The Shooshan Co's plan for a 22-story, vertically mixed-use building in Ballston will move forward after the Arlington County Board approved the site plan Saturday.

The 4040 Wilson Blvd site, previously zoned for an office building, will now be home to the tallest building in Ballston and the first mixed-use project of its kind in Arlington.

The bottom two floors plus a portion of the B1 level will consist of 35k SF of retail, followed by eight stories of office space and 12 floors of residential apartments on top. The retail will be anchored by a VIDA Fitness. The office and residential portions will each have access to their own rooftop terraces atop the 22 stories, with views of the entire Metropolitan area.

The building will be the final phase of the Liberty Center development, which Shooshan has been working on for 15 years.

Shooshan's Kevin Shooshan, on the left next to his sister Kelly, Shooshan's CEO, and his parents John and Marcia, says they hope to start construction next year, which could result in a late 2018/early 2019 delivery. The parking garage for the building has already been constructed.

He says the switch from office to a mixed-use project came because of the scarcity of big office tenants in the area. While they were originally looking for a 200k SF tenant, he says the new plan allowed them to look in the more realistic 40k to 100k SF range.

"We were building an asset that is not supported by the current office market," Kevin says. "Rather than build another building that has almost no prospects to lease, we converted the asset to find other ways to achieve the occupancy."

Kevin—who serves as TSC's director of leasing—told Bisnow yesterday that, when the full tower was planned for office, he had only had conversations with one prospective tenant. "Now," he says, "we're talking to six or seven."