2016’s Best and Worst of The Corridor

Covering the Corridor’s first year of reporting on the Richmond Highway area saw plenty of progress, as well as some bumps in the road, for our community. Here’s a look back at the top 5 highs and lows from 2016:

Highs:

5. Cedar Lodge sold

One of the oldest and most notorious motels on Richmond Highway was sold and closed down this fall. 

Cedar Lodge — or the Harry Smith Motel, as it was known for most of its existence — shut its doors in September and has been undergoing a major renovation since. It will reopen under new ownership as the “Moon Inn.”

Even though its been a familiar site at the corner of Fairhaven Avenue and Richmond Highway since the 1950s, the Cedar Lodge didn’t evoke much nostalgia among residents when it closed. The aging motel had fallen into disrepair, and was symbolic of the seedy reputation that the corridor has long sought to escape.  

4. High school football teams shine

Two playoff runs by local football teams gave corridor sports fans something to get excited about this fall.

At Mount Vernon, a new coach breathed life into the previously struggling program. The Majors started a surprising 3-0 and ended up making the 6A playoffs for the first time ever. Monty Fritts’ team became an inspiring underdog story, as the Majors — who had won only two games in the two previous seasons — finished the regular season at .500, an accomplishment that nobody saw coming.

Over on Quander Road, West Potomac remained the king of the highway. And they did it in impressive fashion.

The physical Wolverines put together their best season in years, finishing the regular season 8-2, with both losses coming by a combined four points. The Wolverines avenged one of their losses by crushing T.C. Williams at home in the playoffs before bowing out in the regional semifinals. 

3. Old favorites quickly replaced

This year saw the demise Old Country Buffet and Hancock Fabrics, two local favorites that fell victim to the national woes of their chains.

But both Old Country Buffet, which closed in February, and Hancock, which shuttered in July, did not leave vacant storefronts for very long. 

Hibachi Buffet moved into Old Country Buffet’s space at the Mount Vernon Crossroads shopping center this summer. It’s currently being remodeled and will open for business in 2017.

Fabric Place Basement, a Massachusetts-based fabric store, took over Hancock’s space at the Beacon Center almost as soon as the old retailer moved out. Fabric Place opened for business earlier this month, and is planning a grand-opening celebration in 2017. 

The quick takeovers bode well for the strength of the corridor’s many shopping centers. While some retail areas along the corridor still have issues finding and keeping businesses, most strip malls kept high occupancy rates throughout the year, and it will be interesting to see who else comes to Richmond Highway in 2017.

Which brings us to number 2 … 

2. Bob & Edith’s, Bonchon announce plans to open restaurants 

Covering the Corridor readers reacted more favorably to the arrival of these two eateries than any other news in 2016.

Bonchon, a popular Korean fried chicken fast-casual restaurant, confirmed plans in July to move into the Beacon of Groveton’s ground-level retail space. There’s still no sign at the location, and no visible construction, so it remains unclear when Bonchon will be opening. A representative for the restaurant said in October that updates would be coming. 

Bob & Edith’s Diner will be located across from the Huntington Metro station on North Kings Highway. It will operate 24 hours a day and is scheduled to open for business in March. A longtime Northern Virginia favorite, this will be Bob and Edith’s second location in Fairfax County. 

1. North Hill development moves closer to reality

The question about what to do with North Hill predates the birth of many corridor residents. Since the county took over what was then an aging trailer park in 1981, the future of the massive piece of property on the east side of Route 1 in the Groveton area has been debated.

In 2015, a plan to put a mix of apartments and townhouses, with a certain number of residences sent aside for affordable housing, emerged as a contender for North Hill. The plan was mostly well-received at a community meeting this past April, and proceeded successfully through the county’s planning process. In early December the county board unanimously approved an amendment to the comprehensive plan to allow the development to go forward — a milestone that no previous proposal had come close to reaching.

It’s still too early to spike the football on North Hill, as the property must still go through the rezoning process and secure funding. But for first time since 1981, there seems to be a viable plan for the 33-acre plot. 

