Comstock seeks to tweak residential building planned at Reston Row

Comstock is seeking to tweak a critical piece of the Reston Station neighborhood.

With one block at Reston Station complete, the developer is moving towards Reston Row. The team is reexamining its 17.6-acre assemblage to complete the neighborhood in a “more organized, intuitive, and rail-focused manner.”

That’s why the developer plans to reallocated unused density on the block two parcel for a “more logical, transit-proximate location at Reston Row” and the “accelerated production of more workforce dwelling units closer to rail.”

Block two is located on Metro Center Drive and contains a 75,000-square-foot, six-story office building that will remain during the construction project. The parking structure on the site will be redeveloped as an office or residential building.

Comstock hopes to shift unused density from a 180,00-square-foot planned hotel and a 350,000-square-foot residential building to the site.

Set to go before the Reston Planning & Zoning Committee tonight (Monday), the application would shift roughly 360,000 square feet of available but unused density from the planned hotel and residential building to the project, which is approved for nearly 1.4 acres of mixed-use development.

Comstock will not build a planned nearly 167,000-square-foot hotel at Reston Station, because it would “interfere” with Founding Farmers’ outdoor seating and the overall experience of the plaza.

The developer also says it no longer makes sense to build a 280-foot-tall residential building on block two next to a 140-foot-tall office building.

Instead, Comstock hopes to bring 165 units or 280,000 square feet for a 425-unit residential building directly opposite the BLVD at Reston Station on block two.

Remaining density would be allowed for a roof deck on top of the building for Founding Farmers and other improvements, along with an unspecified “future building” on block two. Ground-floor retail is still planned on the base of the building along Reston Station Blvd.

“With all 35 of the formerly disparate parcels within the Reston Station and Reston Row properties now consolidated and included in the Reston Station Neighborhood, Comstock has much more flexibility to reorganize all of the pieces to maximize its rail proximity and plan the highest and best use of the whole,” the Jan. 13 amended application says.

The application does not add additional density and only requires reallocation.