Summary

On January 30 and 31, 2025, the City hosted the Urban Land Institute Technical Assistance Panel (ULI-TAP), which was tasked with providing a technical analysis of the land-use and planning issues associated with the Gordon Road Triangle, including the Falls Church Property Yard. The City provided specific questions to be answered in the panel’s analysis.
Twelve panelists performed the assessment, with additional input and participation from some 52 “stakeholders” representing the City, Fairfax County, other municipal bodies (e.g., the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments-MWCOG and the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority-NVTA), developers, local businesses, and selected civic organizations. The public and the press were not invited to actively participate but could watch the final presentation on Zoom.
A site visit and Interviews were conducted on Thursday, January 30. On January 31, the panel hosted a work session to obtain further input and develop strategies to achieve its stated goals and presented their initial findings and recommendations. A full report is expected in two months.
Among their recommendations were to step away from the 2024 Fox Architects, LLC proposal for the City’s Property Yard and instead conduct a programming and feasibility study to further identify needs of Public Works, other City departments, and Schools that would be incorporated into any design. The panel further recommended exploring public-private partnerships as a financing strategy.
The panel indicated that if the City took the initial steps to develop its two parcels, it would serve as a catalyst for overall Gordon Road Triangle development, and give potential investors confidence.

(Note: Unless otherwise stated, images in this post are from the ULI-TAP presentation slides.)

The Urban Land Institute Technical Assistance Panel

The panel’s goals

The ULI-TAP panel focused on three distinct goals:

Identify strategies for reinvestment in the Gordon Road Triangle (GRT)
Explore the feasibility of a public-private financing structure for the Property Yard
Enhance multi-modal connections offered by the W&OD Trail and West Falls Church Metrorail Station

Subsequently, the specific questions asked of the ULI-TAP by the City were:

Public-Private Partnerships – What models to consider?
Land Use – What uses are appropriate here?
Transportation & Connectivity – How to enhance multi-modal connectivity?
Equity – How to expand the homeless shelter and promote equitable development?
Regional Coordination – What are the best opportunities for advancing a regional best practice of land use?

Current GRT property owners

Eight different property owners were identified within the 15.367-acre study area. The City owns approximately 5.2 acres, and the Beyer-owned interests comprise approximately 4.58 acres, representing 64% of the properties in the study area.

Outside the study area and within Fairfax County, the City owns 0.325 acres at 7111 Gordon Road (storage shed), while the Beyer interests include 1.15 acres at 7113 and 7117 Shreve Road (auto parking) as well as one parcel of adjacent land located at 7049 Leesburg Pike (0.39 acres currently occupied by Lazy Mike’s Delicatessen). These Fairfax County properties were also brief focal points of discussion during the panel presentation regarding future development planning for the corner of Shreve Road and West Broad Street and as the entrance to the City.

Map showing property ownership in the Gordon Road Triangle.

Gordon Road Triangle list of property owners. — Source: Handout at ULI-TAP panel presentation. Note: EBLA, LLC is listed twice; as a result, the study area totals are incorrect.

A phased development framework

In the ULI-TAP presentation, the City Property Yard and related services were identified as the Public Services Center (PSC). Recommendations included:

First thing: step away from previous study (i.e., Concept Design, Fox Architects, 2024).
Do a full program analysis.
Create blocking/stacking diagrams.
Get realistic project financials.

Implementing these recommendations would essentially negate the $85,000 study and master planning concepts and related report prepared by Fox Architects, LLC for the City in 2024, and reported in the Pulse post Property Yard Design Concepts Report Released, May 9, 2024.

The ULI-TAP panel further recommended that the City of Falls Church take initial steps on two parcels, the public works building and the salt and mulch location, to create synergy between the City and landowners and become the catalyst for the larger Gordon Road Triangle project.

The primary components of the development framework were identified in three phases, as illustrated during the presentation in the following figure:

Map showing the areas to be developed in each phase. — Map showing the areas to be developed in phases.

