As it seeks to convert the former Sheraton Tysons Hotel into housing, the developer of Tysons West has scaled down its intentions for a residential and retail building on the vacant neighboring lot.
In a new plan submitted to Fairfax County on Friday (March 31), JBG Smith proposes building a five to eight-story mid-rise with up to 265 dwelling units and 5,000 square feet of retail space, reducing the overall square footage to a maximum of 268,000.
Adjacent to the Cox store and Basic Burger buildings, the 2.18-acre property at 8740 Yard Street is bounded to the west by Cornerside Blvd, to the north by Ashgrove Lane and to the east by Route 7 (Leesburg Pike). It’s currently being used as a gravel parking lot.
“The Applicant’s proposal will result in the provision of a new multifamily building within close proximity to the Spring Hill Metro station, and in the installation of a variety of new urban parks and associated amenities for future residents and members of the public,” Walsh Colucci lawyer Robert Brant wrote in a March 29 statement of justification on JBG Smith’s behalf.
Known as Building C, the site was first approved in 2013 as a five to six-story building with up to 450,000 square feet of space, including up to 400 residential units and 50,000 square feet of retail.
The maximum height of 85 feet will remain the same as the original development plan for Tysons West, which envisioned nearly 1.8 million square feet of development across five buildings between the Dulles Airport Access Road and Westwood Center Drive.
Two of the existing buildings — the Sheraton and the shopping block filled by Walmart, District Taco and others — were set to be retained until Marriott International closed the hotel in April 2020.
“Given the proposed adaptive reuse of Building E into a naturally affordable multifamily building, and the retention of its structured and surface parking, revisions to the approved design for Building C are required,” Brant said.
As part of Building C, the developer says it will construct part of a new private street called Yard Street from Cornerside Blvd to the entrance of a two-level parking garage at the bottom of the building. The garage will have 269 spaces total, according to the plan.
Yard Street will eventually provide a “right-out only” exit onto Route 7.
Other amenities include a 2,700-square-foot “pocket” park on the opposite corner of Cornerside and Ashgrove, and a 7,000-square-foot urban plaza on the site’s southwest corner. The 0.2 acres provided fall short of the 0.7 acres of park space recommended based on the county’s standards.
At full build-out, Tysons West will have 2.5 acres of park space, including a publicly accessible, recreational park proposed next to the Westwood Village condominiums as part of the Sheraton conversion.
A private courtyard for residents will also be provided inside Building C, according to the application.
In addition, the developer has offered to make streetscape improvements on the north side of Ashgrove Lane — including 6-foot-wide sidewalks and 8.5-foot-wide landscape panels — and construct a 10-foot-wide trail along the building by Leesburg Pike.
“Approval of this FDPA will continue to implement the County’s vision for Tysons by expanding upon the supply of residential housing and advancing its transformation into a transit-oriented mixed-use neighborhood,” Brant wrote.
Basic Burger is circling the Tysons area as one potential location for a new, standalone bagel “concept.”
For now, the Arlington-based company will open a New York bagel pop-up in its Tysons West restaurant at 1495 Cornerside Blvd this weekend, Operations Director Jamie Mansy told FFXnow.
The “Basic Bagel” pop-up will sell bagels by themselves and in orders of a dozen or half-dozen. The menu also has fried egg sandwiches with sausage or bacon and different schmears, including butter, jelly, cream cheese and peanut butter.
It will operate only on Saturdays and Sundays for the foreseeable future.
“This is not a New York ‘style’ bagel, but actual bagel BOILED and BAKED fresh in New York City and shipped down to us every Saturday and Sunday,” Mansy said by email. “We have limited supply and when we sell out, we sell out.”
Launched in 2016, Basic Burger offers burgers, chicken and fish sandwiches, hot dogs, a couple of salads and sides.
The bagel pop-up was first introduced at Basic Burger’s Pentagon Row location, where it has seen “tremendous success,” according to Mansy. Prior to that, the company had been developing it as a standalone concept but put that plan on the backburner when COVID-19 arrived in spring 2020.
Mansy says the restaurant is “excited” to bring the pop-up to Tysons as it searches for a site for a standalone store. The first location will be in either the Tysons and McLean area or Arlington County.
“We are shopping spaces to bring the concept full time to northern VA so no exact timing on when it will stop being a pop-up, but we do plan to launch it as a standalone concept from our restaurant group in the future,” Mansy wrote.
