McLean Community Center Reveals Scholarship Winners — “The Alden Theatre of the McLean Community Center has announced award recipients in its annual James C. Macdonald Performing Arts Scholarship Competition, held recently.” [Inside NoVa]
Power Surge Last Tuesday in Vienna — “Any residents who experienced a power surge shortly after midnight on July 2 may file a claim for damaged electrical appliances by calling 1-866-DOM-HELP” [Town of Vienna]
Software Company NowSecure Inc. Raised $15 Million for Expansion — “It has a total of 60 employees across its Tysons, Chicago and Seattle offices, but it plans to hire about 30 more people over the coming months, said CEO Alan Snyder, who added the Tysons office is its largest and that the company is already looking for larger space in the area.” [Washington Business Journal]
Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax Leaves McLean Law Firm — “Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has resigned his position at a McLean law firm, six months after he was placed on paid administrative leave following past sexual assault allegations. In a statement, Fairfax said the firm, Morrison and Foerster, investigated the allegations and found ‘no hint of wrongdoing.'” [Inside NoVa]
Crash Closed Falls Church Road –– On July 6 (Saturday) Magarity Road was closed at LaSalle Avenue due to a traffic crash involving a utility pole. The road reopened later that same day. [Fairfax County Police/Twitter]
Banks Coming Soon to Tysons — Great Falls-based Trustar Bank is looking to open a commercial lending office at 1650 Tysons Blvd in McLean, while VisionBank aims to open in Tysons later this year. Meanwhile, Tysons-based Old Dominion National Bank “has cleared $350 million in assets, is on track for $10 million in revenue in 2019, and will hit profitability toward the end of the year.” [WBJ, WBJ, WBJ]
A shopping center near the Greensboro Metro station will soon have a Burlington store.
Formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, the national off-price department store chain recently announced that it will open this fall in Sports Authority’s former spot at 8355 Leesburg Pike.
“This new location brings jobs to the community and provides a great shopping experience for the entire family,” Tom Kingsbury, the chief executive officer and chairman of Burlington Stores, said in a press release.
Burlington will occupy 42,900 square feet in the shopping center, filling one of its more noticeable vacancies. “Whether they’re looking for brand name clothing, stylish home decor items, or anything for baby, customers will enjoy significant savings and discover new merchandise arrivals each week,” Kingsbury said.
The new store will be the 20th Burlington location in Virginia, according to the press release.
New rules could put community gardens on Tysons rooftops, but if you have a green thumb and can’t wait that long, there are two community gardens in the area where you can start planting.
One is in the back corner of Lewinsville Park (1659 Chain Bridge Road) in McLean and the other is at Nottoway Park (9537 Courthouse Road) in Vienna.
To rent a garden plot in Fairfax, you must be a resident of the county with a valid mailing address and email address. Residents can sign up for a waitlist for multiple parks, but only one plot is permitted per household.
The annual rental cost of most garden plots is $130, which includes access to a shared water supply.
Dick Black has been gardening at Lewinsville Park for around eight years after retiring.
“It’s a lot of work, but I consider it a workout,” said Black. “I’ll come out [and garden] instead of going for a run.”
Black grows tomatoes, arugula and other vegetables to give to neighbors or for his wife to take to work.
For those planning to get started, Black reiterated that growing a garden is a commitment. Locals should make sure it’s something they’re willing to put the sweat and time into. But if they decide that they are, Black said growing a garden is an extremely fulfilling experience.
“I still get joy after seven or eight years,” Black said. “[It’s about] going in with the right attitude.”
There is currently a waitlist for garden plots, though new regulations could soon open up more spaces throughout the county. The regulations adopted by the Board of Supervisors on June 25 allow community gardens in a wider variety of residential, commercial and industrial properties than previously allowed.
