Unfinished Eyesore

Abandoned Arlington Building Frustrates Neighbors as County Weighs What Action to Take

When Mark Churchill purchased his upscale townhouse on some of Arlington County's most prime real estate in 2004, he bought into a neighborhood vision that revolved around a centerpiece of condos and shops just minutes from the District. Instead, the view from Churchill's kitchen window for three years has been of an unfinished and decaying shell of a building that looms over Lee Highway and sheds debris in high wind.

To those who own homes and townhouses at the Bromptons at Cherrydale, the four-story ghost of a building is something they see every day. To Arlington officials, it is the building that won't go away.

The county ordered construction of the building halted in 2006 amid structural concerns. Since then, the builder has said he doesn't have enough money to fix it or tear it down, contractors are suing to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars, and potential buyers have become wary.

Now, frustrated Arlington officials have taken the rare step of asking a judge to order the building demolished or fixed, hoping that would expedite a resolution and be the least costly for taxpayers. A court order, they argue, would push Arlington to the front of the line in recovering an estimated $1 million in demolition costs that otherwise might be passed on to Arlington residents. A trial date has been set for May 27.

"It's a pretty unusual action on the county's part," said County Attorney Stephen MacIsaac. "The fact that we are doing something like this demonstrates how seriously we regard it."

Washington area jurisdictions have long had to deal with blight, but it usually comes in the form of older buildings. The Bromptons is an unusual case of a new building never getting on its feet, its shell creating an eyesore before it ever housed a resident or business.

County officials say the lawsuit is a last resort in trying to end the saga of the Bromptons, a development aimed at revitalizing the commercial corridor that runs along Lee Highway between Cherrydale and Maywood.

Valued at $1.7 million, according to tax records, the land has drawn interest from potential buyers, but not enough to cover more than $1 million in contractor liens and the costs of dealing with the building itself.

Arlington has long embraced developer Ed Peete's design of a community with houses, townhouses, condos and retail fronting busy Lee Highway as a sort of town center. Homeowners jumped on it, too, buying up the townhouses at pre-construction prices that soared into the high $800,000s in 2004. But they expected a complete community with coffee and sandwich shops and instead have been fighting blight.

Peete did not return calls seeking comment, and a lawyer representing Peete's development company declined to comment.

Churchill, a lawyer who lives in one of the townhouses with his wife and two young children, looks out over the vacant building and worries for his family's safety. In bad weather, he said, parts of the building have blown off and hit his house, and he believes there is no choice but to bring the building down.

"When the day comes that we've outgrown our house and have to move, I'm going to have to stomach the fact that I'm going to take a giant bath on the sale of my home, because my home has been completely devalued," Churchill said. "I thought I had a gold mine, and it's far from it."