Also on the horizon for the Tysons West shopping center is a PetMedic Urgent Care clinic that’s expected to open next year. Plans for housing in the former Sheraton hotel, which is part of the larger development envisioned by JBG Smith, are currently being reviewed by Fairfax County.
The developer planning to convert the former Sheraton hotel (8661 Leesburg Pike) in Tysons into multifamily housing has proposed enhancing the property with nearly 3.5 acres of park space.
A portion of the now-vacant hotel’s existing parking lot would be replaced by pocket parks, larger recreational parks, and an urban plaza to serve both future residents and the general public, according to an application filed with Fairfax County on Friday (Nov. 11).
“The urban park spaces on the east and west sides…will include a variety of amenities including a sport court, a tot lot, an outdoor gaming area, and a variety of seating areas and gathering spaces,” Walsh Colucci land use attorney Robert Brant, representing developer JBG Smith, wrote in a statement of justification.
County planners are currently reviewing a proposal from JBG Smith to convert the 449-room, 22-story Sheraton — which closed in April 2020 — into a multifamily residential building with up to 544 units and 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.
By renovating the existing building instead of tearing it down and turning the hotel’s relatively small guest rooms into permanent residences, the project will provide a “naturally affordable” housing option in Tysons West, the application argues.
The only part of the hotel building that won’t be preserved is a porte-cochère over the main entrance, which will be removed so the driveway can be realigned with Cornerside Blvd to the east. An existing underground parking garage and loading dock will remain.
The submitted final development plan amendment also shows possible expansions of the hotel’s private, interior courtyard spaces. The building’s southeast corner could serve as commercial space or be subdivided into three additional two-bedroom residential units.
In addition to the Sheraton conversion, JBG Smith is also seeking to increase the 245 units approved for another building in the Tysons West development — a residential mid-rise designated as Building C — to up to 300 units.
With its new application, the developer says it will provide an open lawn and meadow as an interim park on the future Building C site, an undeveloped parcel at the intersection of Cornerside Blvd and Ashgrove Lane that’s currently used for parking.
Replacing Ashgrove Lane east of Cornerside, which will be extended to the north side of the Sheraton, the 89,000-square-foot interim park would give Tysons West 3.46 acres of public park space in all — well above the 0.9 acres recommended by the county. The total includes an existing “pocket park” of benches and flower planters outside Moby Dick.
Proposed transportation improvements include a “Tysons West Trail” for pedestrians and bicyclists on the northeast corner of the Sheraton property by Route 7 and a 6-foot-wide sidewalk by the interim park along Cornerside.
“Approval of this FDPA will continue to implement the County’s vision for Tysons by expanding upon the type of residential housing options and advancing its transformation into a transit-oriented mixed-use neighborhood,” Brantley wrote.
Overall, Tysons West encompasses 16 acres, including the existing shopping center, and could total 1.1 to 1.6 million square feet of construction as approved by the county in 2013.
A 27-year-old man exposed himself multiple times at shopping centers in the Tysons West area last week, Fairfax County police say.
The man was arrested last Tuesday (July 26) after allegedly exposing himself twice in front of a woman and juvenile who were shopping in the clothing section of the Walmart in Tysons West (1500 Cornerside Blvd.) that day.
Police were called to the scene around 6:45 p.m., but the man had left the department store before they arrived.
“Hours later, loss prevention officers from Walmart saw the man nearby and called police. Officers found the man and took him into custody,” the Fairfax County Police Department said in a news release today (Monday).
According to police, the man is also a suspect in other exposure incidents. Detectives are seeking more information on incidents that occurred between July 24 and July 26 at the Walmart and around the Tysons Square shopping center (8359 Leesburg Pike).
The man has been charged with two counts of indecent liberties and two counts of indecent exposure, all of them felonies. He is currently being held at the Adult Detention Center without bond.
The FCPD advises any possible victims or anyone else with information to contact its Major Crimes Bureau at 703-246-7800, option 3. Tips can be submitted anonymously through Crime Solvers by phone (1-866-411-TIPS) or online.
“Anonymous tipsters are eligible for cash rewards of $100 to $1,000 dollars,” the department said. “Please leave contact information if you wish for a detective to follow up with you.”
