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The entertainment options at Tysons Corner Center are expanding once again. Dick’s House of Sport, a concept from Dick’s Sporting Goods, is taking over the former Lord & Taylor at the Tysons mall, The Washington Business Journal reported.

Don’t expect to find a traditional Dick’s Sporting Goods store once Dick’s House of Sport opens. The concept, which first debuted in 2021, brings sports from the field to inside the store. While you’ll still be able to shop for your sport needs, other House of Sport locations include features like a rock-climbing wall, a multi-sport practice cage, and a golf simulator.

Shoppers at these locations are also able to experience the House of Cleats, which expands the offerings of typical Dick’s stores with cleats for every sport and surface. House of Sport locations also have expert services for golf, bikes, baseball, and softball, and other sporting equipment.

This will be the store’s first Northern Virginia location and its third location in the state. There are existing locations in in Charlottesville and Chesapeake. Doug Healey, Macerich’s senior executive vice president, said during an earnings call this month that the new store is slated to open in Fall 2027, according to WBJ.

The Lord & Taylor storefront at 7951 Tysons One Pl. has been vacant since 2020. Previous plans had shown a mixed-use tower replacing the empty space.

Over the last few years, Tysons Corner Center has made a push to expand its entertainment offerings with the openings of Level99, The Escape Game, CAMP, and Sloomoo Institute (which is slated to open this summer).

Feature image, Andriy Blokhin/stock.adobe.com

Many Northern Virginia establishments are offering deals and discounts to celebrate Presidents Day. Here are some local restaurants, retail outlets and museums offering holiday specials.

February 16, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Mount Vernon is honoring the first president of the U.S. with free admission for the day. There will be a ceremony at Washington’s tomb on the property, a mansion tour, military demonstrations, a musical performance by The Old Guard, and the chance to meet General Washington and his personal secretary, Tobias Lear. 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Hwy., Mount Vernon

February 16, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Enjoy an extra day of Founding Farmers weekend brunch featuring brunch favorites like French toast and pancakes, hash browns, chicken apple sausage, carving stations, and more. Save room for dessert too, as there are sweet treats like mini glazed donuts, cinnamon rolls, and a soft serve ice cream bar. Brunch cocktails like mimosas, bellinis and Bloody Marys are available to purchase separately. Founding Farmers brunch is priced at $35.50 per person and $18.50 for children ages 4 to 12. Alexandria, Reston Station and Tysons

Through February 24

Local chain Belfort Furniture is holding a Presidents Day sale through February 24. Shoppers can save up to $1,000 on select items and $50 for every $500 on select manufacturers. There is also a concurrent remodeling in-store clearance sale. 22250 Shaw Rd., Dulles

February 13 to 16, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Friday & Saturday), hours vary Sunday and Monday

The 15^th Annual Middleburg Winter Weekend Sale is sponsored by the Town of Middleburg and Middleburg Business and Professional Association. Local stores and restaurants will be having special deals throughout the weekend. Shoppers are encouraged to look for blue and white balloons outside participating retailers and eateries. Middleburg

Through March 3

The mattress company Purple, with a store in Tysons Corner, is having a month-long Presidents Day promo. It includes 20 to 25 percent off pillows, bedding and accessory bundles, restore mattresses up to $500 off, essential mattresses up to $300 off, $300 in instant gifts with qualifying purchases, and more. 7980L Tysons Corner Center, Tysons

February 13 through February 16

Men’s and women’s clothing and fragrance store Boss Outlets are having a Presidents Day weekend sale with 50 percent off the entire store, with some exclusions. Leesburg Premium Outlets: 241 Fort Evans Rd. NE, Ste. #731, Leesburg

February 14 through 16, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Dogwood Tavern in Falls Church is hosting a Presidents Day weekend brunch Saturday through Monday with all their brunch favorites. There will be an omelet and waffle bar buffet available Sunday only, as well as a Bloody Mary bar available through the holiday weekend. Don’t miss recent brunch specials too, like the brioche breakfast toast, a twist on the classic croque madame. 132 West Broad St., Falls Church

Feature image courtesy Visit Middleburg

Data center developer Serverfarm is looking to redevelop an office property in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

First reported by BizJournal, Serverfarm this month filed a rezoning and special exception application to redevelop 7980 and 7990 Quantum Drive in Tysons, Fairfax County.

The Vienna Cloud project would include two data center buildings at the complex, currently known as the Tysons Technology Center. 7980 Quantum would be replaced with a 95,015 sq ft (8,827 sqm) data center building, while 7990 Quantum would be replaced with a 221,215 sq ft (20,552 sqm) facility in the second phase.

The properties currently house two 1970s office blocks and a parking lot. The site is around 500 meters (1,640 feet) from the original MAE-East Internet Exchange Point set up in the 1990s.

