EYA Bringing Townhome Development to NoVA
By Keith Loria July 27, 2020 1:10 pm
reprints
EYA Development will develop 50 townhomes in Fairfax City, Va. on a 3.7-acre site currently occupied by Metro Church.
“We’ll be refurbishing a site where a church currently sits today,” Aakash Thakkar, EYA’s executive vice president, told Commercial Observer. “We are the first adaptor of the city’s [Affordable Dwelling Units]’s ordinance, so it’s exciting for us to work with the city and be the first implementer.”
The for-sale component of the ADU ordnance provides affordable homeownership opportunities at below market sales prices for low and moderate income households.
The development, which will go up at 3500 Pickett Road, will include 5 units for families earning no more than 70 percent of the area median income.
“One of the most remarkable parts of this story is the way EYA brought stakeholders together to develop a community-oriented proposal that has forged links to the broader neighborhood and also implemented the city’s new affordable housing ordinance, all before the first shovel has gone into the ground,” David Meyer, the City of Fairfax’s mayor, said in a prepared release.
This is EYA’s first project in the City of Fairfax, though the company has done a great deal in Fairfax County.
“We like Fairfax County and Northern Virginia because there’s a strong and growing job market, and a good environment for recruitment and retention of new business,” Thakkar said. “Obviously, Amazon is locating to Northern Virginia and we see continued job growth happening in the next 3 to 5 years, and that will bring a continued demand for housing.”
Additionally, EYA sees the City of Fairfax as having a well-put-together downtown core with a great neighborhood.
“The development will be situated on Pickett Road, which is bookended by two strong retail nodes, one with a Trader’s Joe and Lifetime Fitness, and the other a mixed-use project with a Giant [grocery store] that’s been built by Combined Properties,” Thakkar said. “There’s also a new condominium complex on Pickett Road called the Enclave and two really nice single-family subdivisions.”
The groundbreaking on the project will occur sometime early- to mid-2021.
