The aging suburban crossroads of Merrifield will be the first target of a new Fairfax County strategy to spark redevelopment.
The creation of a “community development authority” this week will help developer Edens & Avant finance about $140 million in roads, parks and other needed infrastructure surrounding its 31-acre planned Merrifield Town Center.
The project, approved two years ago by Fairfax County supervisors, would bring 1,000 dwellings, a movie theater, hotel, office and retail space to a now largely economically stagnant area.
Its success could be “catalytic” to a broader revitalization of Merrifield, said Barbara Byron, director of the Fairfax County Office of Community Revitalization and Reinvestment.
The development authority enables a number of financing tools to give Edens & Avant a modestly larger early return on its investment, without which the company would have scuttled the project, Byron said.
Edens & Avant will directly fund about $70 million in improvements and pay a special tax to finance another $30 million. Another $42 million would be funded through a process called tax increment financing, in which real estate taxes resulting from the project’s increased land values pay for needed infrastructure.
That includes the construction of two new parks, the expansion of Eskridge Road and Lee Highway, upgrades to the Lee-Gallows Road intersection, and the creation of a local street grid. The improvements, officials say, will have no direct cost to county taxpayers.
The community development authorities are part of a larger strategy to spark economic growth in areas that haven’t received the attention of Tysons Corner, which is expected to expand dramatically with the addition of four new rail stations.
“It’s not envisioned that everybody who has a project anywhere in the county is now going to be able to use this,” Byron said. “We envision this on a limited basis for particularly important projects.”
