The developer behind Tysons West is expanding its ambitions to the east side of Route 7 (Leesburg Pike).
JBG Smith, a Chevy Chase-based company also known for its extensive involvement in Arlington’s National Landing area, has acquired the three office buildings at Tysons Dulles Plaza (1410, 1420 and 1430 Spring Hill Road) for $42.3 million — a significant discount compared to previous sales.
The 15-acre office park previously sold to the Texas-based company Rockpoint in 2017 for over $130 million, and before that, it went for more than $152.7 million in 2008, according to Fairfax County property records.
Closed on May 5, JBG Smith’s acquisition of Tysons Plaza was reported last month by the Washington Business Journal, but the developer didn’t make an official announcement until last Friday (June 20).
In a press release, JBG Smith leaders said they view the challenges still facing the office market post-pandemic, particularly older properties like Tysons Dulles Plaza, as an opportunity for redevelopment.
“Notwithstanding regional economic headwinds and the negative impact of remote work on the office sector, we see distress leading to extremely attractive office investment opportunities for the first time in more than a decade,” Chief Investment Officer George Xanders said. “We are actively exploring additional office investments, similar to Tysons Dulles Plaza, especially where we can apply our proven mixed-used redevelopment expertise.”
JBG Smith says it intends to preserve two of the existing buildings as office space, albeit with renovations to modernize the facilities and enhance their appeal for tenants. The third building will be redeveloped for residential use.
Though the firm didn’t share details about its redevelopment plan, including which building could be turned into housing, JBG Smith Chief Strategy Officer Evan Regan-Levine indicated that its work in National Landing — the trifecta of Crystal City, Pentagon City and Potomac Yard in Alexandria anchored by Amazon’s HQ2 — will serve as a “blueprint.”
The company’s recent work in National Landing has included proposals to convert vacant office buildings in Crystal City into apartments and a hotel, an extensive renovation of another office building and plans for housing in Pentagon City and Potomac Yard.
“In National Landing we were able to reduce the stock of operating office buildings and transform many of them into new residential and retail offerings — aligning with lower levels of net demand for office — while also improving the desirability of the neighborhood,” Regan-Levine said. “We see the same opportunity at Tysons Dulles Plaza.”
Constructed in 1986 and 1989, per county records, the six-story buildings that make up Tysons Dulles Plaza collectively encompass approximately 500,000 square feet of office space. The campus also has some retail space, hosting the restaurant American Prime since 2017 and Hot Yoga Tysons.
Existing amenities include a 27,000-square-foot central plaza, a 0.58-mile walking trail, basketball and paddle tennis courts, a fitness center, a conference center, and 1,533 underground and street-level parking spaces, according to the building management’s website.
Located across the street from the West*Park Transit Station near the Dulles Toll Road, Tysons Dulles Plaza was already being considered as a candidate for redevelopment by former owner Rockpoint, which nominated the site for land-use changes in February as part of Fairfax County’s Site-Specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) process.
The submitted concept plan sought to revise the county’s comprehensive plan to allow mixed-use development on the site, either replacing two office buildings with up to 600 multi-family units or all three office buildings with up to 1,000 multi-family units.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors authorized county staff to study the proposal, along with dozens of other potential plan amendments, on June 10. The Tysons Dulles Plaza SSPA was combined with redevelopment pitches for two other office properties — Corporate Ridge and Valo Park — to initiate a broader review of all guidance for land designated for office uses in Tysons.
Tysons Dulles Plaza is approximately 1 mile away from Tysons West, the Walmart-anchored shopping center near the Spring Hill Metro station.
Envisioning more mixed development beyond the retail that currently dominates Tysons West, JBG Smith secured Fairfax County’s approval last year to reduce the scale of a planned residential building. A proposal to convert the adjacent Sheraton Tysons Hotel into housing got greenlit in 2023.
The developer hasn’t commented, though, on when construction on either project might begin.
