As is the case with other entertainment-oriented retail projects around the area, nearby residents from neighborhoods such as Fairlington say that while they welcome the new grocery store, they still want the complex to include more service-oriented stores that serve their needs, rather than more restaurants or arts venues.
"A theater is not something we're going to go to on a regular basis," said Ed Hilz, treasurer of the Fairlington Citizens Association, which represents Fairlington, "but a hardware store is. We need more neighborhood services."
Jay Fisette, chairman of the Arlington County Board, predicted more service-oriented retail would come to Shirlington when more people live there. "There will be a market for it then," he said.
Attached to the Bozzuto high-rise will be a 159-unit condominium building being developed by Texas-based developer Trammell Crow Co.
Ryan Wade, senior vice president at Trammell Crow, said its new condo building, called Shirlington Village, sold out last summer in about three months. Construction started recently.
"We're not surprised it sold so fast," Wade said. "We were the only ones on the market at the time. With our direct proximity to the Harris Teeter next door and everything that's happening in Shirlington, there was a lot of interest."
He said, "What makes Shirlington special is that it's already got the urban mixed-use environment where people want to be and want to live. It's not completely there yet, but it's very clear that it will be when everybody is done."
Wade said Trammell Crow was excited about the Shirlington project because it had involved so many different players. "It's not just another building along Wilson Boulevard or on U Street in the District," he said. "The county has put a lot of effort into Shirlington, as has Federal Realty. It's the culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people."
The condo building will have an outdoor pool, a fitness center, a club room and a business center. Some of the units will be loft-style, with platform bedrooms and barn-style doors. The loft-style units will be on the bottom floors of the building; upper-floor apartments will have more conventional layouts with D.C. views.
Another 244-unit condo building has just broken ground at the other end of Shirlington's main street. Units in the building, the Io Piazza, are currently for sale; about one-third of the units have sold, said Tatiana Maria, a project manager at the Arlington-based Ed Peete Co., the developer of the building.
Condo prices there range from the low $300,000s for a one-bedroom unit to $1.2 million for a three-bedroom with den duplex.
"It's the location people are attracted to," Maria said. "We're basically selling Shirlington."
The idea that a lot more people could soon be in Shirlington worries some people, and not only those who live nearby. Congestion and parking are the concerns.
"More residents are a trade-off," said Tina Games-Evans, who was in Shirlington with her husband, Simon Evans, for lunch one day last week. "It might be good for the people who live here, but for the people who just come here like us, it may not be that good. Parking is a concern."
