falls, according to the company’s website.

The locations near Merrifield can be found at 3921 Prosperity Avenue and 10090 Fairfax Blvd, while the address for the Great Falls location is 1020 Seneca Road.

These locations are a part of a nationwide initiative offering 986 total testing locations, the website said.

Patients must register in advance at CVS.com and take a brief survey before making an appointment, according to the website.

The locations will accept most major insurance providers so people may be able to get a free test, the site said.

Respondents are asked for information including birthdate, symptoms, if they have a reference from a doctor or official and if they have preexisting health conditions that might put them at a higher risk.

CVS joins the growing list of places where people can get tested. Tysons Reporter recently compiled a list of places where people can get COVID-19 tests around Tysons.

Image via Google Maps