commercial real estate also positively affect local education by partnering with the schools and libraries, mentoring the students, and providing jobs. In a separate undertaking, Falls Church is also renovating and expanding the nearby Mary Riley Styles Public Library, a project estimated to cost approximately $10 million. The library renovation will increase popular community spaces in the facility by nearly 3,200 square feet, modernize mechanical and electrical systems, and bring the library into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Visiting a library is the most common cultural activity of Americans, according to the results of a 2019 Gallup poll. The survey of U.S. adults reported they made an average of 10.5 trips to the library during 2019,
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about twice the number of times they went to the movies. In a 2019 letter to the editor of the Falls Church News Press, Chrystie F. Swiney, now a member of the library’s Board of Trustees, recalled how she insisted her family move to Falls Church when she and her oneyear-old son “stumbled upon the library” while running errands in the community. “My insistence that we uproot our home in Washington, D.C. and relocate to Falls Church was inspired by my instant connection to the library,” Swiney explained. Falls Church is also completing a recent expansion and modernization of its city hall, which reopened last summer, making the city center complex a more inviting location for community activities.
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“The new school, renovated city hall and library are important not just as new buildings; they all contribute to the fabric of our community,” Connelly explained. “The world is changing,” Connelly noted. “We want to create a partnership with local businesses so our schools and library are not operating in a vacuum, but are an important part of our overall plan for the future of Falls Church.” “We’re really optimistic how all these developments are going to turn out to benefit everyone, because we’re all working together to make that happen,” Connelly concluded. Frank Dillow is a past chair of NVAR’s Realtor ® Commercial Council, an NVAR instructor, and a senior commercial broker in Long & Foster‘s Commercial Division. He can be reached at francis.dillow@ longandfoster.com.
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