This isn’t the first time this year customers of the Tysons West Walmart have been subjected to some unwanted sights. A 30-year-old man faced charges for exposing himself at the store in May and allegedly attempting to bribe the officers who arrested him, FFXnow previously reported from court documents.
Photo via Google Maps
It took longer than anticipated, but Basic Burger has officially arrived in Tysons.
The Arlington-based burger joint opened the doors of its new Tysons West restaurant at 5 p.m. yesterday (Tuesday) — roughly half a year later than planned.
“We had hoped to be open months ago but what should have been a 6 week build out of an existing space took a little over 6 months because of permit delays,” Operations Director Jamie Mansy said by email. “Thankfully we are open now and have been very warmly received by the community.”
Taking B.Good’s place at 1495 Cornerside Blvd., Basic Burger’s Tysons venue is open from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday through Friday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. It has seating for 42 patrons inside and 16 outside.
In addition to burgers, the menu features hot dogs, fried chicken and fish sandwiches, salads, and “moo” shakes. The sides include “Loaded Moo Fries” — shoestring fries with chipotle ranch, bacon, shaved Parmesan cheese, and chopped scallions, topped with a fried egg.
This is Basic Burger’s first expansion since it launched in 2016. The company had two new locations in the works before COVID-19 hit but put its plans on hold during the first year of the pandemic, according to Mansy.
As part of its introduction to the Tysons community, Basic Burger has partnered with several local schools for a “Basic Giving Month.” During the first month of business, the partner schools will get all sales proceeds on a specific day, starting next week with Lemon Road Elementary School in Pimmit Hills.
“We have been fortunate to be named to several local, regional and national best burger lists,” Mansy said. “We hope to continue that tradition at Tysons West.”
After giving travelers shelter for more than three decades, the now-shuttered Sheraton Tysons Hotel (8661 Leesburg Pike) could soon become home to hundreds of permanent residents.
Property owner JBG Smith wants to turn the 22-story building and its parking garage into a 544-unit multifamily residential tower with up to 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, according to a rezoning application submitted to Fairfax County on Feb. 14.
The developer intends to adapt the existing building, which opened in 1985, rather than constructing a new one, saying that it will make the units more affordable.
“These units will be small in size and offer a more affordable housing opportunity,” Walsh Colucci land-use planner Elizabeth Baker wrote in a statement of justification on JBG Smith’s behalf. “By repurposing existing structures, the cost of building housing is reduced, and as a consequence, rents are lower than for new construction.”
Since the new residential building will contain small studio, one, and two-bedroom units, the developer has proposed replacing 49 existing surface parking spaces with a new public park adjacent to the Westwood Village neighborhood.
JBG bought the 254,559-square-foot lot occupied by the Sheraton in 2014, according to county property records. While part of the larger Tysons West development, the hotel was expected to remain under a plan approved by the county in 2013.
However, operator Marriott International shut the hotel down in April 2020, citing the need to adapt after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After settling tax lawsuits against Fairfax County in December, the developer is seeking to revise the Tysons West plan to designate the Sheraton building as residential and provide a new option for a proposed “Building C” that would be constructed on a portion of Ashgrove Lane.
Under an intepretation of the existing plan approved in 2018, Building C is envisioned as a 4 to 8-story, mid-rise residential building with up to 245 dwelling units and 7,000 square feet of retail or service uses, totaling 250,000 square feet of space.
With the shift in usage for the Sheraton site, JBG is requesting that the county consider allowing an 8 to 10-story, 300,000-square-foot building with up to 300 dwelling units and 3,000-7,000 square feet of retail uses as a potential alternative.
The developer anticipates that the changes will reduce the amount of traffic to Tysons West compared to what would be expected with the hotel staying.
“The proposed development will continue the implementation of the Tysons vision, by creating a dynamic, mixed-use neighborhood,” Baker wrote. “The adaptive reuse of existing structures with a naturally affordable housing product promotes sustainability and helps make this lifestyle available to many.”
When completed, the Tysons West development will consist of five buildings, including the existing shopping center at 1500 Cornerside Boulevard.
Building A has been designated as an office tower with up to 15,000 square feet of retail, and Building B would have up to 300,000 square feet of residential space, complemented by up to 35,000 square feet of retail. Located next to each other, the buildings would both be 14 to 20 stories tall.
