If you have driven down S. Glebe Road in Arlington lately, you have seen the old Goodwill store is gone. In its place, crews are now building the foundation for one of the more unusual projects in Northern Virginia.
Demolition is finished at 10 S. Glebe Road, and work has moved on to the foundation, ARLnow reported Oct. 1. The new building will combine 128 affordable apartments, an on-site childcare center and a new Goodwill store and donation center.
The developers say it is the first time anywhere in the country that a Goodwill store has been paired with affordable housing in the same building.
Who is building it
The project is a partnership between Goodwill of Greater Washington and the nonprofit developer Affordable Homes & Communities, better known as AHC. The two broke ground May 30, according to AHC's announcement.
"This transformative partnership with Goodwill of Greater Washington shows how bold collaboration can reimagine what affordable housing can be," AHC President and CEO Paul Bernard said in the release. AHC says it has developed more than 8,800 apartments since 1975, including nearly 3,500 in Arlington.
AHC's release names Harkins Builders as the general contractor, MTFA Architecture as the architect and VIKA for civil engineering and land planning.
The apartments break down this way:
- 94 family-sized two- and three-bedroom apartments
- 7 permanent supportive housing apartments
- 16 apartments for households at 30% of area median income
- 21 apartments at 50% of area median income
- 91 apartments at 60% of area median income
Residents will also get a community room, a fitness center, free Wi-Fi and on-site management and resident services. The childcare center will give priority to residents and Goodwill employees. AHC says the project will also build the first segment of the new Arlington Boulevard Multi-Use Trail and is designed for EarthCraft Multifamily Gold certification, with EV and solar-ready infrastructure.
How it was paid for
AHC financed the $81 million housing portion with a stack of public and private money. According to its release, that includes:
- $30 million in federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity
- $6 million in Virginia Housing Opportunity Tax Credits
- $13.6 million from Arlington County, including a $1.05 million grant for the childcare center
- $12.8 million from Amazon's Housing Equity Fund
- $4 million from the state Housing Trust Fund
- $800,000 from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta
- Construction and permanent loans from Capital One
Goodwill is paying for its $16.5 million store through AHC's ground lease, a construction loan from Capital One and a $1 million donation from the Ryan family.
A spokesperson told ARLnow the new store is expected to open in late 2027, with housing ready in 2028. AHC's May release said both the store and the apartments would open in early 2028, so the two timelines differ slightly on the store.
The County Board approved the project in February 2024, and Goodwill closed its old store on the site in fall 2025. AHC says the project will create about 30 new jobs.
"Every family deserves a stable place to call home," said Senthil Sankaran, managing principal of Amazon's housing fund.
Why it matters for Contractors
This job shows where a lot of affordable housing work is headed: mixed-use buildings that stack several uses on one site. Here, a retail and donation center, a childcare center and apartments all share one structure. That means more coordination between trades, separate systems for very different tenants, and childcare spaces that come with their own licensing and safety requirements.
For subcontractors and suppliers, the path in runs through Harkins Builders, which holds the general contract. With the foundation underway now, the structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and envelope packages are the next big phases.
The funding stack matters too. Tax credits, county HOME money and state Housing Trust Fund dollars usually come with paperwork, inspections and reporting, and subs who know how to handle them have an advantage on jobs like this.
The EarthCraft Gold goal and the EV and solar-ready infrastructure mean extra attention to air sealing, insulation and electrical capacity. Crews who already have experience with green certification programs will be better prepared for that work.