More housing could be coming to the partially finished Tysons Central neighborhood outside the Greensboro Metro station, but it will take a slightly different form than what developers pictured over a decade ago.
The Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority (FCRHA) has partnered with the developer Lincoln Avenue Communities to acquire a long-vacant lot near the Tysons water tower and turn it into affordable housing.
The 1.7-acre site identified on maps as 8346 Leesburg Pike and in county property records as 8350 Leesburg Pike was slated for auction last September by EagleBank, which foreclosed on the former owner, NV Commercial, the Washington Business Journal reported in August.
According to the FCRHA, Lincoln Avenue proposed building up to 525 homes on the site in response to the county’s Aug. 26 announcement that it had approximately $48 million available for affordable housing construction and preservation projects and was seeking potential partners.
The housing authority ultimately acquired the Leesburg Pike property on Jan. 5 for $13.75 million — slightly less than the $14 million that NV Commercial paid EagleBank to offload the site in September, according to property records.
“FCRHA and our partner Lincoln Avenue Communities are catalyzing affordable housing for the area’s wide variety of workers on unused land in Tysons,” FCRHA Chair Lenore Stanton said in a press release. “We maximized taxpayer dollars by paying below market value for a great site, and we look forward to welcoming families home to this prime location near the economic opportunities of Tysons, transportation hubs and The Boro.”
The site was part of the Tysons Central development that NV Commercial planned with Clyde’s Real Estate Group back in the early 2010s while the Greensboro Metro station was still under construction to replace several low-lying retail buildings, including the Clyde’s of Tysons restaurant, a Men’s Wearhouse, a Virginia ABC store and a combined Sleepy’s/The Big Screen Store.
Approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in November 2013, the plan called for between 1.8 million and 2 million square feet of residential, office, retail and hotel space on nearly 5.8 acres of land north of the Route 123 and Route 7 interchange.
Two of the six planned buildings have since come to fruition — the 32-story Lumen Apartments, which opened in 2019, and the 21-story Tysons Central office building, which finished construction in 2022 but failed to land any tenants. Sold by developer Foulger-Pratt to the Meridian Group last June, the building at 1750 Tysons Central Street has been rebranded as “Boro Central” in the hopes of boosting leasing.
Under the Tysons Central development plan, Buildings B and C on the property newly acquired by FCRHA would’ve been a mixed-use high rise with up to 200 hotel rooms, 175 multifamily residential units and 33,000 square feet of retail, and an apartment building with up to 350 homes, 8,000 square feet of retail and a 14,500-square-foot public facility.
The plan didn’t specify what kind of public facility would be incorporated, beyond a commitment from the developer that the space would be provided with no rent as “a public/community use.” Per a county staff report from 2013, the office building that would become Boro Central was expected to include a 27,000-square-foot grocery store, but that was nixed in 2017 after the Meridian Group landed Whole Foods Market for its nearby The Boro development.
According to FCRHA’s press release, Lincoln Avenue’s affordable housing project will have non-residential space, but it’s unclear if that will include any public retail and amenities, or just services for the new residents. A spokesperson for FCRHA said they didn’t have any additional details “at this time.”
Above-ground parking is proposed for the site, which is currently vacant except for a portion of a parking lot. The land has been serving as a green space with some trees, benches and a path from the Boro Central entrance to Greensboro Station Place.
The housing authority has entered into an initial development agreement with Lincoln Avenue, which also partnered with the county on the Residences at Government Center II apartments currently under construction. FCRHA and the developer have started a site analysis, financial assessment and outreach to area stakeholders for the Tysons project.
“We have been believers in Tysons for long time and have been actively looking for opportunities in this submarket,” Lincoln Avenue Communities Vice President and Regional Project Partner Nick Bracco said. “When the pieces came together at Tysons Central, we saw it as a rare chance to secure one of the premier development sites in the region and bring much-needed affordable housing to Fairfax County.”
An analysis released earlier this year found that Fairfax County will need to add as many as 95,000 new homes by 2035, identifying a critical shortage in particular of units affordable to people earning 60% of the area median income (AMI) or less.
In December, a separate study commissioned by the Tysons Community Alliance projected that Tysons alone will need more than 10,000 new homes by 2040 to accommodate an expected influx of residents. While most of the newcomers will likely skew toward the middle or high end of the income spectrum, more affordable units will still be in demand.
If it’s finalized, Lincoln Avenue’s project will add to a growing supply of affordable housing in Tysons, with the Indigo at McLean Station and the Exchange at Spring Hill Station developments that are currently under construction collectively set to deliver 972 units for households earning between 30 and 70% AMI.
