By Brian Trompeter
The future Tysons Community Center received some vital backing Oct. 10 when the Board of Supervisors authorized the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA) to sell up to $43 million worth of revenue bonds to support construction of the facility and part of its parking costs.
The 33,000-square-foot community center will occupy the ground floor of the South Four Project building, which is part of the future 516-unit Dominion Square affordable-housing development.
“Tysons Community Center is anticipated to be an intergenerational center incorporating programming for seniors, families, youth and teens within walking distance to Metro,” specifically the Spring Hill Station on Metrorail’s Silver Line, county officials said in a briefing document for supervisors.
Officials currently estimate that the community center will cost $41 million to build.
The Dominion Square Project is a joint initiative by the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority (FCRHA) and the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH), which entered into an agreement in February 2022 to develop a site at 1592 Spring Hill Road in Tysons. Officials predict the project will be completed by November 2027.
The project will consist of a 265-unit North Four Project building and a 251-unit South Four Project structure. The development will offer rental units to households making between 30 and 70 percent of area median income. (Fairfax County’s area median income for a family of four is $152,100.)
The supervisors’ action on Oct. 10 does not put funding toward the project’s affordable-housing elements. Officials with the county’s Department of Housing and Community Development are working with APAH on the details of a financial agreement for that portion of the project and hope to present it to the FCRHA in November, with closing taking place in mid-December.
The affordable-housing project will use a mix of local, state, federal and private funding.
Supervisor Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill) said the bond-sale authorization was a “big step” for the community center, which was an important element in persuading Amazon to provide $55 million worth of funding toward the affordable-housing project.
“It will help make it a great place to live for future residents,” Alcorn said of the community center.
