A 60-residence condominium at 601 North Fairfax Street, delivered in 2014 inside the stripped-back frame of a 1986 office building.
The Oronoco — also marketed as Oronoco Waterfront Residences — is a single condominium building at 601 North Fairfax Street, not a platted subdivision, and that distinction matters the moment you compare it against the townhome enclaves further south. It is also easily confused with the street and the park that share the name: Oronoco Street runs east-west a block away, and Oronoco Bay Park sits on the river nearby. What is for sale here is 60 one-level residences at the north end of Old Town Alexandria, in a building completed in 2014.
The Oronoco is an adaptive reuse, and the building it reuses is an unusual one: the Sheet Metal Workers International headquarters, first constructed in 1986 and described at the time as among the largest solar-powered office buildings anywhere. The $44.3 million conversion, built by DAVIS, stripped the U-shaped structure to its steel and demolished significant portions before new construction began; the contractor laser-scanned the existing concrete trusses and beams to establish a baseline for the structural modifications and the finish tolerances the residential work required. The output is 60 single-level residences rather than the stacked plans a townhome imposes, and units here have been marketed from roughly 1,600 to more than 3,500 square feet.
This is the detail a listing sheet will not give you. The Old Town waterfront addresses south of here are assigned to Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy for elementary and then George Washington Middle School. The Oronoco sits on the other side of that line: for 2026-27 it is served by Jefferson-Houston, a single PreK-8 school, and then Alexandria City High School across its King Street and Minnie Howard campuses. The difference is structural rather than a matter of degree — a PreK-8 assignment means no separate middle-school transition in the middle of the run. The School Board approved these boundaries on June 12, 2025, effective with the 2026-27 school year, so confirm any specific unit in the ACPS Attendance Zone Locator.
In the historic rows, a buyer's homework is the Board of Architectural Review file. In a 60-unit building it is the condominium package: resale certificate, budget, minutes and reserve study. A 2014 delivery inside a 1986 frame means envelope, roof, elevators and garage are all on a maintenance clock the reserve study either funds or does not, so read it rather than skim it. Exterior work is the association's responsibility, and whether architectural review attaches at all depends on whether the address falls inside the Old and Historic Alexandria District. The district reaches north to Bashford Lane, but much of Old Town North shares ZIP 22314 without sharing the review process — check the city's Historic Preservation map viewer rather than assume either way.
601 North Fairfax sits roughly six blocks north of King Street, which changes the everyday geometry. Oronoco Bay Park, Founders Park and the Mount Vernon Trail are the near amenities; the restaurant and retail blocks of lower King and the King St-Old Town Metro station are a longer walk than they are from the middle of Old Town. Alexandria's current FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps took effect January 11, 2024, and the mapped floodplain in this part of the city reaches inland from the river, so confirm the building's status and ask for the elevation certificate. Confirm what parking conveys with a specific unit as well: the surrounding streets fall inside Alexandria's residential permit parking system, where permits are issued only to full-time residents of the district, at rates current as of August 2026.
The Oronoco sits within Old Town Alexandria — that guide covers the zoning, permitting and site constraints that apply across the wider area.
Artur can confirm what applies to a specific address here — lot, zoning, association documents and school assignment — before you write an offer.
