Most of the affordable and workforce homes in the Holmes Run Area are “market-rate” housing units.  Over 10% of the homes in this area are deeply subsidized affordable units, however, while an additional 5-10% are moderately subsidized affordable housing units.  A notable number of the condominiums in this area have also been purchased by lower-income people with the assistance of the City’s Homeownership Assistance Programs. 

The Holmes Run Area is also home to a number of doctor’s offices that, with one exception, are clustered in a modest-size building on top of a small strip mall that contains Shooter McGee’s and a couple other stores.  There are also several other businesses in this area, all of which are located on or near Duke Street.  These include Landmark Honda, CVS, Burke & Herbert Bank, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s (colored black on the map).  Fire Station 208 is also in this area (colored purple on the map).

Over the years, the Holmes Run Area has often been referred to as “Condo Canyon,” since all six of the condominiums in this area are located in the “canyon” where Holmes Run flows.  Four of these condominiums are 15 stories high.  Three of these high-rise condominium buildings are 47 or 48 years old.  The fourth high-rise condominium building is 55 years old.  Nestled in the middle of these condominiums are two high-rise apartment buildings, one of which is 14 stories high and 48 years old, while the other is 12 stories high and 41 years old. 

The Holmes Run Area is one of the most densely populated sections of Alexandria.  To put this in perspective, Cameron Station, which is packed full of townhouses, a good number of condominiums and a few single family homes, is directly across Duke Street from the Holmes Run Area and is roughly the same geographic size as the Holmes Run Area.  Because Cameron Station contains no high-rise buildings, it has only half the number of households (1,591) that the Holmes Run Area has. 

The Holmes Run Area is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the City, having a vibrant mix of Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Indigenous, and Multiracial residents.

New Landmark Mall - West End

NEW LANDMARK MALL – to be known as “West End” starting this year – the Landmark Mall was built in 1974, the same year that two of the high-rise residential buildings in the Holmes Run Area -- ParcView Apartments and Place One Condominium -- were built.  The following year, two other high-rise condominiums in the area – Greenhouse and Hallmark – were built.   When the Mall opened, it became the center of neighborhood – the place where all the action was.  As the years passed, however, and lifestyles changed, malls like Landmark were no longer in vogue.  In the last decade, residents of the Holmes Run Area watched the closing of store after store at the Mall, including two of its anchor tenants.  In 2020, the last store at the Mall closed.  Endless speculation as to what was going to become of the abandoned Mall ensued.  Finally, in 2021, plans came together to create a New Landmark Mall anchored by a new INOVA Hospital. 

Compelled by a desire to better serve Northern Virginia, INOVA Hospital worked with the City of Alexandria and the owners of Landmark Mall to plan for the closing of its current INOVA Hospital at the corner of Seminary Road and Howard Street and the construction of a state-of-the-art INOVA Medical Center at the Mall.  This new medical center will be located on 11 acres of the Mall where Duke Street meets I-395 (see blue section on map).  The new INOVA facility will include a Level II Trauma Center Hospital, a Cancer Center, and a medical office building.  The main hospital will open in 2028 and have 231 single-bed rooms and a staff of 2,000 people.

The current 550 car parking structure on the Mall paralleling I-395 will remain in place and Fire Station 208 that is currently on Paxton Street will move to the Mall and be on the ground-floor of a ~200 unit affordable housing apartment building (see purple building southeast of INOVA).  The center of the Mall will be the site of a major transit hub.  Almost half of the Mall will house apartment units and condominium flats on top of ground-floor retail, as well as traditional townhouses and 2-over-2 townhouses.  Some of these dwelling units will be rental and others will be for-sale.  Ten percent of all housing on-site will be affordable at various levels of subsidization.  The two buildings in the center of the new Mall will be 5-8 stories tall, the buildings along Duke Street and Van Dorn will be between 7 and 12 stories tall, and those on the hospital campus and along I-395 will be between 16 and 25 stories tall.  When completed  in the next 10-15 years, the New Landmark Mall – West End – will be home to ~2,500 households.