New Grand Mart in Seven Corners (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)
Pistone’s Italian Inn with patio in Seven Corners (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)
Concept plan for redeveloping the New Grand Mart and Pistone’s Italian Inn properties in Seven Corners (via Eakin Properties/Fairfax County)
The proposed mixed-use residential development at 6320 and 6326 Arlington Blvd from Seven Corners (via Eakin Properties/Fairfax County)
Street-level rendering of entrance to possible grocery store in the New Grand Mart redevelopment (via KGD Architecture/Fairfax County)
Street-level rendering of residential building and parking entrance in the New Grand Mart redevelopment (via KGD Architecture/Fairfax County)
Efforts to revitalize Seven Corners could spell the end of two businesses that have anchored one of the corners for decades.
The Falls Church-based developer that has owned the New Grand Mart and Pistone’s Italian Inn since the 1950s is now looking to replace the grocery store and restaurant with a 450-unit residential complex, according to a rezoning application submitted to Fairfax County on Dec. 30.
“The proposed development will ensure that Seven Corners remains a relevant community hub into the future while providing much needed housing, retail, and community space,” Sara Mariska, a land use attorney for Odin, Feldman & Pittman, said in a statement for the application.
Eakin Properties, whose past projects include the Monticello Falls Church Apartments and the Sleepy Hollow Shopping Center, raised the possibility of redeveloping the sites at 6320 and 6326 Arlington Blvd with mixed-use housing in 2022 by nominating them for the county’s Site-Specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) process, which lets property owners or developers propose changes to the comprehensive plan’s land use guidance.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors initially put Eakin’s proposal on the backburner, pending the completion of a years-long study that recommended a “Ring Road” to improve the infamously confusing and hazardous intersection where Route 7, Arlington Blvd (Route 50), Wilson Blvd and Sleepy Hollow Road meet.
After a final report on the proposed transportation improvements was published in June 2023, the board voted last summer to elevate Eakin’s pitch to Tier 2 of the county’s plan amendment work program, allowing staff to review potential revisions as their workload permits.
So far, the plan amendment study still appears to be in its early stages, but that process will likely now begin in earnest with the submission of a formal development plan, which seeks to rezone the 3.15 acres where New Grand Mart and Pistone’s currently stand from a commercial district to a residential mixed-use one.
Rendering of the proposed residential development at 6320 and 6326 Arlington Blvd in Seven Corners from Hillwood Avenue (via Eakin Properties/Fairfax County)
Located in a one-story brick building that dates back to 1954, New Grand Mart opened in August 2013 after its parent company, Green Paradise Enterprises, acquired the Annandale-based family business that had run the existing Grand Mart International Market. Online records are unclear on how long the original Grand Mart was in Seven Corners, but the chain appears to have opened its first retail location in Centreville in October 2002.
Now boasting nine total locations, with a 10th taking over a shuttered Amazon Fresh in Manassas, New Grand Mart specializes in ethnic grocery items from Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Pistone’s has an even longer history in the area. Occupying a 5,877-square-foot building from 1950, the restaurant has been serving pasta, pizza and other Italian cuisine since 1974, when it replaced a Howard Johnson’s, according to the Falls Church News-Press.
In its application, Eakin proposes redeveloping both establishments with a pair of approximately 85-foot-tall multifamily residential buildings that would be linked by a covered walkway and feature 30,000 square feet of non-residential uses, including retail space on the ground floors.
“The concept orients the front door of the development and the non-residential space toward Hillwood Avenue,” Mariska wrote in the application. “A central publicly-accessible outdoor plaza is proposed as a community gathering space that will feature flexible programming such as farmer’s markets, concerts, pop-up retail opportunities, or other community events.”
Pistone’s declined to comment when asked about the project. FFXnow has reached out to Eakin Properties and Mariska for further information on the retail plans, such as whether space might be reserved for the existing restaurant and grocery store, but didn’t hear back by press time.
The development plan does indicate that some of the retail space will be dedicated to a grocery store in the northwest corner of one building.
Concept plan for the New Grand Mart redevelopment indicates retail space will be provided for a grocery store (via Eakin Properties/Fairfax County)
In addition to the approximately 0.46-acre central plaza, which could host outdoor dining and a water feature, among other amenities, the developer intends to provide a linear park along Hillwood Avenue and a pocket park with a multi-purpose lawn near the East Broad Street intersection, collectively totaling 1.1 acres of publicly accessible urban park space.
Potential private amenities for future residents could include an outdoor swimming pool and internal courtyards.
The developer will seek a 15% reduction in parking spaces from what the county requires, offering 546 spaces that it says “will be sufficient for the proposed uses.” The parking would be in a mostly below-grade garage.
To improve the site’s accessibility for pedestrians and bicyclists, the plan shows the addition of an 8-foot-wide sidewalk along Hillwood Avenue and a 10-foot-wide trail on the Arlington Blvd side. A new drive aisle on the western side of the property would serve as the primary vehicular access point and include a raised crosswalk connecting the complex to the neighboring Lookout at 6400 office buildings.
The application hasn’t been accepted for review yet by county staff.
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