Residential building with self-storage facility approved for Tysons’ The Mile

As work on one building in The Mile wraps up, another building planned for the Tysons development has gotten Fairfax County’s approval to proceed.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission gave its unanimous support on Wednesday (May 11) to the final development plan for The Charlton, a 400-unit, midrise residential building that will have retail on the ground floor and a self-storage facility at its core.

The inclusion of the 150,000 square feet of self-storage space stems from a collaboration between developers KETTLER and PS Business Parks and the company Public Storage, an affiliate of PS Business.

Public Storage and PS Business Parks, which owns the 3.8-acre property on Westbranch Drive, believe there is “a large market” for self-storage in Tysons, Walsh Colucci land-use planner Elizabeth Baker said as the developers’ legal representative.

“[Residents] can go down and sit in that old chair that they can’t fit into their unit but that they still love, so that’s great,” Dranesville District Commissioner John Ulfelder said. “I think that’s a great idea.”

Totaling approximately 563,000 square feet in size, The Charlton will contain 400,000 square feet of residential space and 13,500 square feet of retail. It could range in height from five to eight stories, or 70 to 90 feet.

Mary Ann Tsai with the county’s planning staff noted that the approved plan includes a condition giving the developers “flexibility” to turn designated amenity space into additional retail.

The developer will construct three internal streets around the building, with Rowling Street to the north, Blyton Street to the east, and The Mile Avenue on the south side.

The project will also provide a 7,595-square-foot segment of the planned Tysons Community Circuit on The Mile Avenue, multiple courtyards and “parklets,” and a trail connection from Blyton to a 28,000-square-foot interim park that will eventually be replaced by the 5-acre, publicly accessible Signature Park at the center of The Mile.

The plan allows for up to 676 parking spaces, including a curbside drop-off space and two street spaces that PS Business Parks has committed to making compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The accessibility of the public storage, which won’t be limited to building residents, was a key focus for the developer, according to Baker.

“We worked hard with staff on how to address access to that, how to hide the look of it but still make it accessible for people, and I think we did a pretty good job on that,” she said.

The Charlton will be the third building in The Mile, joining the Highgate and The Brentford apartments. Baker told the planning commission that construction on The Brentford — started in 2020 — has been completed, though the building’s website indicates that it won’t open until this fall.

Approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 2019, The Mile will deliver 13 buildings and 3 million square feet of development, transforming 38.8 acres of land northeast of Tysons Galleria that was once occupied by the Westpark Business Park.