FOXCHASE GETS A NEW LEASE ON LIFE

July 13, 2024

correction

A photo caption with a story about the Foxchase apartments in Saturday's Real Estate section misidentified a woman. The second woman from the right in the picture is Thelma Allen. (Published 3/19/91)

Joseph "Crash" Moore, one of the first residents to sign a lease in Alexandria's renovated Foxchase apartments a decade ago, is not one to beat around the bush: "I swear by Foxchase," he declares.

The 72-year-old retired restaurant manager was impressed in 1981 when he toured Foxchase and found that virtually all his transportation, shopping and medical needs could be met within a few blocks of his prospective apartment.

"It was just right. I still feel that way," Moore said recently, just a few days after renewing his lease for another year.

The massive Foxchase development that straddles Jordan Street just north of Duke Street is one of Alexandria's proudest housing success stories.

It was not so long ago that virtually all of its 2,113 units were empty and its 200 buildings boarded up -- victims of neglect, transience and high crime.

"I think there were five residents left by 1980, and they just refused to leave," said Leonard R. Skolnik, property manager for the 87-acre complex of two- and three-story apartment buildings. "The property was overgrown with grass; it was awful."

It was so bad, Skolnik said, that "the first month we were there the FBI wanted to use Foxchase as a training ground for people to storm buildings."

Built shortly after World War II to house returning soldiers, Foxchase -- then called Shirley-Duke -- deteriorated in the late 1970s to the point that burglaries, robberies and assaults were commonplace. City officials grew so concerned that they established an anti-crime program that paid off-duty police to patrol the neighborhood.

But all that changed shortly after Morton Sarubin, a Baltimore developer, took charge of the apartment complex and adjacent strip shopping center in 1980. With the help of a $77 million loan guarantee by the Department of Housing and Urban Development -- one of the largest HUD rehabilitation loans ever -- Sarubin was able to spruce up the apartments and landscape the properties' generous courtyards.

As part of the loan deal, Sarubin also agreed to set aside 20 percent of the units for scattered-site subsidized housing.

The result is an attractive mixed-income development of one- and two-bedroom units renting for $580 to $1,025 a month.

Owned by private investors and the National Housing Partnership, a District-based real estate management company, Foxchase also boasts prompt maintenance, several pools, tennis courts and a nearby shopping center with everything from a grocery store to a video club.

About 4,000 residents, most of whom are 24 to 35 years old, gather almost daily for parties, seminars, exercise classes and other events organized by the management staff.

"It is a mixed-use place in the very best sense of that word," said City Manager Vola Lawson. "You've got older people there, you've got singles there, you've got young families. It's a very interesting livable place that reflects the rich diversity of this city and this area."

Residents agree.

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Linda Burgos, a 27-year-old veterinarian who also plays on a Foxchase volleyball team, said she was at a loss two years ago when she moved to the Washington area from New York and began searching for a place to live. But she liked what she found at Foxchase.

"The price was reasonable, and I really like the grounds -- how they keep the landscaping, the look of the community," said Burgos, adding that her apartment's ample closet space was a critical factor in her choice.

Burgos said she also feels safe at Foxchase. She was happy to learn that if she were nervous about walking to her car late at night, she could call the development's security staff and they would provide an escort.

Stephen G. Lefave examined several apartments in the Washington area before choosing Foxchase. "It's kind of like living in the country -- the layout of the complex with the greenery and big lawns," said the 29-year-old Coast Guard employee who was transferred from Alabama to the D.C. area two years ago.

Lefave, a regular on the Foxchase softball team that won a city championship last year, said he also took advantage of the dinners and "happy hours" hosted at Foxchase clubhouses and local restaurants. "I met a lot of people. They made me really feel at home," Lefave said.

Barbara Spieth, who coordinates events for singles and couples, said she tries to schedule events at times when ambitious young professionals can set time aside for them.

"Our residents have said this is an excellent way to meet people and make lasting friendships," Spieth said. "People are so involved in their work, we definitely take that into consideration in our scheduling."

Foxchase also has a core group of active seniors.

Catherine Charney, the organizer of senior events, boasts that her seniors "have it pretty good." As soon as a senior moves into an apartment she tries to find another resident to drop by or call so that the new tenant feels welcome.

Charney has organized several day trips to entertain seniors.

"We've been all over the place," she said. "We went to the Ice Capades last month. We've been to the Beltsville agricultural research center, and just about every museum in Washington."

Yvonne A. Smith, 68, moved in three years ago right after retirement -- in part because she sought a convenient location but also because she wanted to remain active.

Dressed in lavender sweats and pink tennis shoes one recent morning, she and a dozen of her friends assembled at a Foxchase poolhouse for their twice-weekly aerobics class, bouncing and kicking to Dixieland jazz and Sousa marches.

"We can exercise twice a week and it doesn't cost anything," Smith said. More importantly, she added, "I've made a lot of good friends here."

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