The Dulles Corner office park near the Innovation Center Metro station could become one building smaller, if Fairfax County approves a recently submitted redevelopment proposal.
Developer Pulte Homes and property owner Finmarc Management are seeking to replace the four-story Park West building at 13880 Dulles Corner Lane with 145 townhomes, including 81 attached units and 64 stacked units.
“The proposed development will provide additional housing opportunities in the Dulles Suburban Center, while providing appropriate transitions to ensure compatibility with surrounding development,” DLA Piper land use attorney Brian Winterhalter said in a Jan. 14 statement of justification for the rezoning application.
The bid to add housing suggests a hedging of bets by Finmarc, which expressed confidence in the Herndon-area office park’s leasing potential after acquiring all four buildings last January for $51 million.
Constructed in 1998 and renovated in 2014, Park West at Dulles Corner is currently about 60% leased with 60,529 out of 151,747 square feet available, according to broker Cushman & Wakefield.
Redeveloping the “underutilized” office building with townhomes would boost the county’s housing supply and bring new amenities to the community, including new green space, the application says:
As shown on the [conceptual and final development plans], three urban park spaces will provide a mix of passive and active open space opportunities. To the east, the Applicant is proposing a linear park that will serve to buffer the new community from the neighboring parking garage. A pocket park is located in the center of the site, promoting access and pedestrian circulation connecting the internal residential area to the common green to the south. This nearly ¾-acre urban park space abuts the pond and will include recreational amenities, art features, and connections to natural areas.
The 0.94 acres of urban park space shown in the submitted plan would be publicly accessible and provide “opportunities for the community and guests to engage with each other and nature, while ensuring all residents have outdoor amenities proximate to their homes,” Winterhalter wrote.
As part of the proposed rezoning, Pulte and Finmarc would remove the approximately 11-acre Park West property from the rest of the Dulles Corner development, which appears to be otherwise remaining an office park.
The Innovation Center Transit Station Area is becoming increasingly residential in nature, with the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approving plans to redevelop the Dulles Technology Center offices to the east just last week and setting the stage for more housing on the north side of the Dulles Toll Road in December.
“The overall Metro station area, however, has more multi-family residential units and relatively fewer townhouse units, which are necessary to provide family-size housing proximate to transit,” Winterhalter said, contending that the traditional and stacked townhomes in the Dulles Corner plan would “meet an important need in the housing market.”
In recent months, townhomes appear to be gaining on multifamily apartment buildings as the preferred redevelopment option in Fairfax County. Within the past half year, townhouse projects have been approved or proposed in Oakton, Reston, Tysons and Woodlawn.
