A larger redevelopment with hundreds of apartments could be coming to Annandale’s Eastgate Shopping Center.
Insight Property Group LLC, an Arlington-based business management consultant, filed an application to Fairfax County on January 12 to rezone two parcels at the northern end of the Eastgate Shopping Center. This could bring in a 280-unit apartment complex adjacent to the shopping center, which is located on John Marr Drive off Little River Turnpike and Columbia Pike.
The construction of apartments next to the shopping center that is anchored by K-Mart International could pave the way for the whole center’s redevelopment, according to the Washington Business Journal.
If approved, the proposed apartment complex would be six stories and cover about 319,000 square feet. Along with the 280 units, a ground-floor retail area would be built. All of this would replace a part of the present single-story retail building and surface parking lot.
Formerly owned by American Properties of MD LLC since 2003, the project would the Washington Business Journal said the development would follow a larger regional trend of shopping centers that get redeveloped as mixed-use developments. The proposed apartment building is being designed to “facilitate future redevelopment of the remainder of the shopping center,” according to a filing with the county.
For the Annandale area, it is generally encouraged by the county that redevelopment will “increase the residential population,” where people can live, work, and walk to shopping and entertainment uses in a “pedestrian-oriented” environment.
This is not the first shopping center in the area to go under potential redevelopment. In Reston, Isaac Newton Square was recently approved to redevelop the office park into a mixed-used development complex with apartment, office, and retail space.
The current application said that “successful community-serving retail now demands less total square footage,” although it remains unclear what the final development would look like.
As for how the redevelopment of Eastgate Shopping Center could impact both Annandale and surrounding areas, Fairfax County Supervisor Penny Gross told the Washington Business Journal she hopes the redevelopment will serve as a “catalyst” for other future projects such as this one.
Feature image courtesy Fairfax County
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