Hotel, Apartments and Gourmet Grocer Coming to Rosslyn’s Best Western Redevelopment

• September 18, 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

Four months ago, UrbanTurf reported on the details of the proposed Best Western redevelopment near Rosslyn. Now, more details — and more detailed renderings — are coming to the fore. 

Witness Hospitality and development partner Grant Investment Properties have applied to replace the 1950s-era Iwo Jima Best Western hotel at 1501 Arlington Boulevard (map) and the Ellis Arms Apartments at 1523 Fairfax Drive (map) with two buildings containing, respectively, 150 hotel rooms and 64 apartments. 

The proposed 12-story hotel will have a pool and gym on the second floor and rooftop event space. Ground-floor retail is currently envisioned as a "gourmet grocer". The 10-story residential building will have a mix of studios and studios with dens, one-bedrooms and one-bedrooms with dens, and two-bedrooms.

Both buildings will share an above-grade parking garage with 192 vehicular spaces; the main entrance will be a driveway through the ground floor of the residential building, while the loading entrance will be on the east side of the hotel. The applicant has stated that the garage cannot be below-grade because of Metrorail tunnels.

Still pending is a relocation plan for the residents of the existing 14-unit garden apartment building on the site, as well as a plan for inclusion of public art and the provision of either affordable housing units or a fund contribution.

The Arlington County Site Plan Review Committee (SPRC) is expected to vote on the application in November; the above renderings were presented at a public meeting last night. The architect is Cooper Carry.

Renderings courtesy of Cooper Carry. 

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/hotel-apartments-and-gourmet-grocer-coming-to-rosslyn-best-western/14452