New hotel coming to spot where Quality Inn burned down in 2015

A 73-unit hotel catering to long-stay business travelers will be built on a vacant lot where another hotel burned down in 2015.

County records indicate the that new hotel, an Affordable Suites of America, is now in the permitting phase. The hotel’s address will be 8849 Richmond Highway, which is near the intersection of Mount Vernon Memorial Highway and Jeff Todd Way (see map).

In July the developer for the project secured special approval needed from the county’s architectural review board because the land is inside of the Woodlawn Plantation and Pope-Leighey Historic Dstrict. Images submitted for that review and provided to Covering The Corridor show that the building will be three stories and have a brick facade, with an interior courtyard area. The hotel will have two signs — one on the building and another near the Richmond Highway entrance.

The new hotel will be where a Quality Inn & Suites stood until it burned down in a massive fire in April 2015. Ninety people were evacuated safely from the hotel after the fire broke out in the early morning hours. Only one person suffered injuries in the three-alarm blaze, which was ruled accidental and found to have originated in an electrical room on the first floor, according to the Fairfax Fire and Rescue Department.

The charred remains of the burned hotel sat largely untouched for more than two years, much to the dismay of many residents and local officials. In May 2017, the lot was finally cleared.

The property’s owner had originally wanted to replace the burned hotel with a storage unit, but Mount Vernon Supervisor Dan Storck opposed that idea, citing the high visibility of the location.