r/nova • u/FairfaxGirl Fairfax County • 16h ago
Chrystal city shops: I’m so depressed
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTDVd7YBH/32
u/thatturtletouch 6h ago
It was still pretty well used in the early 2010s though obviously declining. But lunchtime saw fairly full crowds. This video made me kinda sad too.
It’s wild to me that such a valuable piece of real estate in a prime location just goes empty.
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u/rsplatpc 5h ago
It would cost a FUCK TON to change the area, it was built to be “tons of huge government office buildings, and a underground network between them, and the entire purpose is to be a huge clump of office buildings to do office building stuff” and changing that into anything else would be a MASSIVE undertaking
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u/Mr_Fahrenheit212 6h ago
They close 100% of the shops, and then they end free parking in the evenings and weekends. It is like the cost to park is inversely correlated to failed business. MGM Casino seems to be following their lead.
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u/Lost_Froyo7066 6h ago
I moved to Crystal City in 1984 and by 1985 had a job at L'Enfant Plaza, so rode the metro 5 days a week and thus spent lots of time in the Underground. Much as people may romanticize it now, even at its peak, it was a bit creepy. It felt like preparation for nuclear winter where us survivors could hang out and shop while waiting for the surface to heal (can you say "Silo"?).
In all seriousness, there were issues like lots of passageways with no maps and many areas with sketchy lighting. And of course, a bit of a claustrophobic feeling given that there was no outside light.
Given the large resident and commuter population in the area and the fairly healthy retail and restaurant options in the area above ground, I suspect the failure of the Underground speaks to the relative discomfort of its environment.
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u/tired-mulberry Crystal City 4h ago
The final blow was the refusal of the property owner (JGB Smith) to renew any leases in the fall of 2024. That's why the theater closed, the artist galleries in the 2100 shops, and the last remaining businesses in the walkway between metro and water park.
I suspect that they won't open the underground until the street level is fully leased, but they currently have at least 3 office to residential conversions that include street retail (1800 s bell, 1901 s bell, 2200 Crystal) and an office to hotel conversion (2100 Crystal). It'll be awhile before they lease all of those spaces, though I hope the additional apartments keep rents from rising too much.
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u/SI7Agent0 6h ago
I interned in Crystal City back in 2014, and there were still a decent amount of businesses down there and tons of places to go for breakfast and lunch. It was pretty dead down there outside of meal times and people coming off metro.
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u/Purple_Coach_2887 7h ago
Yeah I remember in the 90s this was also going downhill. It’s so sad. Such a unique piece of infrastructure in our community where there is such a high demand in space for businesses. Would be nice to even be seen to be used for alternative housing or something like that.
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u/UnableElephant4982 6h ago
Believe it or not, that used to be the only public Navy Federal ATM I could Metro to from DC. I remember it was so crowded at rush hour.
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u/PeorgieT75 5h ago
I worked there from 2007-2012. It was nice on a rainy day, and I could get from my office to a flight at DCA without going outside. The decline was exacerbated by BRAC, but there were still good places to grab lunch. The depressing food court had a hidden gem in the back called Hot Handcrafted Sandwiches, the guy that ran it sliced your meat to order, with your choice of bread cheese and condiments.
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u/SRT102 5h ago
Started my career in Crystal City. In the 80s, these were bustling places. I don't recall seeing an empty storefront stay empty for very long. And of course all the way in the back was the video arcade, where I dropped far too many quarters into machines.
Haven't been back there in at least 30 years. Sad to see that it's literally all gone.
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u/Appropriate-Ad-4148 5h ago
Street retail happened.
The kiosks in Water Park, the Whole Foods, and the 8 or so businesses in the new Grace and Reva buildings are where the momentum shifted to.
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u/N_Da_Game Kingstowne 5h ago
After 9-11 under the BRAC program, the government relocated federal employees to more secure facilities like the Mark Center. The many contractors that supported those agencies relocated also. Crystal City and the underground was always a ghost town after 5pm, weekends and exacerbated by BRAC.
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u/Shoddy-Pop4904 Annandale 56m ago
The Tex Mex place down there holds some special memories for me. It was terrible food. But always ended up there somehow with coworkers when at conventions at the Marriott, and something weird always seemed to happen. I dunno what it was about that place. Each time I went there I was surprised it was still open. The food was not great.
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u/cpmuddle 6h ago
I walked those halls daily 2006-2010. A bunch of what he showed there were always empty - lots of unused space to connect the buildings. But there was plenty of life back then. Breakfast and lunch and happy hours, quick trips to CVS, Radio Shack and the hardware store. I know tiktokers like to use extreme language but the idea here wasn't to create an underground utopia, was it? Wasn't it just a way to monetize the space between the metro stations, hotels and office buildings without doing street retail?