By Brian Trompeter
A proposed Mars Inc. headquarters expansion and redevelopment in central McLean received a unanimous positive recommendation to the Board of Supervisors from the Fairfax County Planning Commission following an Oct. 11 public hearing.
“Mars is updating their space to better serve their existing associates,” said Evan Pritchard, an attorney representing the applicant. “This is not really being driven by any planned major increase in the number of employees on site. It’s really just to give the people who work there today a much better building to work within.”
Mars Inc. hopes to rezone about 3.8 acres bounded by Old Dominion Drive, Ingleside Avenue, Moyer Place and Elm Street. The site is located adjacent to the proposed mixed-use Astoria redevelopment project, which will be headed to county officials shortly for consideration.
Mars, which has diverse holdings but is known primarily for its candy business, has occupied its McLean headquarters since 1984. The corporation wishes to redevelop and expand its existing two-story, 52,970-square-foot office building at 6885 Elm St., which would require razing an adjacent three-story, 16,430-square-foot office structure at 6867 Elm St. that the company bought a couple of years ago.
The resulting headquarters building would be up to 63 feet tall and have up to 126,974 square feet of gross floor area, which works out to a floor-area ratio of 0.76 for the site. The square-footage figure includes the possible addition of third story with conference-room space in the future.
The redevelopment would feature a 1,850-square-foot public space at the site’s southern corner near Old Dominion Drive. This amenity, which would have landscaping, seating areas and a radial pergola, would be designed to mesh with similar outdoor space being proposed at the adjacent Astoria project.
Mars would retain its site’s rear area, which now serves as a private amenity for employees and their pets, and redesign the space to make it more attractive. The area would feature new landscaping and tree plantings, plus improved stormwater-management capabilities using dry swales and a filtering-and-detention system for water runoff.
In accordance with the new comprehensive plan for the McLean Community Business Center (CBC), which calls for a multi-modal transportation network with options for pedestrians and bicyclists, Mars would relocate an existing bus stop along Old Dominion Drive and build a covered bus shelter.
The company would add streetscape improvements – including 6- to 8-foot-wide sidewalks, 6-foot-wide “landscape-amenity panels” and 8-foot-wide parking lanes – along its property’s Elm Street, Moyer Place and Ingleside Avenue sides.
The property’s Old Dominion Drive side, which handles more traffic, would receive “avenue-type” streetscape improvements, including a 12-foot-wide shared-use path and 8-foot-wide landscape-amenity panel. The existing two curb cuts would be reduced to one, a service drive and parking area along the street would be eliminated and a double row of street trees installed along the shared-use path.
In order to allow for those streetscape upgrades, Mars would underground existing utilities along Elm Street and Old Dominion Drive.
The company would seek to have the new headquarters building attain at least Gold certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.
“From the very beginning, Mars identified energy sustainability as a major goal of the project,” Pritchard said.
The headquarters site now primarily has surface parking, outdoor generators, no loading dock and an odd side entrance on the building, which fronts on Elm Street, Pritchard said.
Unlike the current headquarters, which has a monolithic brick exterior and lets in little natural light, the proposed new building would have a more attractive façade featuring glass-curtain walls, terracotta, bricks and clerestory windows, he said. The main entrance would be moved to Elm Street and improved.
Inside, employees would benefit from more natural light, an open floor plan and additional conference space, he added.
All parking would be located in a below-grade garage, with at least 205 spaces provided. The site “historically has been over-parked,” Pritchard said, and Mars officials were appreciative of the county’s new “Parking Reimagined” regulations, which reduced the number of spaces required in some areas.
Two curb cuts on the property’s Elm Street side would be consolidated into one, Pritchard said. The site’s Moyer Place side would have a loading dock with a mechanical turntable, which would allow delivery vehicles to turn around and not back out of the facility onto the street, he said.
Mars would eliminate the grade change for the Moyer Place sidewalk and move the outdoor generators on that side of the street to a discreet location inside the parking garage.
Planning Commission member John Ulfelder (Dranesville District) recalled some “gnashing of teeth” when the county revamped the McLean CBC’s comprehensive plan in 2021 and said the proposed Mars redevelopment is a “good example, I think, of what we can get from having looked at the plan and made changes for the future.”
This is a vast improvement at the site and I appreciate it,” Ulfelder said.
“It is hard to imagine that a company of this size, in terms of its revenues, is in such a small location, right here in Fairfax County,” said Planning Commission member Mary Cortina (Braddock District). “It’s an important part of our economy, so this is an important application.”
The headquarters typically has about 150 employees on site, although that number can rise to around 190 during board meetings, Pritchard said. The company expects workers to be on site on some days, but offers flexibility elsewhere, he said.
“There’s no substitute for that face-to-face work ethic,” Pritchard said.
