In Tysons, Building on an Anchor

Planners Hope Grocery Will Lure More Residents to Area

Gleaming deli cases, spectacular confections at the bakery counter and a busy hot bar for lunchgoers make the new Harris Teeter in Tysons Corner sound like just another upscale Northern Virginia grocery store.

Except for one thing: It's in Tysons Corner. It's the first grocery store to come to the sprawling expanse of office buildings and highway interchanges in two decades. That makes it a cornerstone in the effort to convert the area's concrete canyons and parking lots into a place where people want to live.

"What makes a place a place is great design and a pedestrian-friendly environment where people can meet many of their daily needs," said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Washington-based Coalition for Smarter Growth. He's a leading booster of plans to redevelop Tysons into an area where people can live, work, dine, play and, perhaps most important, walk.

"Grocery stores are a part of that," Schwartz said. "It's hard to live in a neighborhood and achieve a super-high walkability if you don't have a grocery store."

The last grocery store in Tysons was a Giant Food supermarket that closed in the 1980s. It was near Tysons Corner Center in a strip mall that recently housed a Circuit City -- nowhere near residential neighborhoods, and not ideal for luring shoppers.

The Harris Teeter opened in January in another part of Tysons, deep inside the Westpark development. For years, the area has been known for its sprawling corporate campuses, including those of Freddie Mac and USA Today. But recently, in anticipation of a Metrorail line through Tysons on its way to Dulles International Airport, developers have been building high-rise condominiums, townhouses and apartments.

In that mix, Harris Teeter saw an opportunity, company spokeswoman Jennifer Thompson said. The store occupies the ground floor of the Lofts at Park Crest, an apartment building, and has underground parking. It is one of several new stores that the Matthews, N.C.-based chain has opened in urban settings in the Washington region, including Pentagon City, Columbia Heights, Capitol Hill and Potomac Yard.

A stream of pilgrims from nearby offices flows into the store during weekday lunch rushes, which can last three hours. Much of the traffic is pedestrian, thanks to sidewalks.

Michele Cooper, 42, a human resources director in the area, said the store is "fabulous." It's two minutes from her office, she said, and "they have great lunch." Cooper, who lives in West Springfield, said she probably hits "the Teeter" three times a week for lunch and also for groceries.

For the moment, the store caters to professionals. Tysons is home to more than 100,000 workers and 17,000 residents. On a recent weekday, the aisles were teeming with men and women in suits with cellphone devices in their ears. The made-to-order sandwich line was 30 customers deep. Dozens more hovered over the hot bar, salad bar and brick-oven pizza counter, and customers ate in the dining area or on the patio.

Some retirees and women with strollers also roamed the store, which, at 60,000 square feet, is larger than a typical grocery store. The Tysons Harris Teeter is a flagship for the chain, meaning it carries the widest varieties of products. Shoppers can choose from 75 varieties of olive oil, store-made hot Italian chicken sausage and dry-aged Angus rib-eye. The store attracts customers from Vienna and McLean, and shuttle buses from nearby apartments drive by on regular schedules.

Michael Mertens, a retired doctor from McLean, picked up some vegetables, blueberries and a bottle of wine.

"One, I can find everything I'm looking for," Mertens said, as he loaded his provisions into his Volkswagen Touareg in the underground garage. "Two, it's clean. Three, I can park indoors."

The store is a success, said Thompson, the company spokeswoman. The big hope for area boosters is that it will breed more success by drawing people to live nearby.

Then, Tysons Corner might have a shot at being a destination.