A developer is charting a new future for the Lake Fairfax Business Center, but it will not include the home of the “Quad God.”
SkateQuest, the indoor rink where world figure skating champion and George Mason University student Ilia Malinin trains, is one of several buildings slated to remain as part of a plan to revitalize the Reston office park with housing, new retail and perhaps, an elementary school.
The Lifetime Fitness gym, Homewood Suites hotel, Reston Montessori School and data center building at 1780 Business Center Drive also won’t be affected by the updated concept for a “new, walkable community” that developer EYA has been presenting to the public, most recently at a virtual meeting on Aug. 6.
“It’s really important to make sure people understand those amenities are staying,” EYA Executive Vice President Development and Acquisitions Evan Goldman told FFXnow in an interview last week.
Suburban office parks on the decline
Faced with an emptying office building, one of the business center’s property owners asked EYA in 2022 if it could work as a residential development instead. After learning that other offices in the complex were expecting vacancies, EYA proposed amending Fairfax County’s Comprehensive Plan to allow housing and retail on the 76-acre site just south of Lake Fairfax Park.
The county received 15 nominations for land use changes in Reston that year during its Site-Specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) process, nearly all of them seeking to replace office space with housing.
With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating an embrace of remote work, offices throughout the D.C. region have been seen a decline in demand, particularly from the government agencies and contractors that are central to the area’s economy.
In Fairfax County, which reported a 17.2% vacancy rate at the end of 2023, older, more suburban properties have been hit especially hard, though Goldman says many businesses have moved to newer, transit-oriented offices within the county, rather than leaving altogether.
EYA, whose previous projects include townhomes in Merrifield’s Mosaic District and in the nearby Reston Midline neighborhood, hopes to turn the Lake Fairfax Business Center into “a residential village” that takes advantage of its proximity to the Wiehle Metro station and serves as a gateway to the 476-acre Lake Fairfax Park.
“It fits really nicely with what EYA does,” Goldman said. “We like to build…housing that is really good transition from higher density, central core spaces like near Metro, down to residential neighborhoods or parks or open spaces. So, from a density perspective, from a place-making perspective, it’s right up EYA’s alley.”
The proposed concept
At the recent community meetings, the developer presented two possible site plans — one with and without a 4-acre elementary school site. In both cases, the concept envisions approximately 900 residential units and 8,000 square feet of retail.
The housing will be a mix of about 500 single-family townhomes and 400 multi-family units, including around 300 rental apartments and 70 to 100 for-sale condominiums, according to Goldman. The townhomes and apartments will include affordable dwelling units (ADUs), but likely not in the condo buildings.
“They will have affordable units and other uses throughout the site to make up for that,” Goldman said. “That’s pretty common in the county that they don’t require you to do affordable units in condo buildings because of the expense of the condo fee. It becomes hard for the affordable [unit’s] owner.”
The county’s Board of Supervisors approved revisions to its workforce dwelling unit program in July that officials hope will boost the supply of for-sale units.
The housing will be scaled down as it gets closer to the neighboring single-family houses along Dressage Drive, which will remain separated by a buffer of trees. The multi-family apartment building will have the tallest maximum height at 85 feet, with the townhouses topping out at 42 feet, including a loft and outside rooftop deck.
Other proposed changes include over 3 acres of new park space, including a 1-acre, central green space, as well as additional connections to Lake Fairfax Park’s trails. Business Center Drive will be extended to Michael Faraday Court, providing a more direct link to Sunset Hills Road.
“All the streets within the project will have sidewalks and street trees and be more urban-style. Business Center Drive will have a wider sidewalk as the major pedestrian and bike hub, getting people all the way through to the Metro,” Goldman said, noting that bicycle infrastructure will be provided but hasn’t been incorporated into the concept yet.
If an elementary school site is provided, it would be located in the northern corner on what’s currently a parking lot between Lake Fairfax Park and Lifetime Fitness.
EYA started looking to make room for a school at the suggestion of Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn. The Reston Comprehensive Plan, which was updated last year, anticipates that Reston will need three more elementary schools to support the area’s planned-for growth.
“We used to get school sites when farms were proposed for development — including Reston in the 1960s-70s,” Alcorn said in an emailed statement. “Now that we are seeing relatively large tracts of old office parks proposing to redevelop into residential, the time is again right for developers to step up and help support development of critical new public facilities — ideally incorporated into these future communities.”
Goldman says the potential school was incorporated into EYA’s traffic analysis, which estimates that the overall development will generate 5,774 trips per week — fewer than what the existing offices would bring at their peak. However, the developer will only be responsible for dedicating land, allowing Fairfax County Public Schools to build the facility in the future.
With county staff currently drafting a plan amendment, EYA expects to file a formal development plan this fall, according to Goldman.
“From there, we would expect to have additional public meetings in the winter and in the spring of next year, and likely some sort of public hearings at some point next year,” he said.
