Shovels are almost ready to dig into Virginia Tech’s Northern Virginia Center in Idylwood.
HITT Contracting will begin construction in January on its new headquarters at the 7.41-acre academic campus, with an official groundbreaking ceremony on Jan. 23, Jaclyn Randolph, the construction firm’s senior communications manager, says.
More information about what to expect during construction, including the planned truck routes and how it will be phased, will be shared during a community meeting at Haycock Elementary School (6616 Haycock Road) from 7-9 p.m. today (Wednesday).
In the works since 2019, HITT’s new headquarters building will be six stories tall with 270,000 square feet of space, including 40,000 square feet on the ground floor for a Coalition for Smart Construction leased by Virginia Tech.
Hosting over 900 employees, the offices will be equipped with a full-service conference center, a cafe, wellness facilities, a 1-acre outdoor terrace, “collaborative work zones” and four floors of workspaces “designed with neurodivergence in mind” to accommodate a variety of work styles, according to an earlier HITT press release.
The entire facility will be powered by a 100,000-square-foot solar panel array on the building’s roof. The offices are expected to open in early 2027, according to Randolph.
While HITT’s headquarters will be the centerpiece, the new development will also bring a 13-story, 440-unit apartment building with up to 18,000 square feet of retail and 55,000 square feet of urban parks.
HITT, which is currently based about 3 miles away at Fairview Park, partnered with the developer Rushmark Properties on the mixed-use project, which is one portion of a sprawling plan approved by Fairfax County in 2021 to revitalize over 30 acres around the West Falls Church Metro Station.
Rushmark and fellow developers EYA and Hoffman & Associates got the county’s approval in summer 2023 to redevelop 24 acres around the Metro station that are currently mostly occupied by parking lots. The over 1 million square feet of planned development will include 810 multifamily residential units, 85 single-family townhouses, a 110,000-square-foot office building and up to 10,000 square feet of retail.
While it’s unclear when construction on that project will get underway, there are multiple site plans under county review, including for the multifamily building, the townhomes and infrastructure improvements.
The Metro and Virginia Tech developments will be linked via a new West Falls Station Blvd that will ultimately extend from Route 7 (Leesburg Pike) to the West Falls development under construction in Falls Church City.
The largest development project in the city’s history, West Falls started welcoming residents to new apartment and condominium buildings earlier this year, and construction began earlier this month on a senior living community called The Reserve.
