In a move that, in the words of Falls Church Vice Mayor David Snyder, “opens the prospect for the biggest economic development the City’s ever seen,” the F.C. Council voted unanimously to sell the 5,000-square-foot City-owned parcel at the southeastern corner of W. Broad and S. Maple, known as the former ‘Mail Boxes’ building, to the Atlantic Realty company.

The sale is part of a larger deal settling all outstanding legal disputes between the City and Atlantic Realty arising from complicated developments that followed the City’s approval of Atlantic’s ambitious City Center Plan in 2007 that fell through due to the onset of the Great Recession.

The vote Monday, among other things, was the final action required for the Rushmark-Harris Teeter project to go forward in the 300 block of W. Broad, and now opens the opportunity for Atlantic Realty to build out a large, all-commercial development in the 100 block of W. Broad.