BALLSTON-VIRGINIA SQUARE

Civic Association Newsletter

April/May 1997 - Volume 20, No. 6

BALLSTON COMMON MALL APPLICATION FILED

The project would be located at 701 N. Glebe Road, a vacant site between Hecht's department store and the Ballston Common Mall's parking deck.

• The applicant is Ballston Common Associates L.P. This is a limited partnership that is owned and controlled by Forest City Enterprises. Forest City has been a partner in the Ballston Common Mall since its inception in 1986. In 1994, Forest City became the sole owner of the mall.

• Over the last three years, Forest City has spent a lot of money doing improvements to the mall, both interior and exterior.

• The subject site is a portion of approved Ballston Common Site Plan, known as the office building on Glebe Road.

• The site is Site Plan approved for 261,000 square feet of gross floor area, which includes a 100,000 square foot department store and 161,000 square foot office building.

• The applicant is proposing a significant redesign of the approved building to accommodate one story of restaurants, two stories of theater, and eleven stories of office as an extension project which will connect to the existing mall.

• Forest City has been conducting extensive negotiations with theaters and a theater company has signed a commitment with Forest City.

• The theater is seen as critical to the project and the mall for the following reasons:
  • The mall has seen decline in sales since the opening of Fashion Centre at Pentagon City in 1991.

  • Ballston Common Mall cannot compete with Fashion Centre and Tysons Center particularly in fashion clothing business.

  • Many of the tenants' original ten-year leases at the mall have recently expired and have not been renewed.

  • There is a concern about the vacancy rate at the mall at this time, particularly on the third floor.

  • Forest City tried to market the approved site plan, particularly the department store, and found that national retailers were reluctant to lease space in the mall due to its declining sales trend.

  • The movie theater is seen as an avenue to success for the mall because it will increase night and weekend traffic which are the weakest times for the mall.

  • The theater has been designed to connect to the third floor of the mall, which is the floor with the highest vacancy rate.

  • Forest City is very confident that the introduction of this project will revitalize the mall and help strengthen its position in services, home furnishing and convenience items, thereby better defining the mall as a neighborhood retail center.

• The application is requesting modification to exclude pedestrian mall and theater from floor area ratio. Also, the applicant is requesting a modification for height since the office building sits on top of the theater.

• Finally, the applicant is asking for a Comprehensive Sign Plan for prototypical tenant signage.

The Association has invited representatives of the site plan applicant to make a presentation on the proposal at our Wednesday, April 30, 1997, Membership Meeting, at the Arlington Hotel, 2nd Floor Conference Rooms, above the Ballston Metro Station. If you have any questions or comments about this proposal, we invite you to bring them to our Membership Meeting. This item is scheduled for presentation from 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. The public is welcome to attend. This major site plan amendment will be heard by the Planning Commission on June 30, 1997, and by the County Board on July 19, 1997. The Association encourages interested members to attend both of these meetings and express your views.