Old Town North wants to become the arts and cultural destination for Alexandria. To help meet this goal, the City of Alexandria made some amendments in April to the original small area plan that was approved in June 2017 and detailed in Northern Virginia Magazine‘s October 2017 issue.
The plan had always put an emphasis on the arts, as MetroStage and The Art League are already in Old Town North, but meetings with the public in the development of the plan revealed that the community wanted to not only ensure that these venues remained in the area, but also open up the possibility to have similar attractions take up residence.
“Their desire was to make sure those art uses were being maintained in Old Town North, in their neighborhood,” explains Heba ElGawish, urban planner for Alexandria and the project manager, about the community. “They thought it brought vibrancy. It was kind of a unique thing they had; it contributed to their identity.”
The amendments specifically addressed language in the zoning ordinance for the plan that will allow for the creation of an Arts and Cultural corridor along N. Fairfax Street. Part of this includes the renovation of the Crown Plaza Hotel, which will be converted into a multi-family residential unit with adjacent town houses. But the main feature will be a new location for MetroStage at the base of the building. Estimations are that construction will begin on that project in the next six to eight months, with an eye toward completion between two and two-and-a-half years.
This of course will open up a space at MetroStage’s current location. Though nothing is determined as of yet, the City is in talks with the property owner about keeping that as an art venue. This will be assisted by another amendment, the ability to apply bonus density on these type of projects.
“Bonus density is essentially giving the developer density to then subsidize that art space to go in and continue to operate as they do today,” says Jeff Farner, deputy director for Alexandria’s Department of Planning and Zoning. “It’s affordable space for artist use that’s narrowly defined to this geographic area of the city.”
Requirements for using the bonus density are that the space must be used for arts that offer a large public benefit and that they be there for a minimum of 30 years. According to Farner, developers are showing interest to become a part of this new arts destination.
“In the next two to five years, you’re going to see a significant movement of branding, identity, uses and capitalizing on retail and arts, and that synergy of how those uses work really well together,” he says.
