Fellowship Square Foundation Inc. (FSF) announced earlier this week that they have new plans to redevelop the Lake Anne I and II Fellowship House, adjacent to HCA Block 1 carriage houses. According to FSF, "...
new construction will replace all 240 apartment units in the 1970s era buildings." The announcement followed a five month evaluation of two existing buildings by the
Community Preservation and Development Corp. (CPDC) commissioned by FSF. The study concluded that existing buildings should be torn down and replaced rather than renovated because of "
structural obsolescence" and that
"excess land" would allow new construction. New FSF partner CPDC is described as a "...
non-profit agency that purchases and revitalizes distressed low-income housing communities." It has helped redevelop
other regional properties including
Island Walk, a 1970s Reston 102-unit limited-equity cooperative developed by the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority that suffered from poor design, inadequate funding, deferred maintenance, and significant deterioration.
FSF and then-partner Novus Residences LLC originally said they could replace only 140 of 240 (114 subsidized) affordable senior units because of limited property value leverage, and because FSF/Novus hoped to build 285 new Lake Anne market value living units to generate revenues that would fund other FSF housing elsewhere. In response, Fairfax County indicated it would not continue to offer Section 8 housing vouchers to residents. FSF/Novus then said they would be forced to raise rents to cover increased operating expenses and loss of subsidy income. In addition, FSF/Novus plans that included large mid-rise buildings covering most of the North Shore Dr. existing buildings site and an adjacent currently undeveloped Village Rd. site, with a large above-grade parking garage along Baron Cameron Ave., resulted in a number of negative comments during a March 2014 RA Design Review Board public working meeting. The project has been on hold since late 2014. More information is available on a
previous HCA website post.
