To support its ambitions for future development, Reston Town Center’s owner and manager is letting go of one of its existing properties.
BXP confirmed to FFXnow that it is selling the Signature apartments at 11850 Freedom Drive as part of a broader plan to hand off “select” land, residential and office properties and use the proceeds to fund new construction.
“Consistent with the strategy outlined at our Investor Day in September, BXP is selling select residential assets to reinvest in new development and the Signature disposition demonstrates the value creation contributed by BXP’s residential platform,” a company spokesperson said.
Financed by a loan from Affinius Capital that closed on Jan. 8, the buyer is a joint venture of Sterling Investors, a New York City-based real estate investment manager, and Simpson Housing, a multifamily housing operator with headquarters in Denver, Colorado.
Simpson announced the acquisition in a blog post on Dec. 19, calling the Signature an “elevated living experience in one of Northern Virginia’s most dynamic neighborhoods.”
The transaction hasn’t appeared yet in Fairfax County property records, and none of the companies involved have disclosed the price. However, Bisnow reported in November that the two buildings were expected to attract bids of around $240 million, which would exceed the $141 million sale of the Avant at Reston Town Center in 2022 to set a new record for apartments in Reston.
That price would also surpass the $182.7 million value of the site assessed last year by Fairfax County, an amount that includes $24.4 million for the underlying land, per property records.
Standing 21 stories tall with a total of 508 units, the Signature apartment buildings opened in early 2018 on the last remaining parcel in the original Reston Town Center.
In addition to hundreds of residents, they remain home to a satellite gallery for the Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA), which has been discussing and raising funds for a new primary location to support its growing capacity and programming needs.
In an October earnings call, BXP CEO and Board Chairman Owen Thomas told investors that the developer aims to sell 27 “assets” for approximately $1.9 billion by the end of 2027.
At that point, the company had closed or was working on 23 deals that Thomas estimated would yield about $1.25 billion in net proceeds, including up to $700 million for ones completed by the end of 2025.
While BXP has properties around the country, it is preparing to make some substantial investments in Reston Town Center after the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a second phase of the development’s expansion last November.
The developer has fully leased all the office space in the expansion’s completed first phase, and several retail tenants are expected to open later this year. Phase 2 plans call for approximately 1,402 residential units, an additional 930,000 square feet of office space across two buildings, nearly 86,900 square feet of retail space and a 60,000-square-foot arts center.
At full buildout, the Reston Town Center expansion will encompass 4.4 million square feet of development, rivaling the original town center in size, according to BXP’s website.
