arlington smart growth-article

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By Laura Mullane / Il lustration by Jennifer Renninger

IN A TIME WHEN “DEVELOPMENT” IS SYNONYMOUS

with big-box stores, five-acre parking lots, and cookie-cutter subdivisions, Arlington’s expansion and develop-ment is anything but. “One of our biggest contributionsis that we’re growing in a way that is environmentallysensitive,” says Barbara Favola, 2004 chair of theArlington County Board.

Indeed, the County has spent the better part of thelast three decades working to create individual communities—“urban villages”—that allow people tolive, work, play, and shop without ever having to get ina car. The nine primary villages are Rosslyn,Courthouse, Clarendon, Ballston, Crystal City, VirginiaSquare, Shirlington, Pentagon City, and Columbia Pike,each with its own unique identity.

Rosslyn can be best described as Arlington’s scaled-down version of Midtown Manhattan, offering � � �

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more than 8 million square feet of office space and 2,200hotel rooms, as well as apartment buildings and condo-miniums that house more than 6,000 units. The closesturban village to Washington, Rosslyn sits just across theKey Bridge from Georgetown. Because of strict heightrestrictions on buildings in Washington, Rosslyn providesthe area’s only skyline and, consequently, spectacularviews of the Potomac and the District. NorthropGrumman Corporation, The Boeing Company,Raytheon, IBM, The Freedom Forum, and the AmericanChemistry Council are some of Rosslyn’s employers.

Courthouse is Arlington’s civic center, home to countyoffices and the civic plaza. It’s also increasingly becomingthe location of choice for dot com and IT groups. TheWashington Post’s online operations are headquarteredhere. Sapient, a leading technology consulting and services firm, also has offices here, as does Verizon, theCounty’s largest private employer.

Clarendon is considered Arlington’s original urban village, having first been developed in 1903. Today it isone of the region’s hippest and most desirable neighbor-hoods, comparable to the District’s famed Georgetownand Adams Morgan. Best-known for its wide variety ofethnic restaurants, hopping bars, and clubs featuringsome of the area’s hottest bands, quaint storefronts, andcharming 1930s-era bungalows, Clarendon is quicklybecoming home to many businesses, as well, including

the information technology giant SRA International andComcast Corporation.

Ballston is Arlington’s science and technology center.The National Science Foundation is based here, andmany major technology firms have large offices inBallston, including CACI International and SAIC. Severalassociations are also located here, including the NatureConservancy, a nonprofit preservation group, and theNational Rural Electric Cooperative Association. TheBallston Common Mall is not only the neighborhood’sprime shopping location, but will soon be home to thetraining facility and offices of the Washington Capitalshockey team and a community ice rink.

Crystal City has Arlington’s largest downtown, with 10million square feet of office space, 5,000 hotel rooms,

Arlington

Where to Work. Whereto Live. Where to Play.The Arlington Economic Development teamis your inside source on Arlington. Each ofour consultants are experts on Arlington’scommercial real estate, its successfulbusiness sectors and the future growthindustries of the region. Whether to makeyour job easier, help your project run moresmoothly, provide you with information tomake your decisions better or just put you in front of the right people at the right time,

Arlington Economic Development is here to help.

To learn more aboutopportunities in Arlington, call

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If a developer wants to build in Arlington, he or she must makeroom for residences and street-frontretail as well. The result has beenan exceptional quality of life thathas made Arlington a model for smart growth.

5,000 residences, and a growing“restaurant row.” It is located justminutes from Reagan NationalAirport and is home to the officesof Booz Allen Hamilton andLockheed Martin Corporation.

Pentagon City is best-known forits Fashion Centre, one of the coun-try’s highest-grossing retail centers,with more than 160 stores, restau-rants, and galleries. But it is alsohome to more than 3,400 residen-tial units and 665 hotel rooms,including the Ritz-Carlton.

Columbia Pike is primarily a res-idential and retail district—and amajor thoroughfare for the County.It boasts Arlington’s largest concen-tration of ethnic restaurants, nodoubt attributable to the largeimmigrant population that callsColumbia Pike home.

The County board was (and is)adamant about creating mixed-useneighborhoods. If a developer wantsto construct an office building, heor she has to make room for residences and street-front retail aswell. While this might cause somedevelopers to grumble, the resulthas been an exceptional quality oflife that has made Arlington amodel for smart growth. Today,35,000 residents (or 17 percent ofthe population) live within walkingdistance of a Metro stop, 30 percentof residents work in Arlington,nearly 25 percent use public transportation to get to work, and12 percent of households don’t evenown a car. In fact, Arlingtonians aremore likely to be car-less than anyother county in the region.

