At its March 20 public hearing, the Arlington County Board approved Greystar Real Estate Partners’ proposal to redevelop the “Landmark Block” located in the Courthouse area of Arlington County with a substantial new residential and retail mixed use building. The proposal included the sale of County-owned property on the Landmark Block to the applicant, a rezoning of the entire block from the C-3 Zoning District to the C-O Zoning District, and a new special exception site plan for the construction of a 20-story, 423-unit residential building with 17,000 square feet of ground floor retail. The applications were shepherded through the zoning review and approval process by Nan Walsh, Andrew Painter and Nicholas Cumings from Walsh Colucci.
The project is the first approved under the Courthouse Sector Plan Addendum for “Courthouse Square” that resulted from the Envision Courthouse study in 2015. It includes a number of crucial improvements including construction of a portion of the “Promenade,” a pedestrian connection running north-south through the neighborhood from Clarendon and Wilson Boulevards all the way to 14th Street North. The Promenade will function as a linear park that can host events and outdoor markets. The portion constructed with this project will set a standard for high quality, biophilic design for this new public space. The project will also make significant contributions to the development of the future Civic Square park, construct on-site affordable housing, preserve historic facades, implement numerous green building measures, and construct a number of transportation improvements in the surrounding area.
At the hearing, Nicholas Cumings, representing Greystar, remarked that the wide range of benefits provided will immediately transform this neighborhood and provide engaging and inviting new public spaces and connectivity to this centrally located block, and that the project, as the first approved under the new plan, will be an example for future development and set a standard for this corner of Arlington.
