Angela Woolsey | FFXnow

Oakton park, rec center no longer ‘Marr-ed’ by Confederacy-linked name

Published November 17, 2023 at 11:45AM

Oak Marr RECenter has been renamed Oakmont Rec Center (via Google Maps)

Fairfax County has shed another vestige of its Confederate past.

Oak Marr Park, which is home to the Oak Marr RECenter and Golf Center Complex, was renamed “Oakmont” earlier this month by the Fairfax County Park Authority board, which approved the change at its Nov. 8 meeting.

News

Virginia Tech’s West Falls Church campus sold for redevelopment as construction hub

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 17, 2023 at 10:15AM

A new headquarters for HITT Contracting will anchor the redevelopment of Virginia Tech's campus near the West Falls Church Metro station (courtesy Gensler)

The remaking of Virginia Tech’s campus near the West Falls Church Metro station as a futuristic mixed-use development can officially begin.

The university and Falls Church City completed a sale of the 7.41-acre Northern Virginia Center site to developer Converge West Falls LLC last week, the city announced Wednesday (Nov. 15).

News

Vote on proposal to preserve Vienna’s tree canopy delayed to 2024

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 16, 2023 at 1:15PM

Advocates collect petition signatures supporting a Town of Vienna tree conservation ordinance at Vienna Oktoberfest 2023 (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

The future of Vienna’s trees will rest on a new town council.

When it met on Monday (Nov. 13), the current Vienna Town Council was scheduled to finalize a proposal aimed at preserving and enhancing the town’s tree canopy, which has declined over the past decade.

News

MS-13 member pleads guilty to helping murder teen at Lincolnia park in 2016

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 16, 2023 at 11:45AM | Updated February 28, 2024 at 7:05PM

Remains of two murdered teens were found in Holmes Run Stream Valley Park in Lincolnia on March 2, 2017 (via Google Maps)

(Updated at 6:55 p.m. on 2/28/2024) Another suspect in the 2016 murders of two teens at Holmes Run Stream Valley Park in Lincolnia has pleaded guilty.

Edwin Orellana Caballero, a member of the gang La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, pleaded guilty yesterday (Wednesday) to one count of maiming in aid of racketeering activity in connection to the kidnapping and killing of a 14-year-old from Alexandria, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced.

Around Town

Report: D.C. Chinatown food hall plans expansion to Tysons

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 16, 2023 at 10:15AM

Inside Luna Hall in D.C.'s Chinatown (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

A food hall that opened in D.C.’s Chinatown this summer already has its eye on Tysons for a second location.

Restauranteur Zong Chen, one of the operators of Luna Hall DC (625 H Street NW), has leased 6,800 square feet on the ground floor of 8201 Greensboro Drive, a 12-story office building near Tysons Galleria, the Washington Business Journal reported yesterday.

News

Old Town Fairfax buildings to be razed soon for mixed-use condo development

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 16, 2023 at 9:30AM | Updated November 16, 2023 at 1:19PM

City Centre West will replace commercial buildings on Main Street with a mixed-use condominium complex (courtesy Ox Hill Companies)

Fences have gone up around three commercial buildings at the corner of Main Street and West Street in Old Town Fairfax, signaling their impending demise in favor of a planned mixed-use development known as City Centre West.

Developer Ox Hill Companies anticipates demolishing the vacant Wells Fargo bank, a restaurant last occupied by OudResto & Hall and the office building with its headquarters (10501, 10515 and 10523 Main Street) by the end of this year, Managing Principal Christopher Smith recently told FFXnow.

Around Town

The Casual Pint to open near Dunn Loring Metro station tomorrow

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 15, 2023 at 1:30PM

The Casual Pint of Dunn Loring will open in The Shops at Avenir Place tomorrow (courtesy The Casual Pint)

The Dunn Loring Metro station’s new “beerstro” is set to pour its first official brew tomorrow (Thursday).

The Casual Pint, a pub specializing in craft beer, will throw a grand opening celebration for its Dunn Loring franchise (2676 Avenir Place, Unit F), starting with a first toast at noon, according to a media advisory.

News

Write-in campaigns fall short in Vienna, but succeed in Clifton elections

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 15, 2023 at 10:15AM | Updated November 16, 2023 at 10:00AM

Vienna Town Council candidate campaign signs for the 2023 general election (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

(Updated at 10 a.m. on 11/16/2023) A week after polls closed, the next mayors and councils for the towns of Vienna and Clifton have been decided.

The Fairfax County Electoral Board certified the local race results for this year’s general election yesterday (Tuesday), including for a Vienna Town Council contest where write-in votes exceeded votes for two of the seven candidates on the ballot.

News

Teens arrested after gunshots heard in Rose Hill McDonald’s

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 15, 2023 at 9:30AM

McDonald's at 5600 Franconia Road in Rose Hill (via Google Maps)

Two teens were arrested yesterday (Tuesday) for allegedly firing a gun inside the bathroom of a McDonald’s near Edison High School.

Fairfax County police responded to the fast-food restaurant at 5600 Franconia Road in Rose Hill for a “suspicious noise” heard around noon, according to scanner traffic on Open MHz. A caller reported that a gun had been fired in the men’s bathroom, and someone “ran out” and got into a black sedan, a dispatcher said.

Around Town

Two Tysons restaurants will celebrate end of Prohibiton for D.C. Cocktail Week

By Angela Woolsey

Published November 14, 2023 at 2:30PM

The restaurant Wren at Capital One Center in Tysons (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

Martinis will be shaken and stirred across the D.C. area in the week following Thanksgiving.

That’s when more than 85 restaurants and bars around the region will celebrate D.C. Cocktail Week, an annual promotion organized by Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) that will begin on Nov. 28 and end on Dec. 5 — the 90th anniversary of Prohibition’s repeal.