text: (Updated at 4:10 p.m.) The Arlington, Va. parking garage that played a pivotal role in the Watergate scandal is set to be demolished as part of a redevelopment. 
   
   Monday Properties plans to tear down two aging office buildings, at 1401 Wilson Blvd and 1400 Key Blvd in the Rosslyn neighborhood, to make way for a new mixed use development. Before any construction can take place, however, the proposed redevelopment will go through Arlington’s site plan process, which usually takes 1-4 years. 
   
   The parking garage below the buildings will be a casualty of the eventual redevelopment. Forty years ago, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward met a source dubbed “Deep Throat” — later revealed to be FBI official Mark Felt — in the garage, which was chosen because it was considered an “anonymous secure location.” The information Felt passed on to Woodward helped expose the Watergate scandal, which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. 
   
   A permanent historical marker outside the garage, erected by Arlington County, marks the location. Monday Properties says it expects the marker to stay even after the garage is removed. 
   
   “We obviously view the whole Watergate situation as a significant event in the history of our country,” said Monday Properties Chief Development Officer Tim Helmig. “It would be our hope that we preserve that plaque and incorporate it in our redevelopment.” 
   
   The marker will likely be removed and stored during the redevelopment, said Cynthia Liccese-Torres, Acting Historic Preservation Program Coordinator for Arlington County. 
   
   “Ideally we would want to put the marker back up again when the development is all finished,” she said. 
   
   The garage, built in the early 1960s, is nearing the end of its useful life, Helmig noted. Nonetheless, he said the company is receptive to ideas for preserving some part of the garage’s history. 
   
   “That will likely come into the discussion as part of the [site plan] process,” he said. “That’s exactly what the process is designed for.” 
   
   Monday plans to replace the older buildings with a 32-story apartment or condo building and a 29-story office building. In total, the buildings will have 500,000 square feet of office space, 385,000 square feet of residential space, and 60,000 square feet of retail space, including a planned full-service grocery store, according to Helmig. About half of the land will be used as a public open space. (See photos, above.) 
   
   So far, there’s no word on when Monday, which is still actively trying to find tenants for its massive 1812 N. Moore Street skyscraper in Rosslyn, would actually move forward with the demolition and subsequent construction, if and when it receives county approval. 
   
   “There’s not really a set timeframe,” Helmig said. “We are really in the early stages. We have a lot of process and community input to go before our project comes to fruition.” 
   
   “We’re excited about our application,” he added. “It certainly meets the goals and objectives of the Rosslyn Sector Plan.” 
   
   Arlington County’s Site Plan Review Committee is scheduled to hold a meeting about the development proposal on Monday, Oct. 21. ||||| Enlarge Arlington County officials erected this marker outside 1401 Wilson Blvd., the parking… more 
   
   In answer to many of your questions, yes, the Rosslyn parking garage where Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward secretly met FBI Associate Director Mark Felt, a.k.a. Deep Throat, during the Watergate investigation, is being targeted for demolition. 
   
   I wrote an article last Thursday on Monday Properties and its plan to tear down a pair of aging office buildings, including 1401 Wilson Blvd., to make way for nearly 1 million square feet of commercial and residential space. As several of you asked me since then, the parking garage at 1401 Wilson, and spot 32D where Woodward and Felt exchanged notes on the Nixon administration, would be torn down to make way for one of the two new buildings. 
   
   Enlarge Arlington County officials erected this marker outside 1401 Wilson Blvd., the parking… more 
   
   Mind you, Monday only recently submitted its plans for the project and it will likely take some time for it to work through Arlington County's approval process. Monday Executive Vice President Tim Helmig said he does not expect to be able to start work at the site until 2016 or 2017. At the same time, Helmig said he appreciates the history of the site and will try to come up with a way to honor it appropriately. 
   
   "We obviously think the location where Mr. Woodward and our friend Mark Felt met is certainly an integral part of a much broader historical event," Helmig said. 
   
   Arlington County erected a historical marker outside the garage in 2011, and Helmig said Monday Properties will try to find a way to commemorate the internal spot of the deep-background meetings in the new development. But he said the garage is aging and would be difficult to preserve as part of a redevelopment. 
   
   "The garage is at the end of its useful life, and with the redevelopment the configuration of the garage itself is going to change," he said. 
   
   The location, of course, is a sort of mecca for many working journalists, the physical embodiment of how impactful reporting can be. Woodward gleaned information from Felt for Washington Post stories on Watergate that would help put an end to Richard Nixon's presidency. The notion was not lost on Washington Business Journal Managing Editor Rob Terry, who brought his son by the garage during a bring-your-child-to-work day and posted this entry in a blog: 
   
   • 9:55 a.m.: Will’s hungry. Sensing a theme, I decide to run to the nearby Safeway to stock up for the day. I also take the opportunity to show him around Rosslyn a bit, including one of my favorite spots — parking space 32D in the Wilson Boulevard underground garage where Bob Woodward met with "Deep Throat," his secret source in the Watergate investigation. I try explaining to Will what’s historically important and inspiring about this location when you do what I do for a living. “But Dad, how can a parking space be famous?” he asks. “It’s complicated, buddy.'" Daniel J. Sernovitz covers commercial real estate.
target: – A little bit of American history looks to be destined for the rubble heap. A developer in Rosslyn, Virginia, has submitted plans to tear down the parking garage where "Deep Throat"—aka FBI agent Mark Felt—told his secrets to Bob Woodward, reports the ArlNow blog. Unless preservationists make a strong case, the garage will be turned to dust in 2016 or 2017, reports the Washington Business Journal. A historical marker already marks the site that launched the Watergate scandal, and developer Monday Properties says it will make sure that some kind of marker adorns the eventual new office building. It's just that "the garage is at the end of its useful life," says one of its execs. For the record, it was parking spot 32D that led to Nixon's downfall.