Old Wendy’s and other buildings in Penn Daw set to be demolished
Preliminary work on a planned residential development in the Penn Daw area is finally getting underway.
Contractors working for Fairfield Residential, the site’s owner, have been securing permits to demolish four vacant buildings along Richmond Highway to make way for the Kings Crossing development.
Kings Crossing, which was approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2017, will be built on 5.3 acres of land between the Richmond Highway/Fairview Drive intersection and the Kings Crossing Shopping Center (Walmart). It was approved as a 350-unit complex.
It is not clear when the exact demolition of the buildings will begin, but crews have been capping utilities at the site over the past two weeks. A jersey wall barrier has also been put up, blocking off the site and the service road that runs in front of the vacant businesses.
Property sale
When Kings Crossing was approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 2017, it was owned by Novus Kings Crossing, a subsidiary of Cafritz Interests. Novus had worked with the county and neighbors for years on the redevelopment project, but the developer did not move forward with it after approval.
Fairfield Residential has since purchased the property, with the $12.3 million sale finalized in November, according to Fairfax County property records. Cafrtiz had purchased the property for $5.4 million in 2007.
It is not clear when construction of the new complex is set to begin. A site plan has been submitted to the county, but is not approved yet. A representative from Fairfield Residential could not be reached for comment. The company’s website says the project is expected to be completed in 2021.
Over the years the four buildings on the site were home to a Pizza Hut and a Wendy’s, and two of the structures had multiple tenants in the past few decades, including a martial arts school, a title loan business, Lum’s family restaurant, and Ranch House restaurant. The buildings have all been vacant for more than two years, with Wendy’s and the martial arts schools closing their doors in November and December 2017, respectively. The Pizza Hut has been closed since 2014, and the title loan business moved across the street in 2016.
During the past two years the property has faced issues with illegal dumping, littering and overgrown landscaping, with multiple code violations filed by the county. Eventually a couple of the buildings were boarded up. Homeless citizens have also used areas on the site for shelter.
Change in Penn Daw
Kings Crossing will be the latest major redevelopment project in the changing landscape of Penn Daw. Right across the street the massive South Alex project is under construction. Located at the intersection of Richmond Highway and North Kings Highway (see map), it will eventually be home to a 440-unit apartment complex with retail on the ground level, including an Aldi grocery store.
There is also a 41-townhouse development at the rear of the South Alex property, with many units already completed.
South Alex is next to the 240-unit Shelby Apartments, which are located at the corner of North Kings Highway and Poag Street (see map). Completed in 2014, South Alex was the first high-density residential development built in Penn Daw, which is one of the six (CBCs) envisioned in the Embark Richmond Highway plan.
On a much smaller scale, the long-empty Jerry’s Subs building across the street from Kings Crossing is also undergoing a renovations at last. A chicken and waffles restaurant has leased the space; it’s unclear when the new business plans to open.
Nice to see weed and trash strewn, neglected properties that give the impression of urban decay, replaced with new development. Fairfax county needs to plan more public space facilities or old facility expansion for libraries, schools, recreation, parks and infrastructural upgrades for the growing number of citizens in this rapidly developing area. This northern part of the Mount Vernon District is becoming the most densely populated part of the district but has barely any public park space that the Fairfax Park Authority has developed to any useful purpose for recreation or nature uses on these county owned properties with open space and woodlands. Schools are already expanding but there is an elementary school building on Quander Road in walking distance to Route 1 Penn Daw via Fairview Drive. The building currently houses a special program for high school that has less than a hundred students enrolled. Maybe the school could be returned to use as a neighborhood elementary school. Quander Road school is named after one of Fairfax County’s most historic African American families and was built to be an elementary school. The current Mount Vernon School Board Representative Karen Corbett Sanders attended this school as an elementary student. The new development has already created interest by other developers who are proposing plans for more residential development on the Fenton property on the north side of the Kings Crossing Center. Many developers have expressed interest in the Penn Daw Mobile Home Park site. Change is coming now to this part of the corridor and Fairfax County has obligations to its citizens to get out in front of this new expansion in growth and make certain that they aren’t playing catch up down the road.
GW PARKWAY IS PLENTY GREEN.
You keep building and building and building. You have us stuffed in here like sardines. Also, all the animals have nowhere to go. I’m talkin other wild animals and of the cats that have lived here for years and years. Why don’t you relocate them to where they will be happy since you’re making all these millions and millions of dollars off this property that you’re taking away and the woods that you’re knocking down. You people ought to be ashamed of yourself
You have stated what sounds like a genuine concern for the feral cats that live on part of this property. Why don’t you step up and volunteer to help relocate these cats or if you like trap them and take them to one of the animal shelters where they can be cleaned, given shots, neutered and then put up for adoption. A lot can be done by stepping up and acting on your concerns beyond expressing them.
WHO CARES
This has all begun to seem like a case study for how far you can push outdated transportation infrastructure.
But hey screw it, condos, apartments, and shops, because (and don’t millennials know it) the concept of owning property is completely dead.
New transportation infrastructure is part of the redevelopment initiative. Haven’t you attended any of the EMBARK public meetings where transportation needs have been debated and planned to integrate a bus rapid transit system on Richmond Highway? New transportation infrastructure is promised, it is up to citizens to hold public officials accountable to deliver what is promised.Today’s rental apartments become tomorrows condos. This has happened in many of the older apartment developments in the Mount Vernon District. Older communities near the beltway in Fairfax County are transitioning to urban communities. Inevitable as more people seek to live closer to where there are more employment opportunities.
A lot of “idea” people commenting.
Perhaps if people supported local businesses instead of asking for constant discounts these businesses would remain intact.
Fairfax County has enough green space and parkland to satisfy its needs. There is a park within a mile of this spot that is almost never used, if you go another half mile you will find another park that you can be alone in pretty much all day too. Go a few more miles and you’ll hit more park space. I have not even mentioned Huntly Meadows park.
Your opinion. In my view it is not unreasonable to want existing county land that is wooded and adjacent to the new Penn Daw redevelopment to have a community park that is accessible by walking trails rather than having to get in a car and drive to other parks in neighborhoods a mile or more away. The Mount Vernon District south of Beacon Hill Road has acreage in excess of a thousand acres of designated parkland resources. In the area north of Beacon Hill Road which has a higher population density than the area south of Beacon Hill Road and with new projects adding to that density, there is less than 50 acres of designated parkland resources north of Beacon Hill Road, very little of which has developed trails or recreational uses. These are simple facts obtained through vital statistics reports and documents about Fairfax County. By Fairfax County’s own acknowledgement there is a deficit in park and recreation resources in the overall district. I’m a 40 year resident and my tax dollars have gone towards park and recreation resources being developed throughout the entirety of Fairfax County with most of that development being in Western Fairfax County. I see no reason why those taxpayers in those park and recreation resource rich areas of Fairfax can’t help support the development of such resources in areas of the county with acknowledged deficiencies. We deserve the same amenities that were financed with taxes and bond referendums for Western Fairfax right here in Eastern Fairfax.