(Updated at 4:20 p.m.) Initial preparations are underway for a major transformation of the George Mason University campus in Virginia Square. Fencing is currently going up around the former Kann’s Department Store on the GMU Arlington campus, next to the FDIC office complex, in preparation for demolition. The aging, mid-century brick building, at 3401 Fairfax Drive, is set to be torn down starting in early 2021. The demolition will make way for a $250 million expansion project, which will see the construction of an expansive new building to house new tech-oriented facilities. “The university is transforming its Arlington campus to create a new innovation hub for the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor,” GMU said of the project. “The multi-million dollar expansion project will include an approximately 500,000 SF state-of-the-art building that will serve as the headquarters for Mason’s Institute for Digital Innovation and its proposed School of Computing.”