The Arlington County Board on July 19 voted 5-0 to approve an adaptive reuse site‑plan amendment that converts two underused 11‑story office towers on the Plaza Block of Crystal City into a 195‑unit apartment building at 2200 Crystal Drive and a 344‑room hotel at 2100 Crystal Drive.

Staff presented the application under the county’s adaptive reuse policy, adopted in late 2024 as part of the commercial market resiliency initiative (CMRI). That policy streamlines review of conversions that repurpose obsolete office stock for housing, hotel and other uses deemed public priorities. Staff said the proposal would remove roughly 523,982 square feet of vacant office space and could lower the county’s overall office vacancy rate by about 1.1 percentage points.

The applicant proposed interior renovations and a limited exterior refresh, and asked that two points of access from Crystal Drive into the underground concourse be closed and converted into dedicated hotel and residential lobbies. Staff and the Planning Commission said the closures were reasonable tradeoffs to activate the street with new lobbies and ground‑floor uses; the block will retain five other underground access points. The applicant will maintain existing below‑grade parking and requested parking ratio modifications to reflect reuse of the garage and the reduced parking demand for the new uses.

Applicant representatives and staff said the reuse approach keeps embodied carbon on site, reduces demolition and construction disruption, and delivers housing and hotel capacity more quickly than a full ground‑up redevelopment. The project also aligns with Crystal City’s sector plan goals to encourage a mix of uses and stronger “sense of place.” Staff recommended approval, and the Planning Commission unanimously recommended the board adopt the draft ordinance.

Several civic organizations provided support for the overall conversion concept but asked for clearer guidance about streamlined outreach and asked the board to weigh long‑term options for the underground pedestrian concourse. The board asked staff to study the underground concourse’s future uses and return the results to the board prior to occupancy of the residential building, per a condition in the ordinance.

Board member Susan Cunningham, who moved the adoption, called the proposal an early success of the county’s adaptive reuse framework. The vote to approve the ordinance was 5-0.