A developer is finalizing plans for more housing in Isaac Newton Square, though construction on a previously approved residential building has yet to begin.
Tri Pointe Homes, the builder behind the new townhouses under construction at Lake Anne, hopes to construct up to 143 townhomes across three blocks of Isaac Newton Square, an office park in Reston that has been slated for an extensive, mixed-use redevelopment since 2019.
A final development plan submitted to Fairfax County on July 8 proposes a combination of traditional, single-family attached townhomes and “back-to-back” townhouses on two blocks that collectively cover about 7.4 acres in the northwest portion of the site, near Hidden Creek Country Club:
- Block N1: up to 38 back-to-back units and 20 attached units, totaling 58 units
- Block W2: up to 24 back-to-back units and 37 attached units, totaling 61 units
According to the application, back-to-back townhomes “are a relatively new product type in Fairfax County” that resemble stacked townhouses, except the units are divided vertically instead of horizontally. Like the standard townhouses, they would be up to 50 feet tall with four stories, three bedrooms and two garage parking spaces.
“The proposed units will respond to today’s residential market by offering efficient living spaces, modern amenities, and convenience for residents,” Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley & Walsh land-use attorney Andrew Painter wrote in a statement of justification.
Sixteen of the homes will be designated as workforce dwelling units (WDUs).
Back-to-back townhomes are also proposed in a separate application for Block N3, which is in the northeastern corner of the site and was approved back in 2019 as an 180-unit multifamily residential building.
In his statement, Painter says property owner APA Properties “actively” marketed the block to prospective developers as multifamily housing, but they eventually determined that isn’t viable due to the 1.5-acre site’s relatively small size and the presence of utilities along Wiehle Avenue, including a below-grade electric vault that can’t be moved.
As a result, the amount of buildable land in the block “is substantially smaller” than what was shown in the conceptual development plan that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved for Isaac Newton Square in 2019.
“These limitations are magnified when considering economies of scale required with residential construction, the need to provide efficient floorplates, and above- or below-grade structured parking,” the application says.
Enlisted as the developer by APA Properties in 2021, Tri-Pointe Homes initially proposed stacked townhomes during discussions with the county back in 2022, but it hit pause on those plans in response to “unfavorable market conditions.”
The newly submitted plans call for up to 24 back-to-back townhomes, including three WDUs, compensating for the unused density elsewhere in the future development. As in the other blocks, all of the units will be up to 50 feet tall with four stories, three bedrooms and two interior parking garage spaces.
With the three new blocks, Tri-Pointe Homes will deliver “significant elements” of the publicly accessible open space planned in Isaac Newton Square, including more than 76,000 square feet of a Nature’s Edge Park with a playground, open lawn areas, seating areas and an 8-foot-wide shared-use trail.
Plans for a Willow Oak Park include 6-foot-wide concrete and boardwalk paths, interpretive signage, public art and a bicycle repair and seating “node.”
Constructed over three decades, starting in 1964, Isaac Newton Square was one of the first office developments to emerge in Reston as part of founder Robert E. Simon’s vision, though much of it was constructed under Gulf Oil and didn’t follow a unified design, according to documents with the Library of Congress. Because of that lack of cohesion, the property hasn’t been deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, despite its significance to Reston’s history.
The Board of Supervisors approved a plan brought by developer MRP Realty and landowner Peter Lawrence Companies in November 2019 that would redevelop the aging office park with 2.8 million square feet of mixed-use construction across 10 blocks, including around 2,100 housing units, 300 hotel rooms, 260,000 square feet of office space and around 69,000 square feet of retail.
A final development plan for the first block — a 345-unit, seven-story apartment building at 11410 Isaac Newton Square North — secured the Fairfax County Planning Commission’s approval on Oct. 25, 2023. Construction on that block, labeled N2, is now expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to Painter.
“Development of Blocks W2 and N1, when taken together with the approved multifamily development on Block N2 and planned development of Block N3, will establish the first phase of Isaac Newton Square as a cohesive whole,” Painter wrote. “Completion of these four blocks in close time to one another will ensure that the northernmost portions of Isaac Newton Square’s streetscape and open space areas will be developed and delivered in a connected fashion.”
Neither of the new development applications have been officially accepted for review yet by Fairfax County planners, as of press time.
