Once expected to be demolished in 2025, the vacant office buildings at 1831 and 1861 Wiehle Avenue in Reston are still standing almost half a year later, with not even a construction fence to signal their future demise.
Plans to redevelop the two parcels with a senior living facility and apartment buildings, including one anchored by The Fresh Market, have ground to a halt after developer Comstock Companies reportedly relinquished control of the properties.
Leased by Comstock for $60 million in 2022, the sites have now been returned to previous owner and prospective developer JBG Smith, DLA Piper commercial real estate attorney Brian Winterhalter told the Reston Planning & Zoning Committee on May 18.
“I have not yet talked to JBG about what their plans are for those buildings, and whether they’re going to develop them, wait, seek to develop something else and come back through the approval process,” Winterhalter said. “Frankly, I don’t know, but I only heard very recently that Comstock is no longer going to be the developer for those buildings.”
Winterhalter wasn’t speaking for or representing either developer, attending the committee meeting instead to present an update on home builder Pulte Group’s proposal to expand its nearby Lofts at Reston Station with new condominiums and townhouses.
However, the lack of movement on those sites — key pieces of the Midline District planned on the east side of Wiehle Avenue — came up as committee members and residents expressed exasperation with the state of Reston Station Blvd, particularly gaps in its pedestrian network.
“It seems like a lot of what we were thinking about this area was contingent on the fact that it would actually be walkable, and without being able to walk to get groceries and other things, it’s great that you’re near a Metro, but it doesn’t actually serve you day to day,” Reston P&Z Committee member Michelle Kimmel said, adding that she was “deeply concerned” by the Midline project stalling.
JBG Smith declined to comment, and Comstock didn’t respond to an inquiry by press time. When asked for an update on the Midline sites earlier this spring, a Comstock spokesperson advised FFXnow to look for its earnings report on the first quarter of 2026.
Released on May 14, the presentation for investors still lists the Midline District as part of Comstock’s development pipeline, with a total of 1.2 million square feet of mixed uses, including 1,100 residential units, slated to be delivered in 2028. However, it doesn’t provide details on specific buildings in the development, and the timeline is unchanged from the previous quarter.
Comstock did share that BLVD Haley — its 419-unit apartment tower in the Row at Reston Station — is on track to be fully delivered this quarter, which continues through June. The building’s retail tenants will include an indoor golf simulator venue from the Back Nine Golf.
The Fresh Market, which announced in 2024 that it would open stores in Reston and Falls Church “within the next three years,” said it had no updates on the Reston location’s timeline or how its plans might be affected by the change in developer.
Comstock announced in August 2022 that it had acquired long-term control of the properties at 1831 and 1861 Wiehle Avenue through ground leases set to last until 2121, the Washington Business Journal reported. JBG Smith retained ownership of the sites, which it purchased for $18 million in 2005 and $19.5 million in 2017, respectively, per Fairfax County property records.
At the time, Comstock said it intended to start construction in 2023 on an independent living facility and apartment buildings in accordance with the Midline development plans concocted by JBG and fellow developer EYA. An office building on the 1861 Wiehle Avenue block was put on hold.
Approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in December 2018, the plan sought to replace four low-rise office buildings with 1,058 residential units, 259,845 square feet of office space and 251,150 square feet of ground-floor retail across four blocks totaling 17.5 acres east of Wiehle.
However, the developer submitted a revised plan to the county in January 2025, requesting an option to provide age-restricted apartments at 1831 Wiehle as an alternative to the approved independent living facility.
Approved on Aug. 26, the application didn’t change the general design or density of the future building, which would be eight stories tall with 127 homes for people 55 and older — including 33 assisted living units — and 25,000 square feet of retail space. The block could also include a 325-unit apartment building under a site plan submitted back in 2023.
As a condition of the approval, Comstock agreed to provide funding for a high-visibility crosswalk at the Wiehle Avenue and Reston Station Blvd intersection — but its obligations to provide sidewalks don’t kick in until development on the properties gets underway, Winterhalter explained to the Reston P&Z Committee.
“That’s really the heart of the issue … up and down Reston Station Blvd where there are missing sections of sidewalk,” he said. “If the development is the one providing the sidewalk in the streetscape, if the development hasn’t happened yet, then the sidewalk’s not there. It’s not a great condition. I totally get that. But at least that’s the reason for it.”
According to Winterhalter, rising costs for inflation, labor and construction materials mean “it’s very hard to build a multifamily building in Fairfax County right now,” echoing an assertion raised by developers in the area with increasing frequency.
Winterhalter noted that developer EYA has completed townhouses on its Midline block, but construction has yet to start on a planned apartment building.
Committee members recognized that some of the road and transportation issues reported by residents of the Lofts and other complexes are out of developer Pulte’s control. But they questioned the lack of initiative on the part of Fairfax County.
“Brian is taking the heat for the crappy planning that gets us across Wiehle, which is not within the purview of Pulte, and he can’t fix that. But then it appears nobody else can either,” Lofts resident Barry Steinberg said. “Zoning can’t fix it, planning can’t fix it, transportation can’t fix it. Everybody has kicked this thing down the road for at least four years that I know of, and I know the problem has been there for at least seven years. Enough is enough. It is time for the county at some point — some leadership — to take charge of this issue.”
Adam Rubinstein, the vice president and treasurer for the Lofts I condo association board, suggested the county should’ve built the entire sidewalk on Reston Station Blvd itself and then charged developers for the cost of their section as construction emerges on each parcel, rather than waiting for developers to do it themselves.
“I think this is a good example, in my opinion, of planning that could’ve been done better by Fairfax County,” he said.
Fairfax County Planning Commissioner John Carter, whose Hunter Mill District includes Reston, did offer one piece of promising news: EYA anticipates starting construction on its apartment building on the north side of Reston Station Blvd by the end of this year, filling in one of the missing sidewalk links.
A public relations representative for EYA confirmed to FFXnow that “construction is planned to begin by end of 2026.” The building will have 227 residential units and 5,000 square feet of retail.
According to Carter, money for a crosswalk across Wiehle has been secured, but “springing that loose is difficult when you have a developer already assigned to it.”
He acknowledged that there have been issues with some past development approvals, including for the original Lofts — ones that the county hopes to learn from and correct moving forward.
“Projects along long roads like Reston Station Blvd happen over time,” Carter said. “We reserve the right to get smarter as we go and there were mistakes along the way. It’s not okay, but we’ll just make sure we don’t keep making the same ones.”
