Groundbreaking held for South Alex development
South Alex, a mixed-use development years in the making, finally had its official groundbreaking on Thursday morning.
Representatives from developer Combined Properties, politicians and residents were on hand for the ceremony, which marks the beginning of construction of 400-apartment complex featuring 44,000 feet of ground-level retail. An Aldi grocery store will anchor the development, which is located at the intersection of Kings Highway and Richmond Highway.
A representative from Combined said Friday that construction is expected last close to three years.
“Two years from now we will begin leasing apartments and turn over the grocery space with a full project delivery the summer of 2021,” said Justin Johnson, director of acquisitions and development for Combined.
Johnson said financing for the project, which utilizes “a market rate HUD insured loan program that provides both construction and permanent fixed-rate financing for 40-years after the project is built” was finalized earlier this week.
Long time coming
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors signed off on the South Alex project in January 2014. Since the redevelopment of the old Penn Daw Shopping Center has moved slowly.
The shopping center was vacated in 2015 and then demolished in 2016. Construction on a 41-townhome development called The Towns at South Alex began construction at the rear of the property in 2017. But progress on the apartments and retail remained stalled due to uncertainties about an anchor grocery store.
The Fresh Market has originally been expected to be the anchor tenant, but the chain pulled out in the summer of 2016. After The Fresh Market deal fell through, all work at the site — including demolition — stopped for a time. The remainder of the old shopping center was torn down in the fall of 2016, but a new grocer was not announced until January 2018. During that span of time much of the South Alex property has been little more than a pile of dirt.
But in October Johnson announced that a financing deal was finally coming together, meaning that work on the retail and apartments could finally move forward.
A much anticipated and needed change for this section of the corridor. Wish the prospects for such needed change were taking place elsewhere on the corridor. Replacing a Cash Point car title loan business with a massage parlor just south of this project is not a good sign.
Glad to finally see this become a reality, but 3 years of construction??? How on earth is that going to work if they use the front of the development to enter and exit? I can’t fathom what those of us nearby be dealing with at the Kings Hwy./Richmond Hwy. intersection during that time! Does anyone know if this was addressed at the ceremony?
No matter how much construction…
You must get the trash and ghetto trash off the corridor! Whatever you do will be undone by the trash around the corridor.
I can’t imagine anyone crazy enough to buy a $700,000+ Craftmark townhome at this location–they left “low income apartments to the left, a tattoo parlor to the right, and a stone’s throw from Walmart and a trailer park” out of their marketing material.
Amen ! These comments are all awesome. I just wish that Route 1 could be cleaned up and not be the site for all the experiments in urban planning and development. Hello, is anyone not seeing the negative results ?
Cool! Another grocery store, apartments, retail space. Must be on Route 1. Funny no one mentioned any infrastructure improvements. For those that are not familiar, the intersection of N. Kings Highway and Route 1 is already a traffic nightmare. Imagine the bottlenecks that will occur in 3 years! County will probably improve the situation by synchronizing lights, allowing electric scooters and adding bike lanes. That will make Dan Stork happy! I am guessing none of the politicians or developers live anywhere close! Right?
I grew up down the street over 50 years ago. Lots of great memories. I bowled on a league, grocery shopped, had pizza, shopped CVS drug store and more. The past was good, but the upgrade is better. I hope the improvements include an enhanced traffic flow.