Alexandria Accelerates Riverfront Makeover

People stroll along the Alexandria waterfront near the Torpedo Factory. (Bill O'Leary -- The Washington Post)

Alexandria's plan to update its historic seaport has rocketed to the top of the city's priorities, another piece of a broader renaissance taking place along the Potomac River waterfront in Virginia, the District and Maryland.

For more than 30 years, the city has debated and argued over what to do about its waterfront -- a confusing jumble of shops, parkland and industrial buildings along the river just north of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge that officials say has the potential to be one of the region's great destinations.

Now, with the $2 billion National Harbor complex going up in Prince George's County and the District planning a new baseball stadium along the Anacostia waterfront in Southeast, Alexandria officials say they don't want to be left behind.

"We need to advance this process as quickly as possible," said Alexandria Mayor William D. Euille (D). "The longer it takes us, we'll probably miss out on some valuable opportunities. . . . The excitement and opportunities are there now, so let's take advantage of them."

Among other things, Alexandria officials envision linking the District, Prince George's and Northern Virginia with a water taxi that could bring conventioneers staying at National Harbor and ferry local residents to the ballpark after a dinner in Old Town.

In recent months, city officials have made strides in their quest to transform their waterfront into a major attraction for a city that already brings in 2 million visitors a year.

Alexandria Vice Mayor Andrew Macdonald drives his boat while touring the Alexandria waterfront to show the purchases that the city has made and its plans for the future. (Bill O'Leary -- The Washington Post)

Alexandria has spent $3.8 million buying key pieces of land near the water, and officials are close to an agreement with a boat club that long balked at giving the city its parking lot. It sits behind a concertina-wired gate on prime real estate at the foot of King Street, blocking public access and views of the water.

The city now hopes to spend up to $15 million to acquire -- and millions more to transform -- a three-acre sweep of land that stretches along the waterfront between King and Duke streets into a gathering spot for locals and tourists.

In the coming months, the city will begin holding public meetings to hear from residents and business owners about what they'd like to see there. Possibilities include a grassy park, a new walkway for pedestrians and cyclists, more slips for recreational boaters, a kayak- or canoe-rental operation and a maritime museum that chronicles the city's seafaring past.

Much of that is missing now, aside from the small city marina and a food court in front of the Torpedo Factory Art Center. The center was transformed in 1974 from a U.S. Navy factory into studio space and galleries for artists and draws 500,000 visitors annually.

"Everybody says, 'Where's the water?' You say, 'It's six blocks that way,' and then you go down and there's a little bench at the end of King Street," said Judy Guse-Noritake, chairman of the city's Park and Recreation Commission. "There's no sense of arrival, no sense of celebration or that this is our place on the river."

The city hopes that it will one day have a continuous waterfront promenade from Daingerfield Island south to Jones Point Park. As it stands now, the Mount Vernon Trail -- one of the most heavily used in the National Park Service system -- diverts to Union Street through Old Town, a block off the river.

That dream is further impeded by two large newsprint and distribution buildings on Union and Duke streets owned by Robinson Terminal Warehouse Corp., a subsidiary of The Washington Post Co. Neither of those buildings is targeted for purchase by the city.

Some locals have greeted the city's plans with skepticism, recalling grand waterfront schemes that fizzled or were shot down in years past, including a Watergate complex with a private swimming pool and yacht basin or a hotel for boaters nicknamed the "boatel."

Former Alexandria mayor Frank E. Mann -- who owns one piece of land the city wants and has not agreed to sell -- criticized the city for buying expensive property before a plan has been created.

"Tell me what you're going to do on the waterfront and convince me it's viable, and you'll have no trouble from me. Up to that point, the answer is no. . . . I'm not going to get involved in this pig-in-a-poke approach," Mann said.

Alexandria's use as a seaport dates to the city's founding in 1749, when it was a frequent stopping place for ships toting tobacco, wheat and sugar. By the early part of the 20th century, it had morphed from a rat-infested seaport into an industrial wasteland, complete with a rendering plant that would often overwhelm the city with its fetid smell, said Euille, 56, an Alexandria native.

Over the years, the city made strides in preserving parkland but also approved ritzy townhouse projects along the waterfront. Progress was slowed for decades by a lingering dispute with the Park Service over who owned the waterfront. The federal officials argued that they did, because of the transfer of land to create the Federal City in 1791. The quarrel now is more or less resolved.

The area's current mainstay is the small city marina area, where tour boats dock, and the Torpedo Factory. Much more needs to be done, say city officials who want Alexandria's waterfront to be the city's "front door" or its "Central Park."

In the short term, Euille is pushing the water taxi to National Harbor and to the stadium. He envisions a shuttle bus system from the city's nearby Metro stations to a waterfront taxi on baseball game days.

Kent Digby, president and director of operations for National Harbor, said the developer is considering proposals for the taxi service that would run every half-hour from the Prince George's site to Alexandria docks.

"We see great synergy with Alexandria on the Virginia side," Digby said. "It's about connecting Maryland and Virginia, and we feel strongly about that. We see this as a great thing in our future."

In the longer term, the city hopes to have its waterfront design drawn up by the end of next year and will continue to press landowners, such as Mann, to buy their properties with the $15 million set aside in its parkland fund for that purpose.

"This has been 30-plus years in the making," Euille said. "If we can bring closure to this right now or relatively soon, this is a win for everyone -- the citizens of Alexandria and the region."