The half-mile-wide corridoralong Wilson Boulevard occupiesjust 7.6 percent of Arlington’s landbut generates a third of its tax rev-enue. And because neighborhoodsinclude homes, businesses and retail,it means less traffic and publictransportation congestion becausepeople are coming and going onfoot during rush hour.

“All of our development is connected to the transit system,”

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All of this has made Arlington amodel community. A recent USAToday article called Arlington thegold standard among urban plan-ners for residential developmentnear transit stations. In 2002,Arlington won the EnvironmentalProtection Agency’s highest awardfor smart growth. In addition,results of a 2004 survey of residentsranked Arlington among the verybest places to live in the nation.

Combine Arlington’s proximityto Washington, its smart-growthsuccess, its exceptional transporta-tion system, and its excellent schoolsystem, and you have a communitythat has become an extremely desirable place to live. Yet with thissuccess has come one of Arlington’sbiggest challenges: affordable housing. The average home price inArlington in 2004 was just under$600,000, a 16 percent increasefrom the previous year. While thismay be a boon for realtors, home-buyers can find the Arlington market inaccessible. The County isworking to change this. “Part of oursmart-growth strategy is to grow ina socially responsible way,” saysFavola. Doing this means negotiating with developers toinclude more affordable housing indevelopment plans. Of the 1,600housing units approved for develop-ment in 2004, 14 percent were designated as affordable.

Although home prices may behigh, Arlington’s real estate taxes areamong the lowest in the region. Infact, for three consecutive years theCounty Board has lowered the realestate tax rate, for a total of 6.5cents since 2001.

Arlington’s success can be attrib-uted in part to its small size, whichmakes it more manageable thanlarger communities and gives it asmall-town feel despite the fact thatit’s a thriving urban center. “Peopleknow one another and talk to oneanother,” says Ron Carlee, CountyManager since 2001.

The small size also limits growth

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says Jay Fisette, chair of theArlington County Board. But thetransit system includes more thanjust the Metro. “When we talkabout transit, we’re talking aboutMetro, bus, walking, and biking.Arlington is the most bicycle-friend-ly community in the region.”

First included in the County’smaster plan for transportation in1974, the 89-mile system of biketrails has been said to be among thetop five in the nation and the beston the East Coast. At a cost of $16million, the system includes 36miles of paved, off-street trails, 23miles of bike lanes, and 30 miles ofon-street connecting bike routes—making it possible to bike to justabout anywhere in the County. “Alot of our employees use the bikepath system to get to work,” saysRay Culter, vice president and director of business operations forthe Nature Conservancy. The goal isto have a 111-mile system in placewithin 20 years.

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Arlington

1 - Rosslyn2 - Courthouse3 - Clarendon4 - Virginia Square5 - Ballston6 - Arlington Cemetery7 - Pentagon8 - National Airport9 - Pentagon City10 - Crystal City11 - Columbia Pike12 - Shirlington

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president and founder of Devis, a small IT company, saysits Clarendon location is perfect for his young staff:“They like this area. They live here and they want towork here.”

Arlington’s smart-growth development has been fueledby its booming economy. With an unemployment rate ofabout 1.7 percent, Arlington is one of the most stableeconomies in the region and the country. This is due inlarge part to the huge presence of the federal government.Federal agencies occupy nearly half of the 40.5 millionsquare feet of office space in Arlington. Four millionsquare feet of that is in the Pentagon alone.

But more important than the physical space occupiedby the government is the amount of business it generates:about $3.8 billion in contracts to Arlington companies.The Department of Defense is by far its biggest customer,accounting for about $2.24 billion of contracts toArlington companies and making Arlington’s share of theregion’s total defense-related contracts about 14 percent.

The presence of the federal government and, morespecifically, the Department of Defense, has led to ahigh-tech boom in Arlington, particularly informationtechnology, aerospace, and telecommunications.

“Arlington has a much bigger technology sector thanmost people think,” says Terry Holzheimer of ArlingtonEconomic Development, the County’s agency devoted togrowing business. Arlington is home to about 1,300high-tech companies that employ some 26,000 workers.

Arlington’s high-tech roots run deep. The Internet wasinvented here through a joint effort of the DefenseAdvanced Research Projects Agency and the NationalScience Foundation, both of which are headquarteredhere. They’re in good company. Arlington is also home tothe Office of Naval Research and the DefenseInformation Systems Agency. In addition, NorthropGrumman’s Arlington operations include the NorthropGrumman Analysis Center, a think tank devoted tostudying the future of national security and warfare.

“Arlington is almost recession-proof,” says CharlotteFranklin, who specializes in the telecommunicationsindustry for Arlington Economic Development. “Whenthe government isn’t ramped up, business steps in; whenbusiness isn’t ramped up, government steps in. We didn’tsee the recent bust that the rest of the country saw.”