According to the Fairfax County website:
Previously, the county’s zoning rules limited community gardens to planned residential communities like Burke or Reston. These gardens now are allowed without restriction in open spaces as long as they are under two acres, and they aren’t the principal use on a property… Now, fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers and plants can be grown from the rooftops of office high-rises in Tysons to opens spaces at houses of worship to the common areas of suburban homeowners associations.
Cookie Baking in Space — “DoubleTree by Hilton… is partnering with Zero G Kitchen, a company creating appliances for microgravity use in long-duration space flights, and NanoRacks, a provider of commercial access to space,… are using a prototype oven designed for long-duration space flight to bake a cookie in space later this year on a date to be determined.” [Washington Business Journal]
New State Laws Take Effect Today — A new set of laws — like raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products and allowing certain types of CBD oil use in schools — take effect today (July 1). [Inside NoVa]
Small Fire Broke Out at Vienna Home — On Saturday morning, firefighters extinguished a small basement fire at a home in the 9800 block of Bridleridge Court in Vienna. The fire was caused by an electrical event within a circuit board for the electronic air cleaner. The fire caused about $500 worth of damage. [Fairfax County Fire and Rescue/Twitter]
WeWork Expands Tysons Presence — “WeWork inked a deal Thursday to expand its presence in Lerner Enterprises’ trophy office building to 154,025 square feet, bringing the 17-story, 476,000-square-foot tower to 100% occupancy roughly three and a half years after it delivered.” [Washington Business Journal]
The History of Tysons — The first part of this series gives an overview of Tysons transformed from a farming community into a developing city. [Greater Greater Washington]
Local Real Estate Developer Behind Bars — “Todd Hitt, the CEO of Kiddar Capital, a Falls Church asset management firm, will serve a 6 1/2 year prison sentence for securities fraud.” [Reston Now]
Water, Water Everywhere — “Fairfax Water, the utility provider of drinking water for the Town of Vienna, has released a report on how clean the water was in 2018.” [Vienna Patch]
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.
Tucked away in a strip mall along Leesburg Pike, Roll Play serves up Vietnamese cuisine in a fast-casual restaurant filled with colorful art.
From rolls to bowls, banh-mi sandwiches to pho, Roll Play offers a variety of filling food. For drinks, the menu offers Vietnamese coffee, basil mint limeade, Stubborn Soda, San Pellegrino Water and Fiji Water.
Customers order their food from touch-screen kiosks, which allow for customization. For late-night diners, Roll Play is open until 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
A mural on the left wall features the Roll Play logo with a woman with long flowing dark hair, while the right wall has framed pho-themed phrases. Look down and you’ll spot rainbow footprints weaving around the restaurant.
Located at 8150 Leesburg Pike, Roll Play is about a 12-minute walk from the Tysons Corner Metro station.
Roll Play is open from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-2 a.m. on Friday, noon-2 a.m. on Saturday and 12 p.m.-8 p.m. on Sunday.
As the summer heat wave continues to sizzle this week, locals may be looking for a glass or a pint or a mug of beer.
Here are some breweries and distilleries around the Tysons area for when you want to buy local while wetting your whistle.
- Sweetwater Tavern (3066 Gate House Plaza): One of the three Sweetwater Tavern microbreweries is located in Merrifield. Visitors can find hand-crafted brews and lunch and dinner menus.
- Settle Down Easy Brewing Co. (2822 Fallfax Drive): This Falls Church Nano brewery, which brews beers from IPAs to kolschs, has a taco stand inside and indoor and outdoor seating.
- Audacious Aleworks Brewery and Taproom (110 E. Fairfax Street): Near downtown Falls Church, the small craft brewery specializes in small batch ales, and the taproom has up to 20 beers on tap at any given time along with free popcorn and board games.
- Caboose Brewing Company (Merrifield and Vienna): The 15-barrel-brewhouse is behind both Caboose Commons in Merrifield (2918 Eskridge Road) and Caboose Tavern in Vienna (520 Mill Street NE). Caboose Commons includes a coffeehouse and beer garden behind the Mosaic District, while Caboose Tavern is a brewpub off of the Washington & Old Dominion Trail.
