Commuting will be easier for four families in the D.C. area, thanks to their new vehicles from a quartet of Virginia and Maryland automobile dealerships.
The businesses handed off the donated vehicles to their recipients — all single mothers — with a ceremony on March 18 at the National Automobile Dealers Association’s (NADA) headquarters (8484 Westpark Drive) in Tysons.
NADA, which represents over 16,000 auto dealerships nationwide, organized the initiative with Vehicles for Change (VFC), a nonprofit that accepts donated vehicles and gives them to families in Northern Virginia and Maryland who need access to independent transportation.
“Every day, our members see firsthand the benefits, opportunities and freedoms a vehicle brings to its owner’s life and family,” NADA President and CEO Mike Stanton said in a press release. “That’s why we’ve been engaged and supportive of VFC for several years and are excited to further embrace their mission this year.”
According to the release, NADA’s philanthropic arm — the NADA Foundation — located the donated vehicles and contributed $5,000 for each of them to cover the costs of refurbishments, repairs and other expenses that came with making them ready to drive.
Though the vehicles were donated, they’re not entirely free for the receiving families, who will each pay $950. They were provided 12-month loans from Sandy Spring Bank, which serves the D.C. region, and got warranties that cover the vehicles for six months or 6,000 miles.
The goal is to improve the recipients’ personal mobility, while also giving them “the opportunity to build their own credit portfolio and enhance their financial literacy,” NADA said.
“Access to a vehicle — by having reliable personal transportation — is paramount to a families’ ability to thrive,” NADA Board of Directors Chairman Gary Gilchrist said at the hand-off. “Not only will the vehicles here today give the recipients opportunities they might not have otherwise, but they also help families build their credit.”
According to NADA, the women who received the donated vehicles in Tysons plan to use them to get to their jobs or college, and to transport their children:
Sport Automotive Group in Silver Spring, Md., awarded a Toyota RAV4 to Candice McNair, a single mother of two daughters and a clerk in Annapolis, Md., who will use her vehicle to pursue her bachelor’s degree in health administration.
Nissan of Bowie in Bowie, Md., awarded a Nissan Versa to Toni Brown, a single mother of a teenage son and a medical secretary in Baltimore, Md., who will use her vehicle to alleviate the financial burden of her daily commute and access medical appointments.
Rosenthal Automotive Group based in Reston, Va., awarded a Nissan Altima to Tammy Carter, a single mother of two teenage daughters and a patient access specialist in Prince William County, Va., who will use her vehicle to decrease commuting time and transport her children to extracurricular activities.
Carter Myers Automotive Group based in Charlottesville, Va., awarded a Kia Rio to Adrianna Boyer, a single mother of two young children and a sales administrator in [Loudoun] County, Va., who will use her vehicle to get her son engaged in afterschool activities.
VFC founder and president Martin Schwartz noted that access to transportation enables people to be more involved with their family and community, in addition to making work, medical appointments and other tasks more convenient.
“This car is not just a mode of transportation; it’s a lifeline that will bring back normalcy to our lives,” Boyer, the Loudoun County resident, said. “Now, with the joyous addition of a car to our lives, I can foresee a positive shift. The ability to go to the grocery store, attend doctor appointments, and respond swiftly to emergencies is a game-changer.”
According to Fairfax County’s transportation data dashboard, the vast majority of residents drive to work, and about one in five households spend over 15% of their income on fuel, maintenance, tolls and other vehicle-related expenses.
Over the past decade, there’s been a slight uptick in households that don’t have a vehicle, from 5.1% in 2012 to 5.7% as of 2022.
The proposal to permit a casino in Fairfax County has honed in on one specific site: a former Aston Martin and Bentley dealership in Tysons.
Site criteria for the potential gaming establishment emerged yesterday (Wednesday), when state Sen. Dave Marsden’s long-awaited/dreaded bill was officially published online, just two days before the Virginia General Assembly’s filing deadline for the 2024 session.
