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Crystal City gets a makeover
Arlington's proximity
to nations's capital draws development
by
Brett Lieberman
Virginia Business
February 2005
When
Gemma Meloni moved to Crystal City in the late 1990s
to be close to her job as an engineer working for the
U.S. Navy, she was close to everything. She could walk
to work, her gym, the grocery store and the Metro. What
the government contractor couldn’t do was convince
friends that they could have fun in the concrete and
glass neighborhood and its labyrinth of underground
tunnels, which were sandwiched between the Pentagon,
Ronald Reagan National Airport and a short drive from
Washington, D.C., and Old Town Alexandria. “A
lot of people used to say, ‘How could you live
in Crystal City? There’s nothing there,’”
recalls Meloni.
Today,
she can cross the street for a seafood dinner at McCormick
& Schmick’s or grab a beer at Bailey’s
Pub and Grille or a latte at Caribou Coffee. The new
restaurants and bars opened since September are part
of an effort to transform Arlington’s largest
urban neighborhood —where about 60,000 people
work and live — and to update its image.
More changes are on the way. Billionaire and CNN founder
Ted Turner plans to open a restaurant later this year,
a new bakery will open in the spring, additional retail
is planned, and the Public Broadcasting Service plans
to move its headquarters from Alexandria to Crystal
City by next year. The changes will convert Crystal
Drive into a two-way main street and bring improved
lighting and signage, free parking after 5 p.m., and
improvements to several parks. Charles E. Smith Commercial
Realty, which owns about 70 percent of the 10.6 million
square feet of commercial space, has spent tens of millions
on the improvements, and also is underwriting a marketing
campaign to get the word out about the “unknown
Crystal City.”
It’s a great story to tell, says Mara Olguin,
vice president of marketing for Charles E. Smith. Besides
a good location with views of the airport and the Washington
Monument, Crystal City offers proximity to the Pentagon
and Washington, attracting government agencies and contractors.
It’s also on the Metro and the Virginia Railway
Express, which carry thousands of workers daily. “We
started out with a base of transportation, location,
views, thousands of workers, and we’re trying
to make it into a cool, new urban neighborhood,”
Olguin says from an office that enjoys an amazing view
of the airport even on a rainy day.
The big question, many people ask, is what took so long
to develop such prime real estate? “It was a pretty
sterile environment,” says Clyde (Tom) Newman,
the commercial real estate specialist for Arlington
Economic Development.
For many years, there wasn’t much incentive for
change. Crystal City’s location worked like a
magnet, drawing tenants who wanted to locate just outside
Washington and offering rents that were cheaper than
a presence in the capital city. New buildings would
lease before they were completed. “We never had
to stop and back up and say, ‘Let’s start
from scratch. What works well about Crystal City and
what needs improvements?’’’ says Jim
Creedon, Charles E. Smith’s vice president for
commercial leasing. Historically, occupancy hovered
between 96 to 99 percent,
That comfortable paradigm changed when the U.S. Patent
and Trade Office decided to relocate to Alexandria,
vacating nearly 2 million square feet — more than
one quarter of Charles E. Smith’s Crystal City
holding. The patent office decision was like a slap
across the face. “When you’ve got 2 million
square feet coming vacant, obviously you take a hard
look at it,” says Creedon.
While studying how to reposition Crystal City for the
next couple decades, Charles E. Smith came to the same
conclusion as some of Gemma Meloni’s friends.
Despite its location, “It was not considered a
cool place to have your office,” says Creedon.
When Crystal City began rising in the 1960s, the underground
tunnels feeding the Metro surrounded by about 200 nearby
restaurants and stores were seen as futuristic. By the
1990s, though, it was hard to persuade executives to
relocate from Washington and the area lacked the retail
and downtown streetscapes that are popular today.
Besides the physical improvements, Charles E. Smith
wants to alter the area’s character as well. It
began an outdoor concert series last year and has been
trying to attract a new mix of tenants beyond government
agencies and contractors. Talks are already under way
for a summer film festival co-sponsored by PBS. When
it moves into 130,000 square feet of space next year,
PBS will not be among the largest tenants but its 480
workers are younger, more creative and tech savvy, and
they will help create a new atmosphere, say executives
with Charles E. Smith.
“We each had our own motivations… ”
Barbara Landes, PBS’ senior vice president, says
of the decision to move from Alexandria. “The
fact that people can walk downstairs and have a choice
of places to eat and a supermarket and a book store
and dry cleaners…this is heaven to us,”
she says.
Another mostly unspoken reason for all the change is
competition. The development of Potomac Yard, which
straddles the Arlington/Alexandria line, will add millions
of square feet of development. Construction has already
begun on the Arlington portion, which will add 2.8 million
square feet of office space, 1 million square feet of
residential properties, 60,000 square feet of retail
and 625 new hotel rooms. Charles E. Smith officials
like to point out that Crystal City already has many
of the amenities the new site will offer, plus lower
rents and easier Metro access.
Arlington County has no objections to the makeover Charles
E. Smith is financing. The approach fits the county’s
“Live, Work, Play” theme that encourages
development of urban villages around Metro stations.
Plus, Smith’s redevelopment of Crystal City has
allowed the county to focus on rounding out development
of the Ballston neighborhood. Recently, five years of
talks produced an exciting development: an agreement
to build the Washington Capitals hockey team’s
headquarters and practice facility atop the Ballston
Common Mall parking lot. The $42.8 million development
includes two NHL-sized rinks that will be available
for use by teams, leagues and the general public. “We
think it’s going to bring in high-end spenders
to the Ballston Mall and it’s a big advertisement
for Arlington,” says former county board Chairman
Barbara Favola.
Just North of Crystal City, Arlington is also moving
forward with a $50 million plan for a sports and recreation
complex. The North Tract proposal calls for four swimming
pools, basketball courts and at least four soccer fields
on 28 acres of industrial land along the bike trail
leading up to the 14th Street Bridge.
Arlington, part of the original District of Columbia
before being carved out, clearly benefits from its proximity
to the nation’s capital, the Pentagon and tourist
sites, which help fill its 10,000 hotel rooms. The federal
government (which employs about 110,000 people in Arlington),
the Metro and Ronald Reagan National Airport are the
engines that drive the county’s economy.
While efforts are under way to revitalize areas such
as Rosslyn, most development in the last four decades
has occurred along Metro routes, such as the Rosslyn-Clarendon-Ballston
corridor or near the airport and Crystal City. These
days the bigger challenge facing the county is to redevelop
rundown areas such as Columbia Pike, which was passed
over when Metro’s Orange Line was being planned.
Local leaders support development but want to retain
the Pike’s flavor and international feel. “It’s
one of the best places in the region to go to restaurants
since there are over 120 nationalities living around
Columbia Pike,” notes Richard C. Litman, chairman
of the county’s economic development commission.
With most of the county nearly built out and Columbia
Pike offering an affordable alternative, many real estate
and economic development officials say it’s only
a matter of time before the area takes off. “By
the time it’s over, it’s going to be a jaw-dropper,”
says Rich Doud, president of the Arlington Chamber of
Commerce.
The county has approved incentives for developers, funded
improved bus service along Columbia Pike and is studying
light rail. A few developers have proposed small residential
or mixed use projects but, so far, the diamond in the
rough is a hard sell. “The trick is to convince
a company they should locate their headquarters on Columbia
Pike instead of Courthouse or Clarendon,” acknowledges
Newman. Maybe developers should mention all the good
ethnic food.
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