New to Falls Church Virginia Real Estate Market
Whether you currently live in Falls Church Virginia or are thinking of renting or purchasing real estate here please read on. This article contains pertinent information about what changes are occurring in Falls Church Virginia. Currently the Falls Church city Counsel is voting on a proposal that will revamp its downtown area. City leaders have been fighting for this revamping for the past eight years. The Atlantic Realty is planning on tearing up the city center, which is composed mostly of vacant parking lots and replacing them with an eight story hotel, office building, apartments, a bowling alley, and a Harris Teeter supermarket. This development firm has completed projects such as: Bethesda Corner, Plaza America, and Ashbrook.
If this proposal is passed it will roughly cost $317 million. This will be one of the largest things to happen to this area since 1986 when the metro’s Orange line was extended to include Falls Church. The city officials hope that this development will not only attract shoppers and people who want to try the new cuisine, but rather they are hoping it will bring young professionals, first time home buyers, and empty nesters who are considering purchasing or renting homes.
What people hope this development will do for the area?
* If this project is passed hopefully the commercial tax base will expand which should result in a shifting of the burden from homeowners to businesses
* Currently Falls Church had paid for it’s school system mostly through increases in real estate taxes, but if this development is passed the City Center project should roughly bring in $3 million in revenue.
What is the Status of the City Center proposal?
Last month Atlantic Realty’s proposal for City Center was voted on and was ruled that they can move forward, but the only thing holding this project up is the final vote which will take place on Thursday March 6th, 2008. If the proposal is approved, construction for this development can begin as early as this summer and it is estimated that the project will be completely finished by 2013. The developers have already decided that this project will be completed in two separate phases. There are some uncertainties that the city will have to take into account when deciding on approving this project. The main concern is that there has been no hotel chain to commit to establishing there reputation here. This problem may be solved since the developers have been talking to the Marriott about building a Residence INN at this location. Currently they have a letter of intent from Harris Teeter but this is not a contract. Maureen Budetti, the certain members of the Planning commission believes that the commission did not have enough involvement in this project, but the Council has already been sold on it.
