Child care center loses space
Meanwhile, in the fall of 2011, Easter Seals Serving DC | MD |
VA learned that it would be losing the space for its Child
Development Center, which it had been leasing from the City
of Falls Church since 1961. The City knew that the center was
a valuable resource for area residents, offering programs for
children with and without disabilities from age six weeks to
five years. But the Falls Church school district faced growing
enrollment and needed room for programs to serve pre-kinder-
garten and early elementary-age children with special needs.
The City extended the Child Development Center’s lease
until November 2013 and City Manager Wyatt Shields asked
staff to work with Easter Seals to find a new space within
the City’s boundaries. James Snyder, the City’s director of
planning and development services, thought of Monarc
Construction’s warehouse property.
Just the year before, Monarc Construction had finally
been successful in acquiring the property adjacent to
the warehouse site. “The property was vacant, and was
too small to build a house on,” said Snyder. “It was an
enforcement problem, with people loitering, informal
alcohol consumption and other negative things going on
there. The City treasurer’s representative indicated that
the property might come up for tax sale so I called John
Bellingham [Monarc Construction founder] and let him know
the property might be available.” Bellingham did acquire the
additional land.
When the City and then Easter Seals approached Bellingham,
he agreed after some negotiation to sell the entire property—
the original warehouse site plus the additional land—to the
non-profit at a price it could afford.
“The property gave Easter Seals exactly what they wanted;
parking on one side and a playground in the middle,” said
Bellingham. The Falls Church Economic Development Agency
created a $3 million bond package to assist Easter Seals in
obtaining project financing.
Bellingham offered to have Monarc Construction perform
the necessary renovations on the building and committed
to finishing the project on an extremely tight seven-month
timetable. That gave the Child Development Center time to
move before its lease with the City ran out, and to continue
providing daycare services with minimal disruption for the
children and their parents.
“We signed a design/build contract in late winter 2013
and agreed that we would get the building done by
Thanksgiving,” said Bellingham. “We also engaged Studio
Twenty Seven, the same architect that we had used for
our original renovation plans. Working with Studio Twenty
Seven, we tried to implement as many of the original green
sustainable features that we had incorporated into our
office design as we could.”
Adaptive reuse for a child-friendly space
One of the biggest challenges of the project was lining up
all the necessary permits, special exceptions, variances and
approvals. The City of Falls Church did everything it could
to speed this process, according to Snyder. “Early on we had
contact with Fairfax County to show them the project and
got their cooperation in making it happen,” he said. Since
most of the land sat in Falls Church, Fairfax County agreed to
let the City handle the building permitting, inspection and
enforcement. The City and the County each had their own
zoning approval processes, however.
The fact that Monarc Construction had already gotten
approvals for its own headquarters building helped speed
the process. “We could use the previous site plan and admin-
istratively approve any adjustment to it that would allow this
to go forward,” said Snyder.
The warehouse building itself dated from the early 1970s.
“The building was constructed in 1973 and left a lot to be
desired,” said Bellingham. “It was a simplistic block building
with a bar joist roof. But we could reuse the majority of it,
including the roof and the outside walls, which we rebuilt
and modified as needed.” That included the addition of wall
and ceiling insulation to make the space as energy efficient
as possible.
“It was not a big building—just 8,000 square feet—and it had
a floor to ceiling height of 22 feet,” he added. “We were able
to double the building space by putting a new floor in and
adding an entranceway.”
Adding the second floor was a challenge, said Mac Agarwal,
Monarc Construction’s project manager. “We had to build
two walls on the main corridor of the first floor running
parallel to the length of the building and then put the
flooring in on top of that. Putting joists within an existing
“EASTER SEALS WENT FROM BEING A TENANT IN
AN OLD BUILDING TO THE OWNER OF A NEW
BUILDING. THEY DOUBLED THEIR CAPACITY, THEY
HAVE FAVORABLE FINANCING, AND THE BUILDING IS
REALLY ATTRACTIVE AND CONDUCIVE TO THE KIDS
WHO USE IT.” – James Snyder, director of planning and
development services, City of Falls Church
8 Building Washington
