A warehouse building in a southeast Vienna industrial park soon will be converted to store about 180 classic and exotic automobiles.
Vienna Town Council members on June 20 voted unanimously to support a certificate of occupancy for Roadhouse Development Co. LLC to provide vehicle storage inside the building at 831 Follin Lane, S.E.
The property, owned by GI Partners, also is home to the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, located at 801 Follin Lane, S.E. The vehicle-storage facility will serve as an interim use until the property owner moves forward with an approved office development.
The 34,241-square-foot building has been nearly vacant for almost a decade. The structure has been used sporadically by the U.S. Postal Service when mail loads are high, and this last occurred about a year ago, town officials said.
Town staff concluded that while vehicle-storage is not among approved uses in the CMP Industrial Park Zone where the site is located, it is an appropriate interim use because of the property’s challenges.
A lack of visibility from a major roadway harms its marketing potential and the site’s one-lane driveway, which handles traffic in both directions, is not suitable for uses that would draw more traffic, town officials said.
Most improvements at the site will be to the building’s interior; the exterior will receive only cosmetic upgrades, which the town’s Board of Architectural Review must approve.
Vehicle owners will drop off and pick up their cars outside the building between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily, an occurrence that would happen only about 10 times per day, representatives of the business said. The building would not be staffed round-the-clock.
“We would have a lift system and we would stack them about them two- or three-high” on three floors, all of which have high ceilings, said Joe Tagliareni, a principal with the company.
Most of the vehicles likely will be higher-end newer ones, about 5 to 10 years old, and not classic cars, he said.
The owners also will have to provide at least 24 hours’ advance notice before pickups and deliveries, and will be able to park other vehicles on site for up to two days while using their stored vehicles. Only employees will be able to access the vehicles inside the building, Tagliareni said.
The company daily will monitor and control the building’s humidity and temperature. The building also will be protected by a security system with video-surveillance recordings, plus an automated sprinkler system and handheld fire extinguishers inside the structure. The site’s fire-protection measures will be inspected every six months.
The business will monitor battery levels of the stored vehicles. Employees or subcontactors will perform detailing work, such as washing and waxing, on returning vehicles using an interior bay. No paint touchups or dent repairs will be done at the site, Tagliareni said.
The applicant has committed to report any vehicle-fluid leaks immediately to a supervisor and use a spill kit to contain and clean up the fluids.
The Fairfax County Fire Marshal’s Office must determine whether the building safely can store electric vehicles. County building officials also must decide if the applicant will need to provide extra reinforcement in the structure to handle the combined weight of vehicles on each floor.
The applicant’s representatives heeded Strobel’s advice not to assent to a one-year sunset clause for the site’s usage, which would have allowed town officials to revoke the occupancy permit if they were not satisfied with how things were going.
“You’re making a substantial investment in this building,” she told her clients. “This is going to be a real investment of time, money and effort to create a business.”
Council member Steve Potter said he thought the proposed use would be a “good fit” for the building.
“It was previously used as a warehouse,” he said. “It has essentially been vacant. There’s really, in my opinion, not a huge deviation from the previous use.”
Mayor Linda Colbert thanked the applicants for bringing their business to Vienna and added there was a need for such as service.
“I think it’s exciting,” she said.
