By Brian Trompeter
Having somewhat assuaged planning staff’s concerns, Cityline Partners LLC received unanimous approval from Fairfax County supervisors May 7 to build a hotel instead of a planned office building in eastern Tysons.
Supervisors agreed to amend proffers for Cityline’s Scotts Run Station South development, approved in 2013, which allowed an interim park at the site until an 18-story, 405,000-square-foot office building could be constructed.
Cityline instead will build a 12-story, 232,975-square-foot Hilton hotel on 0.75 acres located on the property’s “Westgate” block, located on the southeast corner of Dolley Madison Boulevard and Anderson Road. Cityline has removed a former building at the site, which now is vacant.
The developer will build the hotel on a five-story parking podium and provide about 4,750 square feet of ground-floor retail space. The structure will be 225 feet tall, including its penthouse.
Floors 6 through 9 above the parking podium will be occupied by “Home2 Suites,” an extended-stay product by Hilton. Floors 11 through 17 will consist of the company’s “Canopy” boutique-hotel brand, plus a restaurant and rooftop bar.
In addition, the hotel building will have meeting rooms and courtyards.
Cityline will provide office or residential uses on the remainder of the parcel and build the previously approved temporary park on part of the site.
To address county staff’s concerns about park space, Cityline will provide additional park space on Scotts Run Station South’s “Garfield” block and contribute money toward construction of a trail connection between the Fairfax County Park Authority’s existing pathway in Westgate Park to the future Highland District sidewalk.
The development got a 7-0 recommendation May 1 from the Fairfax County Planning Commission, but four members abstained from the vote. County staff opposed the applicant’s plan to put service entrances for trash and loading off Platform Avenue, a new private street that will be built with the hotel.
Staff said this would preclude shared use of a single, consolidated garage or continuously activated ground-floor space.
Platform Avenue originally was proposed as a “main street” leading to the McLean Metrorail station, prioritizing pedestrian amenities and discouraging vehicular access, staff told the Planning Commission. Trash and loading entrances on that street would negatively affect pedestrian access and safety, visual appeal and provision of activated ground-floor space, they said.
But the developer ultimately got its way.
The hotel will complement other uses at Scotts Run South, serve as a catalyst for development, preserve a commercial use on that block, contribute toward the county’s tax base and reduce the number of vehicular trips compared with the earlier planned office building, applicant attorney Lynne Strobel told supervisors.
The proposed Platform Avenue access points are the “safest and most appropriate” to serve the hotel, she said.
The applicant will disguise those doors by bringing down architectural materials from the rest of the building and installing windows on them so as not to compromise the pedestrian experience along the street, Strobel said.
Supervisor Dalia Palchik (D-Providence) said the application was not perfect, but had a lot of good things going for it.
“We’re in a very different economy than we were over a decade ago,” she said. “So I know that as our applicants come forward, we are starting to see some different types of applications that were maybe not envisioned in the original plan.”
