Once on track to break ground this year, the City Centre West mixed-use development now needs numerous changes to be financially viable, a representative for developer Ox Hill Companies recently told the Fairfax City Planning Commission.
Approved by the City Council in 2023, Ox Hill’s application for housing and retail on a 1.7-acre site of three lots from 10501 to 10523 Main Street was eventually closed by the city in September 2025 due to inactivity, despite two buildings having been demolished.
While a new land use application hasn’t been filed yet, an Oct. 12 pre-application briefing before the planning commission gave a window into the early stages of a reimagined proposal — one which would require a new rezoning approval from the city.
That new vision includes an increased number of condominium units from 79 to 85, reduced square footage for office space, and fewer parking spots. The potential project would retain a drive-thru bank, slightly increase the restaurant square footage, and provide 7,889 square feet of storage for residents.
“When this application was approved in the summer of 2023, when the applicant subsequently filed a site plan, market conditions were different, construction costs were lower, interest rates were lower,” Bob Brant, an attorney with the law firm Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley & Walsh, told commissioners.
While some of the specifics of the application are changing, “our intent with this application is really not to reinvent the wheel,” he said.
The proposed condo units are now smaller, and space for a medical office has been nixed. Just over 22,000 square feet of office space will remain for the bank, which wasn’t mentioned by name during the meeting, but Ox Hill has previously identified the future tenant as Truist Bank.
Despite the number of stories changing from eight to seven, the overall building height is now slightly taller than in the original proposal, increasing from 94 feet to 98.
A corner park located on adjacent land owned by Fairfax County has also now been removed from the project, given that the county has for the last few years been “reimagining its plans for the judicial complex,” Brant said.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in late 2024 approved a conceptual plan for the judicial center’s redevelopment, one that ultimately could, over decades, add four new office buildings, affordable housing and parks to the site at 4110 Chain Bridge Road, adjacent to the city.
When the county is further along with the redevelopment, it plans to install a pedestrian connection to Main Street, “right through the center of that corner piece, at the corner of West and Main,” Brant said.
“So, we felt that it’s more important at this point,” he concluded, “not to put something there that people fall in love with … only for Fairfax County to come forward at some point in the future, remove that plaza, and just install a pedestrian connection to Main Street.”
Fairfax City planning commissioners expressed disappointment at the loss of the park, given that it helped address some of the previously-raised concerns about having such a large building in close proximity to the historic courthouse.
The lack of specifics regarding affordable housing, especially in a high-end building anticipated to have shared maintenance costs among units, was also an issue for several commissioners.
“I know that the price point has changed since the original application came through for the units that were going to be there,” said Commissioner Paul Cunningham. “Is the price point now in a range that will allow — really allow — affordable units and the percentage that the city requires to be included in this area?”
Brant said Ox Hill would work with the city on meeting its affordable housing requirements, and acknowledged that, once the affordable units are sold, they will still be “subject to assessments” like the market-rate units.
“All of the unit owners will be required by covenant to share in those costs and share in those assessments,” he said.
Several commissioners also inquired about the overall viability of the project in the current economy. Noting that “rates have gone wild over the last six, eight weeks,” Commissioner Tassos McCarthy directly questioned if “this project, as submitted right here, [is] viable.”
“Everybody on our end of the table has every incentive to make this work,” Brant replied. “We believe in the city of Fairfax. Ox Hill firmly believes in the city of Fairfax, that this project itself can be very successful. They want nothing more than to get through this process and get it built and move on to other ideas that they have.”
The Fairfax City Council is scheduled to hold its own pre-application briefing on Ox Hill’s new City Centre West proposal at its meeting next Tuesday (Oct. 27).
