When the New York Times in 2016 reported that the Arlington neighborhood of Crystal City was “so cool,” and becoming to Washington what Brooklyn is to Manhattan, area residents responded with derision. But now, with dozens of new businesses set to open, about 10 new residential towers under construction and major investments in pedestrian trails and greenways underway, the historically quiet and nondescript Crystal City finally seems poised to become the trendy destination the Times described.
Bordering Ronald Reagan National Airport and the Pentagon complex, and home to the second-largest hotel market in the D.C. area, Crystal City has long been a landing spot and corporate meeting point for travelers into and out of the District. It’s best known these days as the regional site of Amazon’s second headquarters, to be anchored by a dramatic spiral-shaped “Helix” building planned for neighboring Pentagon City. While a recently announced construction pause has many wondering if some of Amazon’s building plans will change, planners and residents in Crystal City say the neighborhood is now growing with its own, unstoppable momentum. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post).
“With all the construction, with all the new retail, in the next few years we’re going to transition to a new world,” said Eric Cassel, president of the Crystal City Civic Association. “From a Pentagon annex that no one in the DMV really cared about, to being its own place.”
In addition to Amazon’s construction area hiring, which began in 2020, Virginia Tech’s innovation campus, set to open next year in nearby Potomac Yard, is also spurring investment in Crystal City. And development of area green spaces, underscored by the 2021 opening of the highly anticipated Long Bridge Park and Aquatic Center at the neighborhood’s northern tip, is moving forward with a High Line-style pedestrian bridge connecting Crystal City and the airport. Construction on that project is expected to be complete by 2026.
These kinds of trail developments are especially significant to Crystal City residents, who are disproportionately likely to commute to work on foot. According to data provided by Arlington County, 8.8 percent of Crystal City dwellers walk to work, compared to 5 percent of county residents overall.
Access to running trails was a primary draw for Steve Klug, who moved to Crystal City in February 2022. A marathoner, Klug moved from Wisconsin to work a largely remote position based in Baltimore, and loves that his building connects directly to the 18-mile Mount Vernon Trail and has easy access to Long Bridge Park.
“I can get basically anywhere on the trails without ever encountering traffic,” Klug, 32, said. “So that was a big selling point for me.”
Klug said he was also attracted to the area’s relative affordability. While price per square foot in Crystal City is comparable to Arlington as a whole, most residences are smaller and therefore more attainable. Crystal City is one of the rare Arlington neighborhoods with no single-family homes inside its boundaries, though there are some single-family homes in the larger National Landing area.
According to Crystal City real estate agent and resident Virginia Smith, who just opened a new Arlington Realty headquarters in the neighborhood in anticipation of rising demand, current average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $2,100 per month. Of the 30 residential properties sold in the last year, prices ranged from $2.5 million for a 7,300-square-foot, four-bedroom penthouse condo to $303,000 for a 641-square-foot studio condo. The average sales price in the last year was just over $712,000. There are now seven homes on the market and three under contract, Smith said. The highest-priced home on the market, a three-bedroom, two-bathroom condo, is listed at $799,900; the lowest, a 676-square foot, one-bedroom condo, is being offered for $395,000.
For all the investment and development, the feel of Crystal City's commercial district hasn't changed much yet.
“I kind of like that it’s very, very quiet on nights and on weekends. If we get past 7:30, and the office happy hours are done, it’s very quiet on the streets,” Klug said. “The established kind of fine dining, your McCormick and Schmick’s, your Ruth’s Chris [both on Crystal Drive], all those ’90s expensive chains, they’re much more geared to the business dinner crowd and not really to the residents.”
That’s about to change very soon, said Tracy Gabriel, president of the National Landing Business Improvement District, which includes Pentagon City, Crystal City and Potomac Yard. The reopening of Crystal City’s 1.6-acre water park after more than a year of renovations is set for this summer, and will coincide with the opening of nine restaurant kiosks and one full-size restaurant, Surreal, at the site.
“That will almost be an outdoor Union Market-type experience, and really kind of a neighborhood gathering space and an anchor on Crystal Drive,” Gabriel said. A number of the 53 restaurants and retailers with plans in Crystal City are set to open by the middle of next year, she added, and that will continue Crystal’s transformation into the hip center for nightlife and community that planners have long envisioned.
“If people are coming to the neighborhood a year from now, I think they will be so pleasantly surprised with the abundance of new businesses,” she said, “And the experience of walking on Crystal Drive and envisioning a future that’s only going to continue with this momentum.”
Boundaries: Crystal City is bounded by South Eads Street to the west, Army-Navy Drive and South Clark Street to the north, and George Washington Parkway and Crystal Drive to the east. Its southern boundary is 33rd Street South.
Transportation: The Metro’s Yellow and Blue lines serve the Crystal City station, close to the neighborhood’s center. The 10A, 23A and 23B buses stop on 23rd street just outside of Crystal City’s western boundary.
Schools: Hoffman-Boston Elementary School; Claremont Immersion School (Prekindergarten to 5th grade); Gunston Middle School; Wakefield High School.