Lows:

5. Fresh Market pulls out

South Alex, a mixed-use development slated for North Kings Highway in the Penn Daw area, suffered a blow this summer when The Fresh Market decided to not to put a supermarket there. 

The Fresh Market had been expected to anchor South Alex, which will consist of 400 apartments, 44,000 square feet of retail space and 41 townhouses. It’s the corridor’s most ambitious mixed-use development to date, and work on the apartments and retail won’t begin until an anchor grocer has been secured. With The Fresh Market out of the picture, demolition of the former Penn Daw Plaza came to a halt for close to four months, leaving a half-standing structure and piles of rubble.

As of now, there’s still no word on an anchor grocer, although demolition work on the old shopping center restarted in November. 

4. Plans for brewhouse scrapped

Three years ago a report that a local restaurateur was looking to open Richmond Highway’s first brewhouse was met with enthusiasm by many residents. The plan called for a 6,000-foot brewery and restaurant known as City View Brewhouse, which would be located at the corner of Richmond Highway and East Lee Avenue. Reports said it would open in 2014 … but then nothing happened.

Earlier this year, construction at the site of the proposed brewhouse began. But rather than a casual restaurant that served craft-brewed beer, a one-floor brick retail center was built. The site is close to completion, but there’s no word on tenants yet. 

It’s not clear why the City View idea was scrapped. The Southeast Fairfax Development Corporation says that “the brewing aspect proved too expensive,” but the owner has never commented publicly.

3. Huntington Metro woes

2016 was a terrible year for Metro, and users of the corridor’s only station were not immune to the system’s many problems. Malfunctioning escalators, long waits for trains, a crumbling parking garage and “SafeTrack” repairs were constant obstacles for Huntington users in 2016. 

The station’s north parking garage remained partially blocked off throughout the year due to structural damage. Those spaces have been out of use since early 2015, and Metro has yet to announce details about the future of the garage.

The SafeTrack program began in 2016, and while it hopes to accomplish long-overdue maintenance and repairs, it nonetheless meant headaches for users. Two SafeTrack “surges” were held on the Yellow Line in July, meaning that for two weeks many riders who boarded at Huntington were faced with a prolonged commute that required them to exit the train and board a bus before getting back on the train.

The year ended with what appeared to be a long-awaited improvement for the station — a newly renovated escalator at the North Kings Highway entrance. But that turned into a big letdown when the escalator failed inspection earlier this month because it was built without a state-required canopy. The escalator is still idle, and there’s been no update on progress between the county and Metro. 

2. Crime

Armed robberies continue to plague businesses and service-industry workers along the corridor. While the vast majority of the robberies resulted in no injuries, they nonetheless terrorized the innocent employees who had to endure guns getting pulled on them.

Local 7-Elevens were hit hardest by the robberies, as the 24-hour convenience stores proved to be popular targets no matter where they were located. One particularly bad stretch in the spring saw a 7-Eleven on Fairhaven Avenue held up twice in five days. 

Some of the robberies managed to catch the attention of the FBI, who believes the same crew is responsible for a string of hold ups in Northern Virginia and Maryland, including the November robbery of a 7-Eleven on Huntington Avenue and the Dec. 15 robbery of the Quality Inn on Richmond Highway. 

1. Traffic 

Getting up and down Richmond Highway, as well as traffic backups on side roads, continue to be a perennial problem for our area. 

To be fair, there were some positives in this department in 2016: The continued progress of the Fort Belvoir-area widening project, which is scheduled to be done early next year; pedestrian improvements at many Route 1 intersections; and the multimodal future promised by the Embark Richmond Highway initiative inching closer to reality.

But in the meantime, traffic remained a consistant complaint of residents on message boards, at community meetings and on social media. And as more high-density complexes are built or proposed for the corridor, it appears traffic anxiety will remain a thorn in the side of politicians and developers looking to build in the corridor. A proposal for a four-story senior living facility on property currently occupied by a horse farm near Inova Mount Vernon Hospital set off a controversy this fall, with traffic concerns of nearby residents being among the main sticking points.

Safety was also huge issue in 2016, with three pedestrians killed on or near Route 1 this year, the highest total in recent years.