Arlington Board OKs Plan to Bring Whole Foods to Pentagon City

Whole Foods is one step closer to calling Pentagon City home.

The Arlington County Board on Saturday unanimously voted to approve a series of measures that will allow for the redevelopment of a warehouse site into what officials called the single largest residential and retail high-rise in Pentagon City.

The votes pave the way for a 22-story building with 699 residential units and more than 40,000 square feet of ground-level retail space at 1200 Eads St., across from Costco. Most of that would be occupied by a Whole Foods grocery store.

The development, by Vornado, is considered phases four and five of the massive, eight-phase Metropolitan Park project.

“This is an important milestone for the Metropolitan Park development, because it includes a full-service grocery store that will serve residents of the Pentagon City and Crystal City neighborhoods,” Arlington County Board Chairman Walter Tejada said in a statement. “We are now half-way to our goal of transforming this industrial part of Pentagon City to a more walkable, transit-oriented area that offers a great mix of homes and places to shop.”

The Metropolitan Park project ultimately consists of redeveloping 16 acres of warehouses and parking lots in 10 buildings for residential and commercial use.

Aside from Whole Foods, the building approved Saturday would include another 3,624 square feet of retail space and 885-space underground parking garage. The first floor of the garage would be reserved for grocery store customers, according to a news release.

The new Whole Foods in Pentagon City would be located a about half a mile from a Harris Teeter near Army Navy Drive at South Joyce Street. Arlington officials believe that the specialty nature of Whole Foods won't prevent another type of grocery store from locating within Crystal City as future redevelopment occurs, according to county documents.

The building at 1200 Eads St. would sit on a 2.64-acre site that's within walking distance to the Pentagon City and Crystal City Metro stations. More than 1 in 5 people live car free in Pentagon City.

The site borders what will eventually be 12th Street South, which will have two dedicated rapid-transit lanes to provide service between Pentagon City, Potomac Yards and Columbia Pike. The site is also next to a planned streetcar station.

Through negotiations with the county, Vornado will pay about $5 million to the county's Affordable Housing Investment Fund, $150,000 to support public art within the Metropolitan Park development and $132,000 to bury utility lines for the site. The developer, too, has pledged to achieve LEED Silver certification, which should save at least 18 percent on energy costs, according to county documents.

The site plans also call for new and expanded sidewalks to better accommodate pedestrians, street furniture, trees and outdoor cafe seating.

The first three phases of Metropolitan Park will ultimately produce 1,110 residential units and nearly 36,000 square feet of retail space. Of those, the Gramercy and the Millennium residential buildings are built and occupied, and the Acadia is under construction.

This article was originally published Saturday, July 13. It has been edited to clarify the location of the nearest Harris Teeter.