A rendering of the West Falls Church development project. Photo courtesy of Torti Gallas + Partners.
FALLS CHURCH HAS BEGUN CONSTRUCTION of its West End Development, featuring a new state- of-the-art high school surrounded by commercial development. Included in the plans will be The Little City Commons – a pedestrian friendly promenade through the project that could become a major regional focal point and gathering place for community events.
Falls Church has long attracted residents and businesses by prioritizing high value – not solely low costs – in its belief that money spent wisely on education and city services is a good investment.
“In our community, the schools and library are really important,” said Vice Mayor Marybeth Connelly, who also serves as the community outreach director for Falls Church City Public Schools. The new high school will anchor the project, which will become the “Western Gateway” to Falls Church.
The community took root more than 250 years ago when the still thriving Falls Church Episcopal Parish was established on the road from Alexandria to Potomac Falls. The church founded and gave its name to the semi-rural collection of farms, churches and commercial enterprises that grew up around it. By 1875, it had grown enough to achieve township status within Fairfax County.
Like old churches, old communities take on a personality of their own, and in 1948 local residents decided to incorporate Falls Church as their own city. Branding it “The Little City,” they provided their own city services including schools and a library to separate Falls Church from the suburban sprawl spreading westward from Washington, D.C.
With some of the highest property tax rates in the state, Falls Church leaders determined that the city needed to attract an increased commercial tax base, Connelly explained. In the past few years, numerous downtown retail and multifamily projects have been completed to attract businesses and residents.
One of the largest projects to date, the West End Development is a $500 million project that will demolish and replace the outdated George Mason High School, while simultaneously developing the 10.3-acre site for commercial use. Planners predict the project will increase the city’s tax revenues to help pay for the high school, while adding commercial space that includes a new hotel, nearly 125,000 square feet of retail space and 330,000 square feet of offices. The project will also add apartments and condominiums, including up to 225 senior housing units.
The longer-term outlook includes potentially integrating the project with planned renovations to the adjacent Virginia Tech Graduate Center and the West Falls Church Metro station. This would create a 40-acre development extending the Little City Commons by a half mile, from Leesburg Pike to the Metro station.
Quality schools are frequently on the minds of homebuyers, but Realtors® might be surprised to learn that businesses are also keenly aware of a community’s commitment to quality education. Businesses value the advantages of an educated workforce and also appreciate the role that schools and libraries play in equipping a community’s residents for success in an increasingly knowledge- based economy.
Education impacts the local business climate, but businesses can also positively affect local education by partnering with the schools and libraries, mentoring the students, and providing jobs.
In a separate undertaking, Falls Church is also renovating and expanding the nearby Mary Riley Styles Public Library, a project estimated to cost approximately $10 million.
The library renovation will increase popular community spaces in the facility by nearly 3,200 square feet, modernize mechanical and electrical systems, and bring the library into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Visiting a library is the most common cultural activity of Americans, according to the results of a 2019 Gallup poll. The survey of U.S. adults reported they made an average of 10.5 trips to the library during 2019, about twice the number of times they went to the movies.
In a 2019 letter to the editor of the Falls Church News Press, Chrystie F. Swiney, now a member of the library’s Board of Trustees, recalled how she insisted her family move to Falls Church when she and her one- year-old son “stumbled upon the library” while running errands in the community. “My insistence that we uproot our home in Washington, D.C. and relocate to Falls Church was inspired by my instant connection to the library,” Swiney explained.
Falls Church is also completing a recent expansion and modernization of its city hall, which reopened last summer, making the city center complex a more inviting location for community activities.
“The new school, renovated city hall and library are important not just as new buildings; they all contribute to the fabric of our community,” Connelly explained.
“The world is changing,” Connelly noted. “We want to create a partnership with local businesses so our schools and library are not operating in a vacuum, but are an important part of our overall plan for the future of Falls Church.”
“We’re really optimistic how all these developments are going to turn out to benefit everyone, because we’re all working together to make that happen,” Connelly concluded.
Frank Dillow is a past chair of NVAR’s Realtor® Commercial Council, an NVAR instructor, and a senior commercial broker in Long & Foster‘s Commercial Division. He can be reached at francis.dillow@ longandfoster.com.