Board approves land swap allowing apartments and county office building in Bailey's Crossroads

The current land ownership in the Southeast Quadrant of Bailey's Crossroads.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a land swap with Columbia Crossing at the same site in Bailey’s Crossroads where a similar deal with AvalonBay fell through last year.

The agreement, approved March 1, paves the way for new housing, “a future new county or private office building,” and a new road in the Southeast Quadrant area, bordered by Columbia Pike and Moncure Avenue.

After AvalonBay withdrew from a land swap agreed to by the BoS in February 2016, Columbia Crossing, which owns the land AvalonBay had planned to trade with the county, expressed interest in a similar agreement, the BoS states.

After the land swap.

Columbia Crossing proposes to build approximately 355 mid-rise apartments along Moncure Avenue. The company would gain a 1.32-acre property currently owned by the county and occupied by the Bailey’s Crossroads Community Shelter. The shelter is relocating to land purchased last summer by the county on Seminary Road.

The land swap would give Fairfax County an adjacent 1.49-acre property on Columbia Pike owned by Columbia Crossing.

In a separate transaction, the county will buy a 1.44-acre property owned by Landmark Atlantic occupied by the 52-year-old Bailey’s International Center. The county entered into a contract to buy the Landmark property last April, and it expects to close on the deal later this year.

As a result of these transactions, the developer will end up with a consolidated 4.47-acre property along Moncure Avenue for its proposed apartment project.

The county will own a 2.76-acre consolidated plot for a possible East County office building and a new road connecting Seminary Road and Columbia Pike.

The agreement “doesn’t commit the county to build an office building on its parcel,” the BoS states. “The consolidated county property could accommodate a possible East County Human Services Center as identified in the county’s Capital Improvement Program. This center would consolidate human services functions currently operating from various leased spaces in the area.”

The BoS says “the decision to build a new county human services center, or to continue leasing space, will be considered by the Board of Supervisors at a future time.”

Under the land swap deal, the county and the developer also agreed to seek a joint rezoning that will be needed before either can move forward.

The deal would allow the homeless shelter to stay open until Oct. 31, 2019, when the new shelter opens a quarter mile away at 5914 Seminary Road.

According to the BoS, the proposal by Columbia Crossing would help “advance the broader vision for a revitalized Bailey’s Crossroads.” In 2010, the county updated the land use plan for the Bailey’s Community Business Center to recommend the development of a “town center” with a mix of uses.