Serverfarm purchased the properties in October from Legacy Investing and Element Critical, which paid an affiliate of The Meridian Group for $97 million in 2017 for the property. Meridian acquired the campus from SAIC for $63 million in 2011.

Equinix operates its DC7 data center out of 7790 Quantum Drive, offering 27,355 sq ft (2,541 sqm) of colocation space. Element Critical (formerly known as CentralColo) also operated out of the building, listing it as VA1. No longer listed on the company’s site, an old Element Critical brochure suggests the 200,000 sq ft (18,581 sqm) site offers 10MW of utility power across 87,560 sq ft (8,135 sqm) of raised floor, expandable to 15MW.

Serverfarm, founded in 2009 by real estate development firm Red Sea Group, was acquired by Manulife in 2023. The company operates 10 data centers across North America, Europe, and Israel, totaling more than 1.5 million gross sq ft (139,400 sqm) of data center space and 625MW of IT capacity.

On its website, Serverfarm lists facilities in operation in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Moses Lake, Tel Aviv, and Toronto.

7980 Quantum Drive was put up for sale in 2023, marketed for potential development as a 237-unit multifamily building. The General Services Administration was previously a tenant of the building.

TYSONS, VA — Despite opposition from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and a majority of county residents, union leaders and business advocates continue to support legislation in the Virginia General Assembly that would pave the way for a casino to be built in Tysons.

For the second year in a row, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon) has introduced legislation seeking to give the board of supervisors the authority to put a referendum on a future ballot.

"Our unions feel very strongly that this proposal to have an entertainment district at Tysons Corner should not be taken off the table, but rather should be explored and should be studied, and that it should be the basis for a referendum where all the people of Fairfax County can have a vote on whether to approve it or not," said Virginia Diamond, president of the Northern Virginia Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, during an exclusive interview with Patch.

Diamond was one of the supporters of Senate Bill 756 who spoke during the Jan. 23 Senate Subcommittee on Gaming hearing. Subcommittee members voted 5 to 3 to recommend the bill for a vote of the full Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology.

Julie Coons, the president and CEO of the Northern Virginia Chamber, testified before the same subcommittee last year that the chamber supported the casino referendum bill, calling it an important driver for the diversification of Northern Virginia's tax base.

"The creation of a mixed use, transit-oriented entertainment district that would include not only a casino, but a state of the art conference facility and performing arts venue, is estimated to contribute an additional $140 million in annual revenue to the county," she said in 2025. "In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars for the Commonwealth. If approved by the Board of Supervisors, a development of this nature would diversify and broaden tax revenue for Fairfax County."

Although no one from the chamber spoke during the Jan. 23 subcommittee meeting, NVC still strongly supports the project that Comstock Holding Companies has proposed.

"NVC supports an entertainment district, including a casino, in Northern Virginia," an NVC spokesman said in an email to Patch. "NVC's NOVA Roadmap, our vision for the economic future of our region, calls for 'bold ideas for new initiatives and facilities that diversify revenue to reduce local reliance on real estate and personal property taxes' and this project can provide a new stream of revenue that the County currently does not have."

In spite of the union and chamber's support, the Tysons casino project has garnered a great deal of opposition in Fairfax County since it was first proposed.

In October, the Freedom Virginia Political Action Committee released the results of a survey showing that 75 percent of Fairfax County residents opposed a casino being built in Tysons.

Two months later, the Board of Supervisors voted 5 to 4 to include the following language in the legislative program it sent to Richmond this year:

"Oppose legislation in the General Assembly that authorizes a casino in Fairfax County without any request for such legislation from the Board of Supervisors, without implementation of a statewide Gaming Commission, and without a tax revenue split that substantially benefits Fairfax County as opposed to the Commonwealth. The designation and location of a casino is inherently a major land use decision and General Assembly intervention in Fairfax County’s land use processes would undermine decades of community consensus and economic success."

If the General Assembly passes SB756 this session and Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) signs it into law, it's unclear whether the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors would exercise its new authority and put a casino referendum on a future ballot.

"We're still trying to make the case to the Fairfax County Board, as well as to the General Assembly, that they should be open to considering this opportunity," Diamond said. "They should be negotiating over licensing fees. They should be negotiating over the revenue split with the state and the county, and they should be studying it to see whether or not you know what the pros and cons are."

Diamond's union has an agreement with Comstock Holding Companies, the Reston developer that has spent more than $2.5 million on campaign contributions and lobbyists in support of the proposed casino.

The project would create 5,000 union jobs, according to the agreement, both in construction and with the retail and commercial businesses that would operate in the 4-million-square-foot entertainment district once it was completed.

