Fairfax County officials are ready to let residents move into Kingstowne Towne Center.
At its May 5 meeting, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Halle Companies’ proposal to convert a parking lot into two residential buildings with 646 units at the 35-acre shopping center.
Plans for the parcel have been in flux for nearly 20 years.
Supervisors Rodney Lusk (Franconia) and Walter Alcorn (Hunter Mill) were on the Fairfax County Planning Commission in 2008 when it was originally planned as office buildings. Halle switched to housing after the recession started that year, but nothing ever came to fruition.
“This has come a long way and it’s good to see something actually happening with this property,” Alcorn said.
The housing will be constructed in two phases, starting with a 328-unit building at 5941 Kingstowne Village Parkway, followed by an adjacent 318-unit building at 5961 Kingstowne Village Parkway. Served by an eight-level parking garage, each structure will be a maximum of 150 feet tall and include two swimming pools – one indoor and one outdoor.
The project will also redesign the nearby pedestrian plaza between the existing Regal movie theater and Panera Bread. The new plaza would include a central turf lawn, a promenade, a fountain feature, a tree grove with movable tables and chairs, an informal stage, shade structures, garden areas and two outdoor dining areas.
Halle is the original developer of Kingstowne Towne Center, but Federal Realty Investment Trust bought the development for $200 million in 2022. Halle will turn over ownership of the buildings to Federal Realty after construction.
Last week’s vote followed the Board of Supervisors’ February 2020 approval of a development plan for residential buildings with up to 646 homes on the property. That plan required the ground floor of the nine-story buildings to include retail uses.
Halle had to seek the county board’s approval to remove retail as a required element of the development — a change that was supported by the planning commission in March.
Under its revised plan, the developer retained the option to provide up to 4,500 square feet of non-residential space in the northeastern corner near the town center’s pedestrian plaza, but indicated it will more likely turn that area into a lobby instead of retail.
Lusk said the project was “improved” from previous iterations.
“This is a case study of a project’s evolution over time,” he said. “It also demonstrates the flexibility that is needed by our development community to respond to changes in the market.”
The developer plans to designate 12% of any for-sale units or 8% of the provided rental units as affordable housing. The for-sale units would be restricted to people making up to 70%, 80% and 100% of the area median income, while rental units would be for those making 60%, 70% and 80% of the area median income (AMI).
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development calculated Fairfax County’s AMI at $163,900 for a household of four people in 2025.
Even more housing could be coming to the town center as well. County staff is currently reviewing a separate application from developer BXP to convert an existing office into multifamily housing.