As first reported by NBC4, the legislation would add Fairfax County to the list of localities eligible for a casino as long as the facility is:
- Located within one-quarter of a mile of an existing station on the Metro Silver Line
- Part of a coordinated mixed-use project development
- Outside of the Dulles International Airport flight path
- Within two miles of a major shopping destination with at least 1.5 million square feet of gross building area
- Outside of the Capital Beltway (I-495)
Those conditions limit possible sites to Tysons, dropping Reston from consideration after residents there prepared to fight the incoming legislation.
However, Marsden confirmed to FFXnow that he plans to amend the bill, titled Senate Bill 675, to further narrow the proposed scope to the abandoned Exclusive Automotive Group lot at 8546 Leesburg Pike near the Spring Hill Metro station.
Marsden didn’t specify what criteria will come with the amendment, but he says it will be added before the bill is presented to a committee. The legislation was referred yesterday to the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology, which hasn’t scheduled a meeting on it yet.
The site of a fire in April 2023, the dealership has been vacant since the company relocated its Aston Martin and Bentley franchises to a new showroom that opened in Ashburn in spring 2022.
The property was sold by the Cherner Development Group to Tysons Development LLC — a joint venture of the Clemente Development Company and Khaled Juffali Co. — for over $57 million on Feb. 4, 2020, per Fairfax County records. The sale involved multiple parcels totaling about 7.5 acres — all part of the planned View at Tysons development.
Approved by the county in 2019, The View at Tysons would transform the Route 7 and Tyco Road intersection with over 3 million square feet of mixed-use development, including the D.C. area’s tallest office tower and a performing arts center.
Marsden has said the casino could be part of an entertainment district that may also include an arts venue. He confirmed the project was proposed by Reston Station developer Comstock, which was previously reported to be pushing for a casino near the Wiehle Metro station.
“In my view, this casino is needed to ensure further revenue for Fairfax County to fund schools and other vital services due to the decline in commercial real estate revenue and increases in costs for Metro and other county obligations,” Marsden said, adding that broadening the commercial tax base would “take pressure off” of residential real estate and car taxes.
Local reactions to the possibility of a casino have generally ranged from skeptical to hostile. The McLean Citizens Association, which includes Tysons in its coverage area, sent a letter to state legislators last week opposing the impending bill, while Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik told FFXnow yesterday that there are still too many questions around where revenue would go and how the operator and site will be selected.
In addition to providing location criteria, SB 675 would require Fairfax County to consider a prospective operator’s labor practices, including payment of prevailing wages to construction contractors and hospitality workers and labor peace agreements with any unions. The operator would need to enter into an agreement with employee labor groups before it’s submitted to Virginia Lottery for approval.
If the bill passes the General Assembly and gets signed into law by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Fairfax County voters would still have to approve a referendum to allow a casino. Virginia currently has five localities eligible for a casino, but Richmond may be removed from that list after voters rejected a referendum two times.
Image via Google Maps
(Updated at 7:10 p.m.) Permanent closures are coming for three auto dealerships near the Spring Hill Metro station in Tysons.
The Priority Nissan and Mazda shops, which share a building at 8525 Leesburg Pike, will close at the end of this month with either July 31 or Aug. 1 as their final day of business, a customer service representative told FFXnow.
Next door, Sheehy Infiniti of Tysons is set to leave 8527 Leesburg Pike on Aug. 10, an operator confirmed.
“All our services will be transferred to Chantilly,” the operator said, referring to the Sheehy Infiniti dealership at 4145 Auto Park Circle.
While unsure of the reason for the closures, the Priority representative said warranties for vehicles purchased in Tysons will continue to be honored, and customers can access services at other locations. The closest dealership is the Safford Brown Mazda and Nissan (11010 Fairfax Blvd) in Fairfax.
According to the Sheehy Infiniti operator, there are plans to build apartments on the site.
The roughly 12-acre parcel south of Route 7 near the Vesper Trail is part of the massive Dominion Square redevelopment plan approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 2017.
Split into “east” and “west” portions along Spring Hill Road, the proposals from then-property owner Capital Automotive Real Estate Services (CARS) collectively envisioned replacing the existing auto dealerships with as much as 3.6 million square feet of mixed-use development.
