The Merrifield area is one of the up-and-coming suburbs over the past decade with Mosaic District and the revitalization around the Dunn Loring Metro Station, and there is still more to come.
By Lynn Norusis
The county has a Merrifield Suburban Study in place for the area, and Merrifield is also part of the broader Community Revitalization program with its own comprehensive plan.
Two major developments that have come up in the past few years are poised to bring more residential and a state-of-the-art medical expansion to the area. The first is Fairview Park, where the 86-acre site along Fairview Park Drive between the beltway and Route 50 will be turned into 2.4 million square feet of mixed-use development to include an outdoor plaza with a multifamily development (about 840 units), first-floor retail and amenities such as waterfront recreation, amphitheater, retail pavilions, indoor community space and trails.
Inova just announced in November that it plans on expanding the recently-opened Schar Cancer Institute after it received a $20 million donation. Inova also purchased, in June, the former Exxon Mobile Campus for $182.5 million. Initial plans called for it to be a hub of academic and research; however, plans have changed under the leadership of now CEO Dr. Stephen Jones to be an extension of Inova’s overarching mission of patient care with a focus on 11 clinical services: cancer, heart and vascular, behavioral health, musculoskeletal, neurosciences, pediatrics, primary care, women’s health, medicine, surgery and clinical platforms. Plans for the 117-acre campus still call for the existing office buildings along with future retail, housing and a hotel.
Other developments mentioned for the area are Dunn Loring Center, along Merrilee Drive, where a 1980s office building would be transformed into a mixed-use development with more than 230 multifamily units and a parking deck with more than 290 spaces. There would also be ground-floor retail, a public plaza and sidewalks to link it with the existing Halstead Square development.
The other $100 million development initially proposed for the area is Phase II of the Mosaic District that would turn the aged Fairfax Plaza Shopping Center along Gallows Road into more residential units, office and retail space. No deadline is set for this, and recent calls to the developer, Retail Properties of America, were not returned to garner recent updates.
For more information on development happening around Northern Virginia, check out our development updates page. We focus on a different area in Northern Virginia each month.
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