Information technology companies in Arlington rangefrom the mammoth—such as SAIC, SRA International,and CACI, a $1.14 billion government contractor—tothe small, like Devis, a 40-employee, $5 million-a-yearcompany that designs Internet applications for the federalgovernment. “Arlington is a great area to develop a nichemarket,” says Devis’s Gallagher.

Arlington’s booming high-tech economy can also beattributed to its exceptional infrastructure—one of thereasons Arlington was so attractive to Verizon. Thetelecommunications giant is Arlington’s largest privateemployer, with more than 2,000 workers in officesthroughout the County. “There’s a high penetration of

PCs and Internet access in the home,” says DougBrammer, area manager for Verizon’s external affairs.“There’s an infrastructure in place to support our work.”

This is one reason why Verizon is launching an ambitious project to bring broadband capability to allArlington homes and businesses by the end of the year—making this one of the first communities on the EastCoast with broadband access on this scale.

Arlington’s business-friendly environment is one of thebiggest reasons it is so attractive to companies and organi-zations. “Political leaders of Arlington know how businessworks and they work with it,” said Verizon’s Brammer.

The Nature Conservancy first moved to Arlington in1968. When it outgrew its first building, “we did anexhaustive nationwide search for a new location,” saysCulter. “But we decided to stay in Arlington. It’s an excel-lent community and very supportive of organizations likeours. They actually gave us tax-exempt bonds for construction of our building.”

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Arlington’s Metro connects the dots; Waterview’s office and retail space will open in 2008; an Apple Store in Clarendon is a sign of the times.

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and, consequently, sprawl. “Our development is very tar-geted, very well-planned, and it has a limit,” said Fisette.Some might think this means there’s nowhere forArlington to grow, but that’s not the case. While landmay not be available for Arlington to grow out, it contin-ues to grow through several major redevelopment proj-ects. In 2004, the County approved new site plans for atotal of 1,600 housing units and eight office buildingsthat equal more than 2 million square feet.

A significant redevelopment project in Rosslyn isunder way to add storefronts and create a more urbanfeel. Among the major projects is Waterview, which, oncecompleted in 2008, will feature more than 600,000square feet of office space, nearly 7,200 square feet ofretail space, a 160-room boutique hotel, and 185 luxuryapartments. Central Place is another redevelopment proj-ect on the drawing board that will ultimately be the loca-tion of two 450-foot-tall buildings: a 466,000-square-footresidential building and a 367,000-square-foot office

building, both with significant ground-level retail.What the Rosslyn redevelopers hope to accomplish has

already been realized in Crystal City. While Crystal Citywas built up around the same time as Rosslyn, developerstook the opposite approach: Instead of putting in a sky-way system, they put everything underground. The resultwas the same—no storefronts and no pedestrian traffic.Driving through Crystal City 10 years ago, the streetswere so empty one would wonder whether people occu-pied the buildings at all.

Charles E. Smith Commercial Realty, which owns 70percent of the office space in Crystal City, set out tochange that with a top-to-bottom makeover. At the heartof this new vision is the rebuilding of Crystal Drive, themain thoroughfare of Crystal City, as a Main Street thatencourages pedestrian traffic and gives a warmer, livelierfeel. Storefronts were moved to the street. The previouslyone-way Crystal Drive now has two-way traffic. Signagewas updated and improved. Even the street numbering

system was revised. The new Crystal Drive opened inOctober, and already the effects are noticeable, namelythe presence of people walking to stores, office and apart-ment buildings, and world-class restaurants, includingOyamel, the most recent creation of José Andrés, BonApetit’s 2004 chef of the year.

All of these neighborhoods can look to Clarendon as amodel for redevelopment done right. Just eight years ago,Clarendon was home to a closed Sears, some used-carlots, a few restaurants and a handful of bars. Today, it isone of the hottest and most popular locales in theWashington area, not just Arlington.

A big part of Clarendon’s charm is its mix of the oldand new, big and small. Strolling through Clarendonyou’ll find the Mercado Latino Family Butcher Shop,established in 1969, and Pottery Barn; the VirginiaHardware Company and Barnes & Noble; RevolutionCycles bicycle shop and Whole Foods. Much of the rede-velopment uses the neighborhood’s original architecture

from the 1930s, giving it an intimate feel. “It’s a gold mine,” says Tim Eagan, manager of

Revolution Cycles, which opened in Arlington almostthree years ago and occupies a 1930s-era building. “Wewere in Georgetown and decided it was time to branchout. We asked ourselves what’s the next big place to be.That’s Clarendon.”

Georgetown University had the same idea and is nowoffering courses across the Potomac from its DC campusin The Hartford Building in Clarendon. Initial classes willbe offered through Georgetown’s Center for ProfessionalDevelopment (CPD), and courses will eventually expandto include other university programs in Clarendon.

