By Brian Trompeter
Fairfax County supervisors on Oct. 24 unanimously approved a proposal by McLean Corporate Ridge Property LLC to convert an office building on the edge of Tysons into up to 250 “live-work” residential dwellings.
“Tactical repositioning has a number of economic-development benefits,” said Greg Riegle, the applicant’s attorney. “Frankly, in addition to the obvious benefit of taking something with limited or no value and putting it to productive use, simply stated, removing non-competitive office product only strengthens the health and viability of the remaining product, improves the rental rates and makes the remaining portions of the market more competitive.”
The 8.07-acre site is about 800 feet north of Magarity Road in the northeast quadrant of the intersection of Interstate 495 and Route 7. In addition to the existing 10-story, 257,548-square-foot office building, the property has an L-shaped, four-story parking garage and some surface parking to the north and east of the garage.
The applicant will repurpose the building’s whole first floor as professional-amenity space for residents; add color and texture to the facades to make the structure appear more residential; and upgrade windows to meet residential noise standards.
Much of the site’s existing surface parking will be made into urban parks and open space. The site’s parking needs will be handled by the garage.
The resulting 51-percent open space at the site will include a 0.73-acre private-amenity area for tenants and a 3.42-acre publicly accessible area. The latter will include an area called The Preserve and Boardwalk, as well as a neighborhood park and reforested hillside.
Pedestrians will be able to access the site via a boardwalk along the Preserve area, a 5-foot-wide sidewalk along Corporate Ridge and an 8-foot-wide, handicapped-accessible trail meandering through the property’s northern portion.
There also will be a pedestrian connection to the adjacent McLean Hills Condominium at Enola Street, and the pedestrian bridge over Interstate 495 will be accessible via a trail along a sound wall that will link up with the existing Virginia Department of Transportation trail.
The site’s location offers many benefits, including being walkable and bikeable to many parks, retail outlets, dining options and business opportunities, Riegle said.
The project embraces a live-work concept that “does not force an absolute choice between residential and commercial-workspace opportunities,” he said. “The potential remains for this building to be predominantly, or even exclusively, workspace as markets and needs evolve. And as we try to sort out the new workplace, to say that flexibility is the name of the game is a significant understatement.”
The current inwardly focused, automobile-centric site does not contribute toward community-building in Tysons, Riegle said. But its future incarnation will provide exemplary amenities and public spaces, he said.
“This is really an ideal opportunity to reuse existing high-vacancy buildings with convenient access and future [bus-rapid-transit] access in this area,” said Supervisor Dalia Palchik (D-Providence). “I do believe that the developer’s design provides a significant improvement in the overall pedestrian experience.”
The site’s environmental aspects will be “considerably upgraded” by reducing unnecessary surface parking, adding landscaping and integrating best management practices, she said.
