The planned redevelopment of Lake Fairfax Business Park into a large residential development is on track for consideration by Fairfax County officials this fall.
EYA Development provided a presentation on the proposed redevelopment to the Board of Directors of the Reston Association on July 23. The business park is at 1780 Business Center Drive, off the Dulles Access Road and near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station. It has several office buildings, a Lifetime Fitness gym, Homewood Suites hotel, Reston Montessori School and a data center.
The company is asking the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to rezone about 49 acres of the 88-acre property from industrial use to planned residential mixed-use development.
The proposed two-phase development would have 1,017 residential units and 27,900 square feet of retail and amenity space. The residential would be spread across 385 multifamily units in one building, 132 condominiums in three buildings, 289 traditional townhouses and 211 stacked townhouses.
The gym, hotel, school and data center are not part of the rezoning but are part of a pending comprehensive plan amendment covering the entire property. The amendment to the plan, a guiding document for the Board of Supervisors’ land-use decisions, would open up the whole property to mixed-use development. The Fairfax County Planning Commission voted to recommend the plan amendment on July 16.
Mark Looney, a partner at Cooley representing the developer, said the business park is “kind of a ghost town.” Six of the seven existing office buildings that will be replaced are 100% vacant and the seventh is 40% vacant with a lease expiring next year.
Looney said as part of the extension of Metro’s Silver Line, Fairfax County encouraged office development near the train tracks to make walkable areas. Housing financier Fannie Mae used to be a large tenant at the business park, but departed several years ago for a consolidated space closer to the Metro.
“By virtue of putting office development closer to transit you’ve encouraged office users who are not near transit to move to those locations,” he said.
The developer would provide 12.5% of for-sale units as affordable housing, including a portion designated as workforce housing for those making between 60% and 80% of the area median income. Fairfax County’s AMI for 2025 was $163,900 for a household of four people, as calculated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The comprehensive plan amendment is scheduled for a hearing at the Board of Supervisors on Aug. 25. The rezoning will be heard by the Planning Commission on Sept. 23 and is expected to be presented to the board in October.