Keller Graduate School of Management in Arlington,part of DeVry University, offers graduate managementdegree programs. In turn, these graduates flood the areawith exceptional talent.

The vibrant energy of Clarendon makes it attractive toemployers looking to hire young workers. Peter Gallagher,

Ballston is the hub for science and technology; Pentagon City’s Fashion Centre is a retail champ; upscale Crystal City has 5,000 hotel rooms.

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Access to transportation is anoth-er benefit of locating in Arlington.In addition to its exceptional publictransportation and bike path sys-tems, Reagan National Airport isonly a 10-minute drive or shortMetro ride from the heart ofArlington. Dulles InternationalAirport is only 25 minutes away.

Arlington is also very safe.Unlike other communities,Arlington’s crime rate has droppedas the County has grown. In fact,the crime rate in 2003 was halfwhat it was in 1990. “Our policeforce was one of the first in theregion to do community-basedpolicing,” says County Board mem-ber Barbara Favola. “Police knowtheir section of the County verywell, and people know them. If youcommit a crime in Arlington, there’sa very high chance you’ll getcaught.”

But perhaps the biggest reasoncompanies choose Arlington is itsexceptional quality of life. “Qualityof life was one of the biggest factorsin our decision to have a corporatepresence in Arlington,” saysMitchell Caplan, CEO ofE*TRADE Financial, which hasabout 590 employees in Arlington.

Smart growth is what makesArlington’s quality of life so desir-able. “It’s a vibrant community, andemployers like that,” says RichDoud, president of the ArlingtonChamber of Commerce. “You cango to the exurbs where land ischeaper, but when the workday isover you’re going to have to drive apretty long way to find somethingfun to do.”

Arlington’s mixed-use urban villages, with their great restaurantsand exciting nightlife, make it aplace people want to go to work.“Arlington County was fortunateenough to see how growth andsprawl impacted other communities.They were able to step in and control that,” says the NatureConservancy’s Culter. “It’s a veryhumanizing environment.”

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The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association(NRECA), the County’s largest nonprofit employer,agrees. The organization moved to Arlington in 1995after being headquartered in Washington for 50 years.“The County was very responsive, and still is,” saysPatrick Gioffre, executive vice president of internal opera-tions. “If I make a phone call to the County Board, I geta call back within 24 hours. That’s not the case in otherplaces.” NRECA has been so happy with Arlington that itis constructing another 250,000-square-foot buildingadjacent to the existing one.

For small companies like Devis, responsiveness fromthe County is critical. “They’ve been very supportive on anumber of fronts,” says Gallagher. “They’ve helped uslocate office space and resolve parking issues.”

Plateau Systems, a small software development comp-any that has been headquartered in Arlington since 2001,credits the County for being an easy place to do business.“The County government is very favorably disposed tobusinesses,” says CEO Paul Sparta.

Not only is the County favorable toward business, butthe community is supportive, as well. Virginia HospitalCenter is a 334-bed healthcare facility located in the heartof a single-family home residential community—its loca-tion since its founding 40 years ago. When it came timeto embark on a $165 million rebuilding project, both theCounty and the hospital’s neighbors were extremely sup-

portive, says CEO Jim Cole. This community support can also be seen in the

Columbia Pike redevelopment. “The Columbia Pike planis very radical, but the community consensus is phenome-nal,” said County Manager Carlee. “There has been nosubstantive opposition.” Much of this can be attributed tothe County’s consensus-building approach to projects.

Because the Arlington population is so well-educated,it is an excellent place to find talented workers. This isespecially evident in the healthcare industry, wherestaffing shortages, particularly among nurses, are criticallyhigh. While the national vacancy rate for nursing posi-tions is around 15 percent, Virginia Hospital Center has avacancy rate of only 5 percent. “Part of that can be attrib-uted to the appeal of living in Arlington,” says Cole.

RosslynA R L I N G T O N • V A

Manhattan on the PotomacOn the banks of the Potomac lies bustling, fast-paced Rosslyn – one of D.C.’sclosest and most urban neighborhoods, located in Arlington, VA. Rosslyn businessesand residents enjoy sweeping views of Washington, D.C., convenient Metro access,and soaring vertical architecture, with a lively sidewalk culture, eclectic restaurants

and smart shops. Site of the first high-rises in Arlington, Rosslyn is home tothe most exciting redevelopment in all of Washington, D.C., including hotly

anticipated, groundbreaking projects Waterview and Central Place.

To learn more about opportunities in Rosslyn, call Arlington Economic Development at 703.228.0878

or visit www.arlingtonvirginiausa.org

Arlington offers companies something other high-tech hubscan’t: a much more stable economy.Because so much of Arlington’sbusiness is linked to the federalgovernment, it is much less affected by economic slowdowns.