Fairfax County is scheduled to make nearly $3.9 million off of the sale of a property in Tysons West to Dominion Energy, in order to turn the vacant plot into an electric substation.
The item was scheduled for consideration at today’s (Tuesday) Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting, but was deferred by Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins without discussion to March 5 at 4 p.m.
The property includes two parcels proffered to the county via rezoning processes. According to the agenda item, the funding raised from the sale will be allocated to public facilities projects in the Tysons area.
The new substation is planned to be constructed just south of Spring Hill Road near Leesburg Pike. The property is west of the Dominion Square development.
According to the staff report:
Because the parcel is not needed for right-of-way purposes, and since the small size of the parcel and its isolation from other public land make it unsuitable for any other public use, the County will serve the greater public benefit by conveying the parcel to Dominion Energy for redevelopment.
Photo via Fairfax County
The fences are up and construction is underway on the site of the former Chili’s in Tysons as Fairfax-based Great American Restaurants prepares for the opening of its latest restaurant later this year.
The new restaurant will occupy a large new building which looks like a cross between a church and a warehouse. It was built on what was once a Chili’s and an On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, before both closed and were torn down.
The manager at another Great American Restaurants location said the new eatery will serve American cuisine. A name hasn’t been selected yet, but the manager said the food would be somewhere between the cuisine of Mike’s American in Springfield and Jackson’s in Reston, two of the company’s other locations.
Great American Restaurants currently operates 10 locations across Fairfax, including Coastal Flats in the Tysons Corner Center mall. Its headquarters are also located in Fairfax, near Merrifield.
On Reddit, several users said the new Tysons restaurant would have a sports bar component. The manager said the location would also contain a bakery, similar to the Best Buns Bread Company in Arlington, and is planning to open in June or July.
Pokéworks, a Hawaiian-inspired poke bowl and burrito eatery, is hosting its grand opening in the Tysons Corner Center mall today.
Today from 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m., visitors who purchase one poke meal can get a second one free.
Pokéworks is a nationwide chain founded in 2015. The Tysons location is run by local entrepreneurs Mark and Annie Chi and David and Viengkeo Tzong. According to a press release:
After noticing the rise of Poke restaurants and the need for more diverse food options in the area, the Chis and Tzongs found the fresh, light and flavorful ingredients at Pokéworks to be unmatched by any other poke restaurant. Eager to expand their business in the Northern Virginia area, these entrepreneurs have recently signed a second Pokéworks location in Chantilly and expect to open summer of 2019.
The restaurant held a soft opening Nov. 12 in the mall’s first-floor food court.
Photo courtesy of Pokéworks
Work is coming along on the latest addition to the growing development around the Spring Hill Metro station.
A project dubbed “Tysons West Phase III” is set to transform the under-utilized lot across from Walmart and create a mixed-use development.
“Tysons West Phase III builds on the success of the Walmart and 24 Hour Fitness [that] anchored Tysons West Phase I and provides an interim development of in-line retail buildings organized around surface parking,” construction contractor L.F. Jennings said in a press release. “These retail buildings will provide dining and service retail options that take advantage of the vehicular hub nature of the location as well as proximity to the metro station, local residents, and nearby offices.”
The development will contain four single-story buildings, with a combined 22,800 square feet of retail space.
Construction on the project started last July and is scheduled to be completed in the spring.
Plans from developer JBG Smith show Dunkin’ Donuts, Smoothie King, Jersey Mike’s and COX listed among the new retailers coming to the development.
Future Tysons West development is planned north of the site, and some of the car dealerships to the south are on sale with plans to be redeveloped as mixed-use buildings.
Space in the Kingston, one of the newest residential buildings in the growing Tysons East, is disappearing quickly.
Tysons has a residence deficiency, with roughly 100,000 jobs but only 19,000 residents. But the demand is there, with the 319-unit Kingston filling up faster than predicted in the project’s initial lease-up timeline. Currently, 44 percent of the building is leased.
