Pentagon City, Virginia
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Pentagon City is an unincorporated neighborhood (also called an "urban village") located in the southeast portion of Arlington County, Virginia, near The Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery. Due to its proximity to Washington, D.C., this community of residential, office, and retail complexes is a major tourist stop.
Pentagon City is less than a mile from the Potomac River, which separates the Commonwealth of Virginia from Washington, D.C. It is located on the Blue and Yellow Lines of the Washington Metro, and the Pentagon City Metro station is one of the busiest in the metrorail system during peak and off-peak hours. It is also one of the few metro stations to have SmarTrip-only lanes.
The Pentagon, whose parking lots span both sides of nearby Shirley Memorial Highway (I-395), is located just a couple of blocks away. The neighborhood of Crystal City borders Pentagon City to the east along South Eads Street, and separates Pentagon City from National Airport. Washington Boulevard (State Route 27), Arlington Boulevard (U.S. Route 50), Columbia Pike (State Route 244), Jefferson Davis Highway (U.S. Route 1), and State Route 110 are nearby major thoroughfares.
The area is primarily known as a shopping district, particularly for the multi-level indoor shopping mall, the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City (also known as the Pentagon City Mall), which includes Macy's and Nordstrom as anchor stores. On the west side of the Fashion Centre is the mixed-use development of Pentagon Row, which includes a Harris Teeter grocery store and many smaller specialty stores and restaurants in the midst of high-end apartments. Pentagon Row features an outdoor ice rink during the winter.
Other popular retail outlets include Best Buy and Borders Books and Music at the Pentagon Centre, which is located to the east of the Fashion Centre across Hayes Street. Adjacent to the Pentagon Centre is a Costco Warehouse, which is housed in a larger complex of warehouses that are remnants of the area's former industrial character.
The Costco complex was one of three Arlington County sites proposed by the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority in 2003 to host the relocating Montréal Expos. The other two sites were a plot of undeveloped land closer to the Pentagon and a site in the neighborhood of Rosslyn. Although some polls of Arlington residents seemed to show support for locating the stadium in the county, the issue was highly divisive and some Pentagon City residents launched a visible campaign against it. Major League Baseball finally announced in the fall of 2004 that the Expos would move to the District as the Washington Nationals.
Virginia Highlands Park, located immediately south of the central retail area, provides a lush green space as well as basketball, tennis, soccer, and softball/baseball facilities. Adjacent to the park are the Aurora Hills branch of the Arlington Public Library system and a firehouse. The suburban neighborhood of Aurora Hills, which consists primarily of single-family detached housing, extends due south of Pentagon City.
The River House apartments complex includes three older high-rise buildings (The James, The Potomac and The Ashley) that house many residents. Other high-rise luxury apartments and condos on Pentagon Row as well as the four-story Southampton Condominium townhouse community provide housing for thousands of residents.