- Mad Fox Brewing Company (444 W. Broad Street): Inspired by Euro gastro brews, Mad Fox Brewing in Falls Church has a brewery and restaurant.
- Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant (7861 Tysons Corner Center): Located in Tysons Corner Center, the Gordon Biersch restaurant brews its beers on site and even offers a view of its brewing facilities and brewery tours.
While not a brewery, the Tysons Biergarten (8346 Leesburg Pike) has more than 100 American craft beers and live music until 2 a.m. daily.
If beer isn’t your thing, the Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street, Suite A) produces several small-batch spirits including vodkas, gins, rums and whiskeys. In addition to the distillery, there’s a restaurant that serves up Italian fare and a bar.
While life continues on at other parts of Commons of McLean, a residential complex between Tysons East and Pimmit Hills, a collection of buildings at the southernmost point of the property are being reclaimed by nature as they await reconstruction.
The property was separated from the other residences at the Commons of McLean when it was purchased by Toll Brothers.
Mark Simms, the vice president of land development at Toll Brothers, said the property is planned to be converted into 211 townhomes and condominiums. The new properties are planned to be offered for sale starting spring 2020.
Currently, the area is a Chernobyl-like clearing of empty homes and litter dropped by people using the homes as a cut through. Weeds have started growing up to knee or waist height in front of some of the buildings and birds are nested in the cutaways for appliances in the sides of former homes.
Ashley Hopko contributed to this story
It’s no secret that traffic is a problem for major roadways around Tysons.
Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) is pushing sluglines as one solution.
Earlier this month, the NVTC unveiled that a campaign to encourage slugging along I-66 is one of its approved projects for the fiscal year 2020. One of the four commuter lots that NVTC wants to highlight in its campaign is the Park and Ride at the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metro
Sluglines — also known as “casual carpooling” — allow a driver to pick up non-paying passengers at designated spots in order to use an HOV lane or get a toll reduction.
Let us know if slugging is something you would do.
The Tysons branch of Huntington Learning Center (HLC) — in the spotlight after the arrest and death of the franchise owner — has permanently closed.
The trouble for the school started in April when Jeffrey Cummins, the owner of the HLC franchise in Tysons, was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting two of his former students. The Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) said the abuse took place in Cummins’ Annandale home, not at the school.
But after the arrest, more assault charges were added. Cummins was out on a bond but didn’t turn himself into the Fairfax County jail as ordered. Last Wednesday, June 19, Cummins was found dead near Warsaw, Virginia.
The Tysons HLC at 8290 Old Courthouse Road briefly closed after the arrest was announced, though it reopened a few weeks later in early May.
Now, the facility has been permanently closed. A representative for HLC said students at the program have been offered the opportunity to transfer to other locations.
The media contact for HLC said parents interested in continuing instruction can call Huntington Learning Center in Fairfax at 571-310-0180 and all parents have “received communication” about obtaining a refund from the franchise.
Tysons is now set to get a new senior living facility in two towers behind the Tysons Galleria.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved the senior living complex known as The Mather during the board’s meeting yesterday (Tuesday).
The Mather is a part of Cityline Partners LLC’s Arbor Row project near Tysons Galleria, which includes the completed Nouvelle residential building and The Monarch, and plans to transform the back of Tysons Galleria along Westpark Drive into a suite of mixed-use buildings.
Slated to open in 2023, The Mather plans to seek a LEED Gold designation for the building and will be the first Life Plan Community in Tysons, according to a press release from Mather LifeWays, an organization that creates senior living programs and places.
“The Mather will offer apartment homes with SMART home technology, amenity-rich community spaces and luxury of a different kind for those who wish to plan ahead to live life to the fullest,” Mary Leary, the president and chief executive officer of Mather LifeWays, said in a press release.
The one- and two-bedroom room apartments in The Mather will start at $650,000, according to the press release.
Image via Fairfax County Planning Commission
