* Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) recently broke ground on a new, 216,000-square-foot building in the Westfields Corporate Center in Chantilly. COPT already owns seven buildings with a total of 1 million square feet in Westfields. The new structure will be six floors and should be completed by summer or fall of 2005.
COPT is a suburban-office, real-estate investment trust which owns 8.5 million square feet of office space in Chantilly and along the Dulles/Route 28 Corridor. It constructs and leases buildings to the federal government and defense contractors and locates them in select geographic areas.
It's constructing this new building based on the continued demand for space within the defense industry in the Northern Virginia market. It will be located at 15010 Conference Center Drive, adjacent to Washington Technology Parks I and II.
* Wegmans Food Market: This upscale, gourmet supermarket is headed for the Fairfax Center area. It will be built at Route 29 and Monument Drive in early 2005 and even includes take-out or in-store dining. A Wegmans opened locally in Sterling in February.
* Chevy Chase Bank hopes to build a new branch at the corner of Walney Road and Route 50 in Chantilly. (Scott's Turf, a lawnmower-repair shop, currently occupies that spot). The bank needs a special-exception permit because of the two, drive-through/ATM windows that are part of the project. The building's brick exterior would resemble Chevy Chase's new bank at Routes 28/29 in Centreville. Chevy Chase also plans to build a new entrance that would serve both it and the adjoining shopping center.
* Commerce Bank would like to build a branch at the corner of Centrewood Drive and Machen Road in the Marketplace at Centre Ridge Shopping Center. Proposed is a 3,700-square-foot bank with four drive-throughs — one, an ATM. The entrance would be on Multiplex Drive.
The drive-through window would probably be open from 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m., with lobby hours Monday-Wednesday, from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
* Wendy's and Midas Muffler plan to build near Westview Drive on a 1.85-acre parcel bounded by Routes 28 and 29 and Old Centreville Road (OCR). In exchange for a needed rezoning from the county, both businesses have agreed to some specific proffers to help the community.
They'll install sidewalk all along OCR and crosswalks from the nearby neighborhood so local residents and people coming from the bank or Burger King may walk there. And at the request of Supervisor Michael R. Frey (R-Sully), the developer will construct a full, four-lane section of OCR in front of the park across the street from the site. It will provide access to the parking lot so the park's soccer fields may be used.