original reporting:
https://wtop.com/alexandria/2024/04/the-wizards-and-caps-arent-coming-to-potomac-yard-a-rental-car-company-wants-to-use-the-land-for-a-parking-lot/
the pitch for a parking lot was rejected, but it is typical of the cruddy offers they've been getting for the land near the metro.
Beyond Va Tech, Target's lease is for 20 years.
Not every place near Metro stops automatically have the most gleaming, amazing uses just spring up because you put a stop there. The stop seemed kind of wedged in for use, but that didn’t automatically mean that everything was just going to turn into streets of gold there.
But then again, when have Alexandria officials really looked at the big picture over recent decades versus arguably seeming to be led around by the nose by developers? There was a very profitable use there when it was a train yard, but when prices in the area began to spike, many industrial uses such as the train yard seemed to disappear. The “port city” apparently decided to unilaterally dismember its port usability, in part so they could put up condos etc. instead, though there had been port uses that weren’t only industrial but actually had commercial/retail elements as well.
One could go way, way further into depth here, but suffice it to say that it was city officials appearing to go their own way, without seeming to heed a lot of input from the community with this “let’s develop every square inch with office and residential development” theme that may finally had reached its logical conclusion after dismembering alternative economic diversifying elements. And yet, this official closes with this:
“It’s disappointing, Aguirre said, “that we weren’t allowed to have this conversation at a local level, and really try to see if we could put (together an arena deal) that would work for our community.””
Yeah, when they spring something that may seem completely out of the blue and appears at odds with the existing plan for that area of the city, they don’t have that conversation sometimes. That’s especially if their actions indicate they apparently don’t want to. What seems neat is how the organization that came out of this in the recent zoning matter there now appears to be in place to ensure conversations will be had with every move there contemplated going forward, particularly when certain city officials seem to have gone over their skis.
