Elm Street Development Plans 280-Unit Project Along Richmond Highway

Another development is in the works along the Richmond Highway corridor, where a new transit line and land use plan are intended to spur economic growth.

Elm Street Development filed plans with Fairfax County for a 280-unit apartment project at the intersection of Richmond Highway and Buckman Road. 

The developer is under contract to buy the site, and it is also looking to purchase a series of adjacent properties that could accommodate townhouses, Elm Street Vice President Jim Perry told Bisnow. He said he aims to break ground on the multifamily project by the first half of 2023 and deliver it by the end of 2024. 

The five-story multifamily project would be built on a 5-acre site previously occupied by eight single-family homes. It would have a structured parking garage and an interior courtyard.

The amenities would include an outdoor pool and grilling area, a fitness center, a dog care salon, a resident lounge and a gaming area. If the developer moves forward with the adjacent townhouses, Perry said the buyers would have access to the building's amenities. 

The project would also create a park at the Richmond Highway-Buckman Road intersection that would be available to the public. 

"The Buckman-Richmond intersection will be a major intersection with a full signal, so we wanted to provide an open space area as a central focus of that intersection that would be available not only for our residents but people taking advantage of the pedestrian opportunities the county is creating," Perry said.

The county in 2018 passed the Embark Richmond Highway transportation and land use plan. The plan calls for building a bus rapid transit system and creating a series of community hubs with high-density development around the stops. It also calls for improving the bicycle and pedestrian experience along the corridor. 

“We’ve always been a big fan of the corridor for redevelopment, and the county is investing a lot of resources in the corridor with its Embark project,” Perry said. “We like the corridor for its proximity to employment, retail and the Beltway, and we’d love to find other redevelopment opportunities down there.”

Elm Street has partnered with Alexander Co. on multiple projects in the area, including the redevelopment of the Old Mount Vernon High School at 8333 Richmond Highway and the redevelopment of a former prison in Lorton. 

Other developers have moved forward with projects near the Huntington Metro station, the eastern terminus of the Embark Richmond Highway plan, and along other portions of the corridor. In April, Lennar Multifamily Communities filed plans for a 470-unit project near the intersection of Richmond Highway and North Kings Highway. 

"With all the development in the pipeline up at the Huntington Metro that is certainly going to change that area dramatically," Perry said. "As the county pushes forward the Embark project along Richmond Highway, we think it's going to get nothing but better. The more redevelopment there, the better."