It won’t happen until next spring, but the esteemed D.C.-based Urban Land Institute. will be bringing a cache of experts they call a “Technical Assistance Panel” back to the City of Falls Church for the third time in recent years, and it augurs more good things for the Little City.
Twice before ULI “Technical Assistance Panels” have set up shop in Falls Church to take deep dives into the potentials for the economic development of key commercially-zoned areas here, once for the far west end, and a second time for the far east end (which awaits progress on redevelopment plans from Fairfax County on its intentions at the Seven Corners intersection).
This time, the ULI has agreed to come over to apply their considerable expertise to the area of the City known as the “Gordons Road Triangle” that encompasses 2.5 acres of City-owned land now used as a property yard and including the building that the City’s winter emergency homeless shelter occupies, as well as, potentially at least, about four acres that has been assembled by the Beyer family.
It could represent the most lucrative potential of all because of its proximity to the West Falls Church Metro station and the current dense development that constitutes the Hoffman group’s 10-acre West End complex going up catty-corner to the Gordons Road Triangle at the intersection of W. Broad and Shreve Road/Haycock Road, where now a modest Lazy Mike’s eatery sits.
Marc Gazda, ULI Washington manager, wrote this in the ULI acceptance of the request by Falls Church’s Economic Development Authority this summer: “The parts of this application that spoke to us were, among others, this project’s continuity with past studies, the opportunity to propose a model of public-private coordination and partnership, the ability to examine the City’s property yard as the near-term challenge juxtaposed with the longer-term challenge of the Triangle, and the clear next steps of taking recommendations to revise (the City’s) small area plan and comprehensive plan.”
On its website, the ULI anticipates the study by positing the following, “What Transportation and urban design elements are necessary to integrate this area with the nearby W&OD Trail and make it a walkable, attractive area accessible to downtown Falls Church? What strategies exist for combining the Property Yard site with adjacent private properties (such as the Beyer Properties) in a mutually beneficial joint development project that retains the Property Yard? What are the highest and best uses of these parcels over the next decade and longer term? What are the regional implications for investing in the Gordon Road Triangle? What is the potential for joint development of the City of Falls Church Property Yard with adjacent private properties, i.e.. Melissa Chow, Darnell Grisby, Tammy Shoham, Eric Soter, Benjamin Stoll. (Elements to include) City Staff Presentation, On-Site Meeting(s), Market Area Review, (and assessment of) Transportation Needs, Urban Design Opportunities, Land Plan Concept, Need/Desire to Retain City Public Works Functions, Multiple ownership posing consolidation challenges.”
It was when the ULI sent one of its teams to Falls Church in 2016, it undertook to evaluate the potential at the West End site, and an important result of the two days of evaluations at the Hilton Garden Inn that October was to focus on the portion of the wider area where, it turns out, the West End project is now actually going up fast.
Responding to the deliberative effort, the News-Press editorialized at the time, “Their vision for the site was high-minded, based on the ancient Greek city state idea of the agora, the combining of the institutions of education and commerce. But a lot of the expertise they brought was centered on process, what it will actually take to get the property developed to its highest and best use, and the most useful idea there was delivered at the outset: involve neighbors to the site, too, the Beyer Automotive, Federal Realty, Virginia Tech and University of Virginia people.”
So it may be surmised that the coming study will be aimed at filling out the potential identified in the first one by encompassing the Beyer property and perhaps the Federal Realty property that continues to be the home of the large Giant supermarket at that intersection.
The News-Press noted then that the development would not impose on residential areas of Falls Church, and the same would be true for this new study.