Work begins in rebirth of former Magruder’s site in Vienna

Two years after the Magruder’s grocery store in Vienna ceased operations, work has begun to renovate the space and prepare for new tenants.

Tysons-based Rappaport Management Co., on behalf of property owner Vienna Shopping Center LP, is subdividing the 17,341-square-foot space formerly occupied by the grocery store into five units that will have addresses of 160, 164, 168, 172 and 180 Maple Ave., W.  

Some of the new tenants will include Chop’t Creative Salad Co., which will occupy 160 Maple Ave., W.; MOD Pizza at 164 Maple Ave., W.; and health-care provider Inova at 180 Maple Ave., W.

Vienna Planning and Zoning Director Patrick Mulhern said he did not know which tenants would occupy the remaining two spaces.

The building’s height will not change and the developer does not have a specific timeline by which to complete construction, Mulhern said.

“They are basically just subdividing the space and giving the façade a face lift,” he said.  

While the former Magruder’s space is located within the Maple Avenue Commercial (MAC) zone, which the Vienna Town Council authorized last fall, the site is not being redeveloped according to those voluntary guidelines, Mulhern said.

“They are not developing under the MAC, nor are they required to,” he said. “It’s optional. If they were developing under the MAC, they would have to rezone and it would require the entire site to be redeveloped.”

The future of the former Magruder’s site mirrors a trend in Vienna in recent years wherein sites that held large businesses have been divided into smaller spaces.

After the closing of a garden store at Maple Avenue and Park Street, S.E., several companies – including Chipotle – occupied a new structure at the site.

One block to the east, a former service-station site was converted into several businesses in a modern-style building located closer to Maple Avenue, E.  Less than a half-mile east from that location, a former Chinese restaurant was torn down and replaced by at least two businesses, including a Potbelly Sandwich Shop.