A new housing option has opened up at the Halley Rise development in Reston.
After wrapping up construction last year, The Arbor at Halley Rise will celebrate its grand opening from noon to 3 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday), inviting current and possibly future residents to partake in food, drinks, lawn games and live entertainment as they get a look at the finished building.
Located at 11990 Heafield Way, the eight-story, 480-unit apartment building was designed to encourage a “wellness-focused lifestyle that feels like home,” the Arbor marketing consultant Jenn Coursen says.
“From natural materials and light-filled spaces to amenities like a tranquility room, resort-style pool and fitness centers, everything at The Arbor was really designed to help residents feel grounded and recharged,” Coursen told FFXnow in an interview earlier this week. “… So, our grand opening is really a celebration of that lifestyle.”
A joint venture between Akridge and The Meridian Group, the developer behind The Boro in Tysons, the Arbor started construction in July 2022 as the second residential block in Halley Rise, a 36-acre, mixed-use development emerging south of the Reston Town Center Metro station.
The first residential building, the Edmund, opened at 2025 Fulton Place in 2021, delivering 353 apartments and 100,000 square feet of retail space anchored by Wegmans.
With rental prices starting at $2,077 per month, the Arbor offers a mix of one, two and three-bedroom floor plans that range in size from 542 to 1,728 square feet. It includes 72 workforce dwelling units (WDUs) set aside for households earning up to 70%, 80% or 100% of Fairfax County’s area median income.
Private amenities for residents include a swimming pool, an indoor/outdoor terrace for “fireside gatherings,” a fitness center with a yoga studio, and a pet spa, according to the property’s website.
The building also has 8,660 square feet of retail space, a portion of which has already been filled by Panera Bread. The optometry clinic Visual Health is currently building out an adjacent, 1,370-square-foot suite, but two other tenants are still being determined.
“We love the warm, fresh-baked bread smells coming out [from Panera] through the retail space, so we really think it’s a great, great amenity to have for the residents and for Halley Rise as a whole,” Akridge Vice President of Development Kevin Dunmire said.
Halley Rise’s proximity to both the Metro station and wooded, more traditionally suburban neighborhoods is key to its appeal, according to Coursen and Dunmire.
Dunmire describes the Arbor specifically and the development more generally as a “sanctuary,” pointing to both nearby walking trails and on-site amenities like the Farm at Halley Rise, the Apex Fitness Park and a dog park next to an existing office building.
“We feel like one of the things that sets us apart is that rare mix of green space and Metro accessibility, where you can enjoy peaceful surroundings without giving up convenience,” Coursen said.
Led by Brookfield Properties, Halley Rise was originally approved by Fairfax County in 2018 under the name Reston Crescent. When fully constructed, the development will have 1,600 residential units, 1.9 million square feet of office space, 240,000 square feet of retail, and approximately 5 acres of public parks and green space.
The bowling and bocce bar Pinstripes reportedly signed a deal for a 20,000-square-foot venue back in 2019, and there was also talk of a movie theater from the chain Cinépolis, but it’s unclear whether either of those businesses are still in the works.
Coursen and Dunmire directed questions about future developments at Halley Rise to Brookfield, which didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
A site plan shows two more residential buildings and four additional office buildings, including one made out of timber that was previously expected to move forward in 2022 but, so far, remains only conceptual.
Just over five years after its initial groundbreaking in early 2020, the neighborhood is “definitely maturing,” Dunmire observed, with the completion of the Arbor bringing Brookfield’s “grand vision” one step closer to a reality.
“We are excited about what’s to come, absolutely, which is why we ultimately got into Halley Rise at the start,” he said.
