By Brian Trompeter
Located next to each other in downtown McLean and sharing complementary outdoor amenities, the expansion of Mars Inc.’s corporate headquarters and mixed-use Astoria at McLean development fittingly received back-to-back approvals Oct. 24 from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
First up was Mars Inc.’s application to rezone about 3.8 acres bounded by Old Dominion Drive, Ingleside Avenue, Moyer Place and Elm Street in order to expand and renovate its two-story, 52,970-square-foot headquarters at 6885 Elm St. The company also will expand the building onto an adjacent property at 6867 Elm St. after demolishing an existing three-story, 16,430-square-foot office building there.
The new headquarters will be up to 63 feet tall and have a maximum of 126,974 square feet of gross floor area. That last figure includes the potential addition of third story with conference-room space.
The project will feature a 1,850-square-foot public park near Old Dominion Drive at the site’s southern corner. It will have landscaping, seating areas and a radial pergola.
Mars will keep the site’s rear area, which now is a private amenity for employees and their pets, and make the space more attractive with new landscaping and tree plantings. This area also will receive upgraded stormwater-management features, including dry swales and a filtering-and-detention system for water runoff.
Mars will relocate an existing bus stop along Old Dominion Drive and construct a covered bus shelter. The corporation also will add 6- to 8-foot-wide sidewalks, 6-foot-wide “landscape-amenity panels” and 8-foot-wide parking lanes along the site’s Elm Street, Moyer Place and Ingleside Avenue sides.
The Old Dominion Drive side will benefit from “avenue-type” streetscape improvements, such as a 12-foot-wide shared-use path and 8-foot-wide landscape-amenity panel. The company will reduce two existing curb cuts to one, eliminate a service drive and parking area along the street and install a double row of street trees along the shared-use path.
To permit those streetscape upgrades, Mars will place existing utilities along Elm Street and Old Dominion Drive underground.
Mars, which has been based in McLean since 1984, “is very proud to reinvest in the community and develop a LEED Gold headquarters that’s going to serve them for many years to come,” said Evan Pritchard, an attorney for the applicant.
The site currently has nearly all surface parking, but Mars now plans to put it all in a below-grade garage with at least 205 spaces. Backup generators now located outside the building will be relocated into the parking garage.
The headquarters will receive exterior aesthetic improvements and allow more natural light into the building. The structure now lacks a loading dock, but the new structure will have one off of Moyer Place with a mechanical turntable that will obviate the need for delivery trucks to back out into traffic after dropping off their loads.
Supervisor Penelope Gross (D-Mason) inquired about public art at the site. Pritchard responded that Mars had been talking with the local arts community about that possibility.
The headquarters project – like the Astoria application – is located in the high-density Center Zone of the McLean Community Business Center’s (CBC)comprehensive plan and “will permit the development of a stunning corporate office for Mars,” said Supervisor John Foust (D-Dranesville).
“In my opinion, the design and quality of this proposal is consistent with the community’s vision for the future of downtown McLean,” Foust said.
County supervisors next held a public hearing on the Astoria at McLean rezoning proposal by JAG Partners LLC, which will remove existing commercial uses from four lots totaling 2.06 acres at 6854, 6856 and 6858 Old Dominion Drive and 6861 Elm St. Those will be replaced with 276,245 square feet of residential space inside a seven-story, 92-foot-tall building with up to 130 multi-family units. The structure also will contain 1,692 square feet of office space and 3,109 of retail, both on the ground floor.
The site currently has two office buildings and associated parking, as well as a freestanding restaurant.
Because the applicant agreed to provide 12 on-site workforce dwellings, supervisors allowed the project to have a floor-area ratio (FAR) of 3.1, versus the usual 3.0 allowed in the McLean CBC’s Center Zone.
The applicant will build an 8-foot-wide pedestrian walkway to connect Elm Street and Old Dominion Drive, and three public park spaces, including two corner plazas. Open spaces at the site will complement those at Mars Inc.’s freshly approved corporate headquarters.
The applicant also will provide streetscape upgrades and underground utilities along the site’s frontages.
The development is the first mixed-use residential proposal under the new CBC plan, which aims to create a revitalized, walkable downtown McLean, said Michelle Rosati, the applicant’s attorney.
The applicant took advantage of a perfectly straight property line between Elm Street and Old Dominion Drive and created a mid-block connection that will break up one of central McLean’s “super-blocks,” which make life more difficult for pedestrians, Rosati said. The connection will be a linear park ranging from 24 to 37 feet wide.
JAG Partners LLC has proffered installation of public art, in coordination with the McLean Planning Committee and McLean Project for the Arts.
In response to public feedback, the applicant changed the building’s articulation and finish about midway through, in order to break up its massing, Rosati said. The building also goes from seven stories to six on the Elm Street side.
The project will have 33 percent open space, improved stormwater management and electric-vehicle parking spaces, both installed and pre-wired for future use, she said.
“This area is going to have an urban feel, with buildings close to the street, generous sidewalks, street trees and other amenities such as urban plazas, ground-floor retail and public art,” Foust said.
The CBC comprehensive plan recognizes the importance of residential units to the revitalization efforts and the Astoria project will advance that goal, Foust said. In addition to providing some workforce housing, the application will diversify the mix of uses in McLean and provide a customer base for existing and future commercial endeavors, he said.
“The design and layout of the building, along with the on-site park spaces and critical mid-block connection, will set a high bar for all future multi-family applications,” Foust said, adding, “The project advances our goals for the revitalization of downtown McLean.”
