Federal Realty Investment Trust’s Village at Shirlington, in Arlington, Va., gained a dramatic anchor last month — literally. The locally based Signature Theatre production company moved from its space in an industrial garage to a 48,000-square-foot playhouse at the center. The Village is an outdoor, Main Street-style shopping center last renovated in 1989 and made up largely of restaurants and cafés. Tenants include Capital City Brewing Company, Caribou Coffee and Johnny Rockets. Shoppers can have dinner and then see a show, and Sam Sweet, managing director of Signature, says this has worked out very well. “We’ve promoted it as a total entertainment experience,” he said. “Instead of having to find parking and run across the street, people can park in the free garage, walk into Shirlington, perhaps have dinner and see a show.”The playhouse is in a four-floor complex, with the first floor occupied by the Arlington County Library. The mostly musical repertoire includes Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, which has been a big success, according to Sweet. Walls of glass in the lobby allow patrons to sit at the bar and look out onto the shopping crowd. With the mixture of retail and theater entertainment, Sweet says, traffic has increased, with more visitors walking in for ticket purchases.
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