64 Apartments and 160 Hotel Rooms: The Proposed Best Western Redevelopment in Arlington

• June 25th 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

A year ago, preliminary plans began making the rounds for a proposed hotel redevelopment in Arlington. Now, more details are coming into focus. 

A site plan application has been filed with the county to redevelop the 1950s-era Iwo Jima Best Western hotel at 1501 Arlington Boulevard (map) and the Ellis Arms Apartments at 1523 Fairfax Drive (map) into...more hotel rooms and more apartments.

The new development would deliver a ten-story multifamily building with 64 units alongside a larger 12-story hotel building with 160 rooms. Ellis Arms currently has 14 garden apartments; Best Western has 150 rooms. A 3.5-story shared above-ground parking garage would also be appended to the hotel, providing 192 vehicular spaces.

The unit mix for the residential building is currently 16 studios, 30 one-bedrooms and 18 two-bedrooms. The hotel will have a pool, meeting rooms and event space, while apartment amenities will include a fitness center and a roof terrace with attached club room. While color renderings have not yet been made available, the residential building would be dark and light grey, the hotel would be two shades of grey with reddish-brown accents, and the garage would be clad in wooden slats.

Site plan amendments would be required for the development to be approved; plans are currently under review by the County. The applicant has acknowledged the need to develop a relocation plan with the current apartment tenants and would also be required to either provide or contribute to a fund for public art and affordable housing.

The architect is Cooper Carry and the owner/applicant is Nehal Patel, doing business via two LLCs (Grant Investment Properties for the hotel and Lee Investment Properties for the apartment building).

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/64-apartments-and-160-hotel-rooms-the-proposed-best-western-redevelopment-i/14153.