A pair of adjacent hotels along Richmond Highway in Huntington are being eyed for redevelopment.
Separate developers have proposed replacing Moon Inn Hotel (6140 Richmond Highway) and Days Inn by Wyndham (6100 Richmond Highway) with multifamily residential buildings that could deliver more than 500 homes combined, according to rezoning applications submitted last month to Fairfax County.
On the Days Inn property, which also encompasses a vacant commercial building from the 1950s that belonged to Hawaiian Pool and Spa, an affiliate of Cleveland-based NRP Group is seeking to construct a seven-story apartment building with up to 406 rental units.
“The redevelopment of the Days Inn and Hawaiian Pool and Spa sites will transform the existing hotel and commercial buildings into much needed housing,” Mark Viani, a land use attorney for Bean, Kinney & Korman, said in a statement for the application.
At least 32, or 8%, of the apartments will be designated as workforce dwelling units (WDUs) in accordance with the county’s affordable housing guidelines.
An above-ground garage at the back of the building would provide 482 parking spaces for drivers and 84 spaces for bicyclists.
No commercial or retail space is included in the proposed building, but some landscaped park space at the southwestern corner of the property and near the entrance along Richmond Highway would be accessible to the public. Potential amenities include benches, bicycle racks, planting beds, open lawn space and a “small sculpture.”
The developer is also offering to contribute funding for suggested off-site park improvements, such as a dog park at nearby Mount Eagle Park and a new playground for the Fair Haven Community Center.
“Both locations are easily walkable from the Project site and would serve both residents of the existing Fairhaven community and of the new community, maximizing their public benefits,” Viani wrote.
In addition to adding a 6-foot-wide sidewalk and 6.5-foot-wide cycle track on Richmond Highway, the development would replace a retaining wall that currently holds up neighboring houses but “is threatening to fail at certain points,” the application says.
Meanwhile, Moon Inn Hotel would be replaced with a six-story building with up to 113 rental apartments and approximately 4,720 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, according to a March 24 application.
Built in 1952 as the Harry Smith Motel, the hotel underwent a renovation after it was acquired in 2016 by current owner Zangana Hospitality, the Washington Business Journal reported.
The prospective developer, which appears to be the U.S. branch of the Iraq-based firm Saqer-Almanar, says the planned apartment building would include a retail component with outdoor seating at the corner of Richmond Highway and Fairhaven Avenue.
About 12,425 square feet of urban park space is included, most of it concentrated at that corner. Another park space with a 2,360-square-foot dog run, a bench, plantings and a pet waste station is shown on the submitted development plan along the opposite property line adjacent to the Days Inn site.
Like NRP Group, Saqer-Almanar’s application says it will set aside 8% of the total units as WDUs, and bicycle and pedestrian facilities would be provided along the Richmond Highway frontage.
“The Project will yield safety improvements along Richmond Highway and serve as a vibrant addition to the Fairhaven community,” Viani, who’s also representing the Moon Inn developer, said in a statement of justification. “The Applicant has devoted considerable energy and thought into the Project layout to respect the adjacent neighborhood while filling in the Richmond Highway Corridor.”
Both properties were nominated for Fairfax County’s Site-Specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) process in 2022-2023.
Though the Moon Inn Hotel application was withdrawn, both applications are being reviewed by county staff for a proposed comprehensive plan amendment for a portion of the Penn Daw Community Business Center. A Mount Vernon SSPA task force met last November and December to discuss potential revisions to the area’s land use mix.
