The grand opening of the long-awaited Northgate mixed use project by the Hekemian Group is set for Thursday, May 1. About half of the project’s 95 rental residential apartments have already been taken, Falls Church City Councilman Phil Duncan, who did a tour of the mostly-completed site, told a City Council work session on Tuesday. 

There are also 10 rental townhouses attached to the project, and there will be 15,000 square feet of office space and 23,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. So far, only one of the retail spaces has been filled. The project was a long time coming. It was first introduced nine years ago, and formal approvals were granted in 2007. After a hiatus due to the recession, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in July 2011.

As Duncan noted, the city schools are very interested in the number of new students the project will bring to the City, and that so far, no unusually high number of prospective students have come from those who’ve already signed their rental leases.