Arlington Planners Call for Facelift

With BRAC Cuts, Rebuilding Urged For Crystal City

Forget the Crystal City that for decades has been synonymous with federal contractors and faceless office buildings.

Some Arlington planners yesterday said that at least a few of those aging structures may need to come down and be replaced with taller, more modern buildings if the area is to attract new businesses and thrive in the face of a massive relocation of defense workers.

The would-be transformation and its urgency were the topic of discussion yesterday among the members of a county task force of economic development specialists charged with preparing for the expected impacts of recommendations from the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC).

Arlington County was the hardest hit community in the nation by the military reorganization, which will mean the emptying of 3.2 million square feet of office space in Crystal City and the loss of about 17,000 jobs as leases expire and jobs are relocated. The vacancies will affect not only office space but also retail, restaurants and other businesses that served the daytime office market.

Yesterday, Mitch Bonanno, a vice president with Charles E. Smith Commercial Realty, suggested to the task force that if Crystal City is to become not just a place to work but a "destination environment" for dining, shopping and living, the county must take action.

"Do you keep renovating or do you make the extensive financial commitment to redevelop?" Bonanno asked the task force. "We think [redevelopment] is the way to go."

Changes, Bonanno said, might include retooling mass transit to add a second Crystal City Metro entrance and a circulating light rail or bus system. Other improvements, developers said, would include encouraging more sidewalk street life and making the area more pedestrian-friendly.

Bonanno and other developers who spoke before the committee yesterday agreed that their companies would seek streamlined permitting processes and increased density permits from the Arlington County Board to allow for higher replacement structures, should major redevelopment go forward.

The task force is expected to present a formal recommendation to the county board in June.

"It's all about planning for the impacts of BRAC before the impacts are fully felt," said Terry Holzheimer, Arlington's director of economic development. "What I find the most compelling reason [to move forward] is the high cost of maintaining the status quo."

Before the BRAC recommendations were announced, Crystal City was starting to change, largely because of Charles E. Smith Commercial Realty, which built most of Crystal City and now owns 7.4 million square feet of commercial office space, about 1.5 million of which is affected by the BRAC recommendations. In early 2002, the developer began a $40 million remake of the area with more urban streetscapes, attracting white tablecloth restaurants and a broader mix of tenants.

Then came the latest BRAC recommendations last summer -- the worst in a series of blows to Crystal City.

The last round of military closings 10 years ago resulted in the loss of 1.2 million square feet of office space in Arlington previously leased by the Navy. An additional 1 million square feet went in 2001 when the Naval Sea Systems Command moved from Crystal City to the Navy Yard in Southeast Washington.

Then in December 2003, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Crystal City began a phased move of 2.3 million square feet of office space to Alexandria. Crystal City has yet to recover that lost tenant base.