Those trying to rent commercial property in the Columbia Pike Corridor find that the old adage about land – “they don’t care anymore” – certainly rings true.
Arlington economic development officials say they will help where possible, but in many cases small business owners wanting to stay in the hallway will have to do the hunting themselves.
“We are not replacing brokers. . . but we will do what we can,” Telly Tucker, Arlington’s director of economic development, said at the recent “State of the Pike” forum, sponsored by the Columbia Pike Partnership and held online.
The arrival of nearby Amazon in the Pentagon City area is just one factor impacting rents in the Columbia Pike corridor, once known as a low-cost alternative to subway corridors in ‘Arlington. This ever-changing situation will require business owners to stay on top of the situation and plan, plan, plan to meet any eventuality.
“We want to make sure that all of our businesses strategically plan for their future,” Tucker said at the forum, which also touched on issues ranging from housing to the arts.
Trying to find the right amount of office or retail space in the 3.5-mile Columbia Pike corridor seems like a challenge for everyone; even the Columbia Pike Partnership (formerly Columbia Pike Redevelopment Organization) is facing the loss of its storefront space due to redevelopment. It currently shares the office with the Black Heritage Museum in Arlington, which had previously lost its space farther west on the Pike, also due to redevelopment.
Another economic development official – Tara Palacios of the county government’s BizLaunch program – said resources to help businesses have been boosted during the pandemic. The county government wants to “ensure our small businesses have the ability to survive and thrive,” Palacios said.
The growing raze and replacement development efforts on the Pike began in earnest when the county government began planning a streetcar project that would run from Pentagon City in the west to Skyline in Fairfax County.
Originally introduced as a faster alternative to existing bus transport, it was later introduced as an economic tool when developers determined that trams would not, in fact, travel noticeably faster than buses.
Efforts for a streetcar (critics preferred the “trolley”) were scrapped in 2014 due to concerns about rising projected costs – around $350 million towards the end for construction and millions incalculable amounts for operating subsidies—associated with the backsliding of some county residents on what were seen as the increasingly grand capital spending priorities of those then on the Arlington County Council dais.
On the transportation front, this spring will begin installation of about two dozen new bus shelters in the hallway, a successor to the earlier plan to provide high-tech bus shelters that died when The Washington Post called them out of vividly, though mistakenly, “million-dollar bus stops.
(While the actual projected cost of these shutdowns varied depending on who was doing the telling, even the highest point was only over about $800,000 each. New shelters cost less than $200,000 each.)
A major realignment of the easternmost portion of Columbia Pike is also underway, incorporating everything from North Nash Street east almost to the Pentagon. The effort, conducted as part of the expansion of Arlington National Cemetery, will provide “entirely new infrastructure,” said county transportation chief Dennis Leach. Commuters can expect disruption once the project gets underway in earnest; the estimated completion date is summer 2025.
In the spring of 2023, new limited-stop bus service is planned along the corridor to supplement existing local service. It’s another effort to promote bus service to Pike residents, many of whom are new enough to the neighborhood to not even be aware of the streetcar setbacks of a decade ago.
The “State of the Pike” event is separate from the Columbia Pike Partnership’s “Pike Progress” luncheon, which will be held in April (and again in a “virtual” format due to the pandemic).
Having a winter update on development and other issues is a way to ensure “we’re all on the same page and all excited and moving in the same direction,” the executive director said. of the organization, Kim Klingler.
Originally a toll road chartered by Congress in 1810, Columbia Pike replaced a dirt cow road. Traveling west from Arlington, the road continues into Fairfax County and ends at Little River Turnpike in Annandale.
Long under the control of the Virginia Department of Transportation, control of much of the Arlington portion of the Pike was transferred to the Arlington County government in 2010. County officials at the time said they were taking control of the causeway – although more costly to county ratepayers – would allow local government to play a more direct role in directing the redevelopment of the corridor.
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