A residential unit in Tysons isn’t cheap either. There are 64 workforce dwelling units on the site, housing required by the county to be set aside as affordable, but the market rate rents start at $2,000 per month for a studio apartment. Two bedroom units cost $3,200 per month and three bedroom units lease for approximately $5,200 per month.
A press release for the apartment community highlighted the “high-end events” regularly hosted by the property management.
A small fumble involving a seemingly dead committee is pushing the Tysons Galleria Macy’s redevelopment plan back a few months.
According to Russell Forno, a land use planner with a law firm representing Tysons Galleria, gaining permission from Fairfax County for new signage would be a significant step for the mall in its efforts to negotiate with new tenants.
Going into the Jan. 16 Planning Commission meeting, everything seemed set for approval. Staff had recommended approval of new signs and there was no vocal opposition. But Forno requested that the approval be pushed back to March.
The mall, we’re told, had failed to get the approval of the Tysons II Design Review Committee, a group so obscure the only other Google search result is a 2015 staff report requesting a sign change. The staff report includes an attached document called the Tysons II Sign Manual, which says:
All signs shall be approved by the Tysons II Design Review Committee before any required submission to Fairfax County for permits… This review will continue to help maintain oversight to ensure signage coordination within Tysons II and prevent impair the planned unit nature of the development.
The document includes some very specific requirements. All illuminated signs must be black in daytime and white at night and all ground floor signs must have individually fabricated letters and symbols only, not enclosed signs.
The application from Tysons Galleria indicated that the committee no longer exists, but a letter from the apparently deceased committee seemed to confuse the subject.
“I’ll be honest, there was a little mix-up,” said Forno. “Reviews with this committee are forthcoming. The applicant and committee have agreed to meet within the next 30 days. [We ask you] to defer action until March.”
Planning Commissioner Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner agreed and led the Planning Commission in a vote to push the decision back to March 13 to allow the Tysons Galleria time to consult with the Tysons II Design Review Committee.
Meanwhile, the Planning Commission also approved new signage for the Tysons-based Mitre Corporation and approved Reformed Theological Seminary’s move into an office building on the southern edge of Tysons.
In the middle of an interview with Tysons Reporter, a woman walks up to Stomping Ground owner Nicole Jones and introduces herself as “Steve’s mom.”
Jones immediately recognizes Steve by name and “Steve’s mom” said she was just running errands in nearby McLean and wanted to stop by and say hello. It’s a small moment that’s a testament to the kind of community building that the new Stomping Ground in Tysons Galleria will live or die by.
Stomping Ground isn’t just one of the restaurants in the new Taste of Urbanspace that opened in December as part of a quick turnaround to replace Isabella Eatery — as the shop closest to the entrance, it serves as a gateway into the new dining hall.
Stomping Ground is perhaps best known for their buttermilk biscuits and fried chicken, both of which are available at the Tysons Galleria location. The eatery’s wide variety of hot and iced coffees, averaging around $3 per cup, seems like their most popular item on the Tysons Galleria third floor.
Jones knows coffee. On sight, she can tell what type of milk was used in a beverage based on the consistency of the separation. For her, coffee is more than a beverage.
“Coffee culture is a comfort place,” said Jones. “We take that old school southern hospitality and bring it to the mall. We’re genuinely interested in your name, your dietary restrictions and where you work. We want regulars. We want to be the ‘Cheers‘ of breakfast.”
It’s been four years since Jones opened the first Stomping Ground in Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood. The destination proved so popular it was name-dropped in a Wall Street Journal article explaining why Amazon came to Northern Virginia.
“In Tysons, there is less of a town square, but we’re learning that [Taste of Urbanspace] can serve as that,” said Jones. “People can come and hang out.”
That’s certainly the case among the restaurant owners on the mall’s third floor. In their downtime, managers from Stomping Ground, Andy’s Pizza and others regularly converse and hang out in the lavish seating area. Jones said all of the restaurant staffers had to work together through a hectic, quick turnaround during the holiday season and emerged as friends.
While several of the customers around Taste of Urbanspace are familiar faces day after day, much of the expansive food hall remains underpopulated.