Phase 1 of the implementation would occur primarily on City-owned parcels. For the PSC, the panelists described the concept as “flexible so we have left it vague and sketchy on purpose.” Further steps must be taken to identify the City’s needs, the panelists said. They recommended that the City “conduct a programming and feasibility study to define the scope of work for the PSC” that would incorporate Public Works, Emergency Management, Police, Health and Human Services, Schools, and other agencies’ space requirements. “We heard there may be additional space needs beyond what was covered in the Fox plan,” the panelists added.

While no details were provided for the affordable housing and supportive services components of Phase 1, these elements would be developed on the current 2.6-acre City Operations Center parcel known as the Main Yard.

Public-private partnerships (financing strategies)

“To finance the city’s ambitious vision that integrates maker spaces, light industrial use, affordable and luxury housing, public services, parking, and green pathway, we recommend a diversified and innovative financing approach that leverages both conventional and alternative instruments,” the ULI-TAP panel said.

The alternative debt and equity-based financing instruments they listed include Zero-Coupon Bonds, Industrial Revenue Bonds, and Islamic Bonds & Equity Instruments. “This financing strategy ensures the City has flexibility, low-cost capital access, and alignment with long-term economic reinvestment.”

The panelists further clarified that they would “make sure we are reducing our financial risk and reducing our liability to tax gross revenue on the City, too.” Additionally, “…we are going to use asset backed interest-free bonds, which not only appeal to long-term investors in the GCC region such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait but also long-term investors such as the Japanese and Germans.”

Action Items for the public-private partnership were listed as:

Step 1- Finalize the Reinvestment Vision.
Step 2 – Engage Private and Public Partners.
Step 3 – Grow “The Triangle” into a Model District.

In conclusion, the panelists said that executing this plan would require transitioning from vision to implementation with clear milestones and aligning City policies, funding strategies, and development partners to create a successful public-private partnership.

Stakeholders at a ULI Roundtable. — Some “stakeholders” at a ULI-TAP Roundtable.

Governance for a complex area

Because the GRT is a “complex area with scattered site ownership and parcelization,” governance was cited as important as well as to involve “business owners that are property owners.” The panel presented four governance-related recommendations:

Appoint a Gordon Road Triangle Implementation Manager at the City of Falls Church to champion the project (approximately 0.5 FTE).
For the implementation manager, the panelists said, “You have got to have somebody who has ownership [and so is] going to be pushing, pushing, pushing to get things done.” Additionally, “having support of the Council, the [City] Manager, and the hierarchy in the City to help push things through is absolutely critical.”
Formalize agreement with Fairfax County to advance reinvestment in the GRT.
“There is a lot of interest on the part of at least a couple of larger landowners in working with the City to go forward if they see a vision they feel comfortable with,” the panelists said. Additionally, the properties at Shreve and West Broad (outside the study area) were cited as “an important corner for the gateway to downtown Falls Church.”
Convene a City Working Group to advance development of a new Public Services Center (PSC).
The panelists suggested that moving the PSC to the east side of Gordon Road would provide roughly 120,000 square feet of space for ”storage on the first floor, a couple of levels of parking, and two or three levels of office space” at a lower cost than the Fox study estimated.

In addition, “we encourage you to have another conversation about what facilities might make sense to locate on the site,” the panelists said. They proposed “a different kind of project that is done as a public-private partnership, so a private sector partner can go out and get the funding, and the City would be a tenant.”
Convene working group of property owners.
The panelists emphasized identifying opportunities for consolidation, sharing spaces, and land swaps with a key task to “conduct a parking needs assessment study to help evaluate demand for a shared parking facility.”

Implementation and key recommendations

The ULI-TAP panel provided the following possible implementation matrix for the City’s consideration.

In summary, the panelists presented six key takeaways, while emphasizing that the City should construct “a world-class Public Services Center that’s going to set the tone …and give investors confidence that positive change can occur.”

A brief question and answer period followed the ULI-TAP presentation. Questions touched on financing, the phased approach, the other parcels on Shreve Road, density of the developments, and the possibility of an aquatic center. One questioner suggested the community should also be considered because it “needs to get something out of this other than a place to sit down and eat.”

The City expects the panel’s report to be issued in two months.