A developer is seeking to expand on the Cavalier Club apartments in Seven Corners on both sides of the Fairfax and Arlington county line.
A 110-foot-tall multi-family building with 250 apartments and 5,000 square feet of retail space has been proposed at 6200 Wilson Blvd on the Arlington County border, according to a rezoning application filed with Fairfax County on May 31.
In addition, townhomes are being planned to replace the 143 surface parking spaces along N. McKinley Road on the Arlington portion of the 5.58-acre site. Design work is underway for what will be a separate, by-right development.
“The proposed development will provide additional housing options in this part of Fairfax County, preserve an existing residential community, and create a high-quality, mixed-use node that will serve as a gateway to Fairfax County,” Odin, Feldman & Pittleman land use attorney Sara Mariska wrote in a statement of justification for the new apartment building.
Built in 1965, the 12-story Cavalier Club consists of 220 units accompanied by 2,600 square feet of commercial space, currently filled by beauty salons and a dental office. The property is owned by Southern Management Companies, which has partnered with the Bethesda-based developer EYA for the new project.
The apartment building and outdoor amenities like the swimming pool and community gardens will remain. However, the tennis courts will be “reconfigured as an enhanced residential amenity area,” and nearly all of the existing surface parking will be replaced with the new construction.
In place of the parking lots, the new apartment building will include 232 spaces of underground parking for residents and visitors, while Cavalier Club residents will be served by a standalone, 357-space parking garage on the southwest corner of the site.
The standalone parking garage would be built before construction begins on the multi-family building “to allow adequate parking onsite,” the development plan says.
As part of the project, the developer intends to move the property’s access point from Wilson Blvd to N. McKinley Drive. A 9-foot-wide sidewalk and 8-foot-wide landscape strip are proposed along Wilson Blvd.
In addition to keeping most of the Cavalier Club amenities, the development plan shows 0.67 acres of urban park space, including a pocket park in Arlington, pocket and linear parks along Wilson Blvd, and a courtyard on the second level of the new apartment building.
The application, which hasn’t been officially accepted by county staff for review, says the new development will benefit current residents by providing updated parking facilities and “integrated neighborhood-sized gathering spaces.”
“The proposal will preserve a well-maintained existing residential community and add to the much-needed supply of housing in a revitalization area that is just over a mile to the East Falls Church Metro Station and proximate to Falls Church, Arlington, as well as both Seven Corners and Baileys Crossroads,” Mariska wrote.
To allow for the new development, Southern Management and EYA requested that the county amend its comprehensive plan for the Cavalier Club site in 2022. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors authorized consideration of an amendment on April 11, 2023, but no public hearings have been scheduled yet.
The proposed amendment would add an option for mixed-use development on the site, including 20,000 square feet of retail, and increase the residential density to at least 20 units per acre, which would allow about 300 new multi-family units.