"We look at this as as an incredible opportunity to really transform the fabric of Fairfax County society for working class people," Diamond said. "That's why you want to give everybody a vote, because we want to be able to lay out the pros and cons. We have this Silver Line that's underutilized. You have a real budget problem in Fairfax County. To just give up possible revenue for turning this into an entertainment district destination, simply because there's going to be a gaming floor in a luxury hotel, which is going to be unlike the other casinos around the state, I think we just like to have that all taken into account."

Read Patch's reporting on Comstock Companies' plan to build a casino on Metro's Silver Line in Fairfax County at Silver Line Casino.

On Wednesday, the General Laws and Technology Committee voted 11 to 4 to advance SB756 to the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations, which is the final stop before the full Senate votes on the bill.

The Finance and Appropriations Committee next meets at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3. The meeting can be viewed via the Senate of Virginia's YouTube channel.

Forecasters warn the snow could mix with sleet and freezing rain, causing treacherous travel conditions and potential power outages in VA.

A winter storm warning remains in place in Virginia from Saturday night through Monday morning as forecasters predict several inches of snow and ice could blanket the Washington, D.C. region. Virginia officials have declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm.

In a new storm forecast released Saturday morning, the National Weather Service said the D.C. region will likely see less snowfall than originally anticipated. Regardless, the storm will still have significant impacts across the state and dangerous ice remains a concern.

"A large area of precipitation will overrun Arctic air in place over the Mid-Atlantic, which will lead to widespread significant snow beginning Saturday evening, with the potential for ice Sunday, especially south of Highway 50 and near and east of Interstate 95," National Weather Service forecasters wrote. "Power outages and tree damage are likely due to the ice. Travel could be nearly impossible."

A winter storm warning is in effect for the entire state. In Northern Virginia, the warning goes into effect at 11 p.m. Saturday until 4 a.m. Monday.

According to the National Weather Service, snow will likely spread across the region Saturday night, becoming heavy at times with rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour possible.

A mix of sleet or freezing rain is expected on Sunday. Significant icing is possible, especially south of Highway 50. Visibility of one-quarter mile or less is possible at times.

The National Weather Service said the region will likely see total snow and sleet accumulations between 7 and 14 inches, with the highest amounts in the far northern and western suburbs of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. Ice accumulations between one and two tenths of an inch are expected, but areas south of D.C. could see close to 0.25 inches.

If freezing rain accumulates to more than 0.25 inches, impacts could become significant.

"The weight of freezing rain can snap tree limbs and power lines, leading to power outages," The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang wrote. "Most projections for the Beltway area suggest 0.1 to 0.3 inches, but some areas could see more — particularly from around Fredericksburg into Southern Maryland, where the risk of disruptive amounts of ice is growing."

Travel will be hazardous to near impossible, and at times may be life-threatening, throughout the weekend, said state officials.

In addition to snow and ice, a prolonged period of wind chills in the teens and single digits is expected to continue Saturday evening and last through the middle of next week, with sub-zero wind chills possible at times.

Cold weather advisories were also issued across much of the area and are expected to expire at noon Saturday.

On Thursday, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger declared a state of emergency ahead of this weekend's winter storm, which allows for state agencies and resources to be on standby across the Commonwealth.

"I am asking all Virginians to spend this time getting prepared for this incoming storm and to stay off the roads," Spanberger said. "This will allow not only for the safety and security of our neighbors, but for faster clearing of roads and ensure greater safety during what we expect will be the most dangerous times on the roads."

VDOT said crews will begin plowing once two inches of snow has fallen. The priority order for snow removal is interstates, primaries, secondaries, and eventually neighborhood roads.

VDOT Northern Virginia also did a full pretreatment of the roads with salt brine on Friday. Brine helps prevent the bonding of snow and ice to the pavement at the beginning of a storm, allowing crews time to respond.

Here's a look at the detailed National Weather Service for the D.C. area:

Saturday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 22. North wind 7 to 11 mph.

Saturday Night: Snow, mainly after 11pm. The snow could be heavy at times. Low around 18. Northeast wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.

Sunday: Snow and sleet before 1pm, then freezing rain and sleet, possibly mixed with snow. The sleet could be heavy at times. High near 28. Northeast wind 10 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New ice accumulation of less than a 0.1 of an inch possible. New snow and sleet accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.

Sunday Night: Freezing rain and sleet before 1am, then a chance of freezing rain between 1am and 4am, then a chance of snow and freezing rain after 4am. Low around 22. North wind 7 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New ice accumulation of 0.1 to 0.2 of an inch possible. New snow and sleet accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Monday: A chance of snow before 7am, then a chance of snow showers between 7am and 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 30. Blustery, with a northwest wind 15 to 23 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 5.

Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 23.