About 2 million of that will be in Dominion Square East, which includes the Sheehy and Priority dealerships. The plan calls for six buildings, including multifamily residential, office, hotel and retail space, as well as new streets and recreational amenities, such as a public trail connection from the Old Courthouse Spring Branch Stream Valley to the Spring Hill Metro station.
CARS sold the land for $60.2 million in 2019 to LHL Dominion Square LLC, an apparent affiliate of the New York-based apartment developer Algin Management.
It’s unclear what the impending dealership closures mean for the future development. Algin didn’t return a request for comment by press time, and no new applications have been filed with the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Development.
“[DPD staff are] not aware of any proposed development,” a county public information officer said.
While there has been little movement on Dominion Square East since the development was approved, construction on at least part of the 7.6 acres to the west could begin as soon as December.
That’s when the nonprofit Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing anticipates breaking ground on two 21-story, all-affordable residential buildings at 1592 Spring Hill Road. The plan, which includes a community center for Tysons, was approved by the Fairfax County Planning Commission in February.
Hat tip to Adam Rubinstein. Images via Google Maps (photo, map)
Correction: This article originally misstated the closing date of Sheehy Infiniti as July 10, and apologies to Adam Rubinstein for the initial misspelling of his name.
A fire broke out this morning (Monday) in an abandoned automobile dealership near the Spring Hill Metro station in Tysons.
Units with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department were dispatched to 8546 Leesburg Pike at 10:45 a.m. for a commercial building fire, according to scanner traffic on OpenMHz.
Firefighters on the scene reported smoke from the roof of the building, which was once a Bentley and Aston Martin dealership.
Scanner traffic suggests that firefighters needed to break through a chain link fence around the property to get to the building. The fire was located in a bathroom.
The FCFRD reported around 11:30 a.m. that the fire had been extinguished, and no injuries were reported. Units are still on the scene to ventilate smoke from the building.
UPDATE: building fire in the 8500 block of Leesburg Pike in Tysons area. Fire is out. Units still on scene ventilating https://t.co/sws8vq3CfD investigators on scene to determine cause. #FCFRD pic.twitter.com/xFGOHFswLW
— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) April 10, 2023
The developer behind Reston Station and Herndon’s stalled downtown redevelopment has turned its sights to Tysons.
Comstock is seeking to replace the massive Koons Chevy and Chrysler dealerships at 2000 and 2050 Chain Bridge Road near the Route 7 (Leesburg Pike) interchange with a “vibrant, mixed-use, multi-block neighborhood,” according to a new application.
Submitted on Oct. 27 as part of Fairfax County’s Site-Specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) process, which considers possible land use changes to the comprehensive plan, the proposal says the new development would be 85% multifamily residences and about 15% retail. Open space and amenities would also be provided.
“The Nominator respectfully suggests that this infusion of residential mixed use is needed to redress the balance of uses in Tysons, specifically in the office-heavy area in and around the Greensboro Metro Station Transit Station-Mixed Use area,” DLA Piper Senior Land Use Planner Brian J. Clifford said in a statement on Comstock’s behalf.
A concept plan in the application depicts a single multi-level retail building on one block and another with four residential buildings. Heights range from 175 feet to 400 feet, increasing as the buildings get closer to Route 7.
Comstock says the adjacent interchange where Chain Bridge (Route 123) passes over Route 7 needs to be replaced with an at-grade intersection. The developer argues that would allow Boone Blvd to be extended into the Koons property across Route 123, stating that the road can’t be constructed as currently planned by the county.
“The proposed location of the Boone Boulevard/Route 123 crossing is too close to the steep slope of Route 123 as it heads south from this interchange and would create an inherently dangerous situation,” the application says. “There simply isn’t enough distance to add a major intersection at the location depicted in the Comprehensive Plan’s street grid maps.”
The 14-acre property consists of two parcels that have been developed with the Koons dealership since 1975. Fairfax County property records show that Home Depot purchased the Chevy dealership for $30 million on Jan. 8, 2021.