It’s too early to say if the “town square” idea will catch on. Beyond just owner Mike Isabella’s public fall from grace, the Isabella Eatery (whose shell Taste of Urbanspace inhabits) collapsed in part due to low sales.
Jones and other restaurant owners expressed hopes that expanding the dining hall’s nightlife options will help draw in the after-work crowd, which currently has few options outside of the Tysons Biergarten.
Like their neighboring Andy’s Pizza, Donburi and Sen Khao, Stomping Ground is currently working through the Virginia ABC permit process. While Andy’s Pizza and Donburi plan on bringing in new beer options to the Galleria, Jones said her focus is going to be on wine and a variety of custom cocktails.
The cocktails, currently not available in Del Ray, are one example Jones points to of how the new location allows Stomping Ground to try new things that, if they work, might make their way back into the Alexandria location. Jones said she is also currently working on the restaurant’s new proper dinner menu, saying it will have Stomping Ground’s signature fried chicken with a mix of vegetables in keeping with southern tradition.
“The nighttime is where we will grow and spread our wings,” said Jones.
There’s no shortage of food options in Tysons Corner Center mall, but if you’re looking for some stir-fry, the new Go-Stir Fry Express offers a variety of Japanese dishes.
The restaurant is located in the third-floor food court next to the AMC Theater. The restaurant offers chicken, rice and beef stir-fry bowls with either rice or noodles for around $8. Side dishes include spring rolls and fried dumplings.
Go-Stir Express also has a wide assortment of teas, from classic milk teas to bubble tea with fruit.
EJ Hong, manager of the Tysons location, said the stir fry location opened less than a month ago and is the third location for the New Jersey-based Go-Stir Fry.
Hong said the Tysons location is off to a good start and suggests first-time visitors try out the chicken stir fry.
Go-Stir Express isn’t the only new location in the third-floor food court. On the opposite side on the floor, the recently opened Dabke offers Lebanese cuisine like falafel wraps and chicken shawarma at around $9.
Staff at Dabke said the restaurant opened less than two months ago.
How is Tysons progressing in its quest to become America’s “next great city?”
A pair of upcoming events are planned to look at the current state of Tysons’ economy and where it should go from here.
The first, a “State of the Market” event next Thursday (Jan. 24), will focus on the development of the local office and retail markets. The event is hosted by Bisnow, a commercial real estate news organization.
The event will be held at 1600 Tysons Boulevard. Tickets to the event are $99.
Breakfast and networking start at 7:30 a.m. A discussion of continuing Tysons’ development boom starts at 8:30 a.m., followed by a discussion of how the new developments around the Greensboro Metro station will impact the market starts at 9:15 a.m.
“As we look at 1.5 million square feet of office under construction, 1,800 multifamily units to deliver, and massive mixed-use developments in the pipeline, the area shows no signs of slowing down,” Bisnow said in the event description. “With a few years of booming development, is the market fully built? How much more construction does the market need to see? Northern Virginia is poised for growth, but is it growing quick enough to meet the supply being delivered?”
One week later, the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce will host its 27th Annual Economic Conference. The central theme of the conference is a review of the last ten years of development in Tysons and examining economic indicators for the area’s future growth.
The event is scheduled for Jan. 31 from 7:30-11 a.m. in the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner at 7920 Jones Branch Drive.
A credit card fraud suspect led police on an extended foot pursuit through Tysons last night — during which he tried to open the doors of cars stopped in evening rush hour traffic.
The incident happened around 6 p.m., when police responded to the Bloomingdales at Tysons Corner Center for a report of two men fraudulently using credit cards.
“When officers tried to stop the suspects, one was arrested while the other ran away, leading officers on a 30-minute foot pursuit,” Fairfax County Police said in a crime report. “During the pursuit, the suspect was trying to open doors of cars that were stopped in traffic. One of the drivers called in the man’s suspicious behavior. Officers quickly responded to the area and caught James Lambert, 24, of New York.”
“Lambert and Darren Saunders, 23, of New York, were charged with credit card fraud,” police said.
Photo via FCPD
