Affordable Apartment Homes for NoVa Seniors

New Community Arises on Former Schoolyard 

Low-income seniors in McLean now have a new and impressive housing option.

Officials cut the ribbon at The Fallstead 

The Fallstead at Lewinsville Center is a privately managed independent living community for seniors. Its ribbon-cutting ceremony, held in October 2018, was attended by local and state officials, civic and business leaders, representatives of Wesley Housing Development Corp. and Hamel Builders, VHDA Executive Director Susan Dewey and many others.

The Fallstead is being promoted as a place where affordable living meets enjoyable living. Its 72 one-bedroom and 10 two-bedroom units are reserved for residents 62 years of age and older whose household income doesn’t exceed 50 percent of the area’s median income. There are a host of community amenities, including an onsite fitness center, business center, library, media room, landscaped courtyard, garden and more. Ten percent of the units are designed for people with mobility impairments, and two percent for those with vision and hearing impairments.

VHDA provided nine percent Housing Credits for this development. This U.S. Treasury Department-sponsored program, also known as Low-Income Housing Tax Credits or LIHTC, provides federal income tax credits to private investors who build or rehabilitate housing for low-income individuals or families.

The nearly nine-acre Fallstead site has undergone several transformations over the years. In 1961 an elementary school was built there; later it was home to a 22-bed independent-living facility as well as a senior center, a childcare center and an assisted-living facility. In 2015, the Fairfax board of supervisors gave the green light for the independent-living facility to be demolished and redeveloped into the current 82-bed facility through a partnership with Wesley Hamel Lewinsville LLC. A separate onsite building is slated to house the Lewinsville Senior Center, an adult day healthcare facility and a child care center.

The Fallstead’s location on Great Falls Street in McLean sits on the doorstep of a bus stop and is within a mile of the Tyson’s Corner metro station. It is a welcome and much-needed addition to the affordable senior housing inventory in Northern Virginia.