An information technology contractor based in Reston has secured a new, larger headquarters office, even as its parent company works to finalize a recently announced merger with an IT startup in Tysons.
MetroStar Systems signed a lease last week for 37,844-square-feet of office space in the nine-story building at 12010 Sunset Hills Road in Reston Town Center.
The company, which mostly serves defense and national security customers in the federal government, is expected to move into its new Northern Virginia headquarters in the second quarter of 2027, replacing an existing, approximately 24,000-square-foot office at 1856 Old Reston Avenue.
“Fairfax County is where MetroStar’s story began, and Reston is where we grew, evolved, and blossomed into the company we are today,” MetroStar CEO Ali Reza Manouchehri said in an announcement of the lease. “As the merger of MetroStar and Steampunk is finalized, we’re excited to expand our regional, national, and global presence while continuing to call Reston home.”
Co-founded by Manouchehri in 1999, MetroStar now boasts more than 500 employees with headquarters in Reston and Bloomington, Indiana. It was acquired in late 2025 by the private equity firm Veritas Capital, which said it would invest “in talent, innovation, and capabilities to position MetroStar for sustained long-term success.”
Veritas announced on Aug. 4 that it has entered an agreement to acquire Steampunk Inc. and plans to merge the startup with MetroStar once the deal closes, likely in the third quarter of 2026.
According to the Washington Business Journal, MetroStar’s relocation was in the works prior to the merger announcement, and Veritas plans to retain Steampunk’s Tysons headquarters at 1753 Pinnacle Drive, Suite 900, allowing the new company to utilize both offices.
Manouchehri said in a statement that having more space for its headquarters will enable MetroStar “to expand our Design Studio and bring Design Intelligence and our Innovation Lab more deeply into the defense and intelligence communities.”
“Reston Town Center offers the environment, connectivity and energy to support this next phase of growth, bringing our people, customers, partners and expanding capabilities together,” he said.
The lease was negotiated by Reston Town Center developer and building owner BXP with the commercial real estate firm JLL representing MetroStar.
According to JLL’s research, defense and technology businesses have been leading the way when it comes to office leasing activity in Northern Virginia since early 2025, representing over 93% of new signings in the period since then and over 60% of activity in this year’s second quarter, which spanned April through June.
Increasing 13.5% over the quarterly average for the past three years, leasing activity in the region has been concentrated outside the Capital Beltway, particularly in the Dulles Toll Road corridor, in terms of both “demand and transaction volume,” JLL said in a second-quarter 2026 report.
Once MetroStar moves in, Reston Town Center’s 4.9 million square feet of office space will be 99% occupied, the WBJ reported, citing data from BXP.
“Ali and his leadership team set a high standard early in our relationship to find an office that would earn the MetroStar team’s time,” Jay Farmer, JLL’s brokerage executive managing director, said. “We searched across Northern Virginia weighing amenities, walkability and the day-to-day experience of the space against that standard. Reston Town Center perfectly met their needs, while allowing the company to remain just a few blocks from where they built their business.”
The success of Reston Town Center’s offices, even relatively older buildings, is at odds with a market that remains sluggish in some other parts of Fairfax County — including more suburban areas in Reston.
BXP even expanded the development with two new office buildings, among other additions, that were fully leased, as of January, and plans for another phase of construction with 930,000 square feet of office space were approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in November 2025.