The site was previously owned by Sherwood Tysons LLC, a company belonging to descendants of Tysons namesake William Tyson, according to the Washington Business Journal. The Chrysler portion of the dealership is owned by an affiliate of the Caldow family, which is also related to Tyson.
With the owners’ consent, Comstock intends to consolidate the two parcels. The Tysons Comprehensive Plan designates them as residential mixed-use — where housing should make up 75% or more of the overall development — and transit station mixed-use, which calls for a mix of retail, office, residential and other commercial uses, leaning toward 65% office and 20% residential overall.
The application argues more residential development is needed around the Greensboro Metro station, which is currently 70% office space despite a reported 20% vacancy rate.
“With the office market in a state of flux thanks to the COVID-driven changes in work location and commuting patterns, maintaining an office-heavy focus in this area risks delaying significant investment in redeveloping the existing auto dealership,” Clifford wrote.
Clifford’s statement describes the plan amendment application as a “placeholder” while county officials reevaluate the current and future mix of land uses in Tysons. Comstock declined to comment on the proposal for now, saying it “would be happy to discuss this down the road at a later date.”
The Koons redevelopment is among 75 SSPA nominations that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will weigh for possible acceptance on Tuesday (Dec. 6). Other sites up for consideration include Fallfax Center in Idylwood and Reston’s two golf courses.
“It is the Nominator’s intention to proceed to rezoning as quickly as possible and overlap that rezoning with as much of the Evaluation Phase of the SSPA process as is practicable,” Clifford said.
McLean Police Shooting Not Justified, Family Says — The parents of Jasper Aaron Lynch, who was fatally shot four times by a Fairfax County police officer during a mental health crisis call on July 7, said in a statement that the police “could have, and should have, handled this far differently.” Their comments came after the county police department released footage of the encounter. [WTOP]
Bailey’s Crossroads Car Dealership to Expand — “The Radley Acura dealership on Columbia Pike near Route 7 in Bailey’s Crossroads will undergo a major expansion. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning application Aug. 2 by Radley Management LLC to build a three-level parking garage with 307 spaces and an enclosed customer service drop-off addition.” [Annandale Today]
New Metro Safety Issues Raised — “Metro needs to inspect, clean, and protect Metrorail station rooms that house equipment that detects when trains are on tracks and helps the system avoid crashes, the agency’s safety oversight body said in a report released Thursday. The report further said that Metro had failed to follow through on inspections after the issue was raised in March.” [DCist]
County Pension Fund Doubles Down on Crypto — “Fairfax County, Va.’s $6.8 billion pension fund, the Fairfax County Retirement Systems, has received approval to invest $70 million across two crypto yield farming funds…The $1.8 billion Fairfax County Police Officers Retirement System has made a series of crypto investments in the past alongside the Fairfax County Retirement Systems” [CoinDesk]
Funds for Water to Historic Hall Approved — “The Fairfax County Park Authority Board approved a Mastenbrook Grant request from the Great Falls Grange Foundation (GFGF) in the amount of $20,000 to help install a municipal-connected water line to service the Great Falls Grange…The overall vision for this site is to serve the community as a self-supporting gathering place, a location for classes and a place to hold special events.” [FCPA]
Decision on Maryland’s Beltway Toll Lanes Coming — “With the U.S. Department of Transportation poised to issue its decision on an ambitious Capital Beltway and I-270 toll lanes plan, Montgomery County’s top planner accused state highway officials of running roughshod over Maryland law,” echoing similar complaints leveled by McLean residents over Virginia’s 495 NEXT project. [Maryland Matters]
Poll: What Does “Alexandria” Mean to You? — “One of the very first stories on ALXnow discussed…the distinction between the City of Alexandria and the areas of Fairfax south of Cameron Run sometimes referred to as Alexandria. This past week, two businesses opening this month — a cannabis dispensary and a metal supermarket — identified themselves as ‘Alexandria’ branches of their respective chains despite the fact that both are opening in Fairfax.” [ALXnow]
It’s Friday — Rain in the evening and overnight. High of 91 and low of 76. Sunrise at 6:15 am and sunset at 8:17 pm. [Weather.gov]
