Another Tysons office building is set to be transformed into housing.
After a public hearing on Tuesday (March 19), the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a proposal to convert the three-story office building at 8221 Old Courthouse Road into 55 multi-family apartments, including six workforce dwelling units.
About 70% of the apartments will have one bedroom, but some two-bedroom units will also be provided, according to Walsh Colucci Lubeley & Walsh land use attorney Robert Brant, who represented the property owner and developer, a Dittmar Company affiliate, at the hearing.
While the existing 45,000-square-foot building will stay intact, the development will bring pedestrian and streetscape improvements to Old Courthouse and Lord Fairfax roads, including new sidewalks, landscaping and crosswalks at the intersection.
The plan replaces about 90 parking spaces with open space, including a publicly accessible, 7,840-square-foot pocket park and a private, 8,400-square-foot outdoor space for residents. Amenities available to the public will include 6-foot-wide walkways, pergolas, benches and bicycle racks, while the private space will provide movable seating, tables, grill stations and stormwater facilities, such as a rain garden.
“We were very focused on the green space, and I believe the homeowners or renters would want that as well,” Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik said of the county’s negotiations with the developer.
However, the trade-off of parking spots for green space has left some area residents concerned that traffic for the new apartments will spill into their neighborhoods and disrupt travel to and from nearby Freedom Hill Elementary School.
Dittmar agreed to retain 66 spaces in the existing parking lot and add striping for eight spaces on Lord Fairfax Road, meeting the county’s minimum requirement.
One homeowner’s association sent a letter to the board on Feb. 21 worrying that the apartment residents will compete for parking currently used by parents when dropping off and picking up their kids, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said.
At the public hearing, one resident whose daughter walks to Freedom Hill said she’s concerned about increased traffic and safety at the Old Courthouse/Lord Fairfax intersection. Claudia Stein, who lives on Lord Fairfax Road across from the site, urged the developer to keep at least 30 more parking spaces.
“There is always more demand for parking than anticipated,” Stein said. “The apartment residents and guests will be forced to park on the street in the neighborhood, which will take away parking from existing residents.”
Residents have also been advocating for the county to close a gap in the sidewalk on the west side of Lord Fairfax Road, Stein said. As a temporary measure, the gap has been filled with gravel, but vehicles sometimes park on the gravel, forcing students and other pedestrians into the road.
After confirming the location of the sidewalk gap, supervisors said they can’t compel the developer to address it, since it’s not on their property. Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik confirmed that her office will work with Stein to see what can be done by the county.
“It just seems like a great opportunity for our [department of transportation] to work with the property owner to maybe make an improvement in the future,” McKay said.
In response to the concerns about traffic, Brant told the board that shifting the property from office to housing will reduce parking demand and vehicle trips, which are projected to drop by 75% during the morning rush hour and 77% in the evening rush hour.
For some supervisors, the big sticking point was the developer’s commitment to only meeting the county’s minimum — 2% of parking spaces — for electric vehicle charging stations. That amounts to just two of the 66 provided spaces.
“I literally got sent an article yesterday about how electric vehicles and gas-powered cars are starting to level out in cost,” Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman said. “If you want this building to be good for residents 10 years down the line, you’re going to need more than 1.32 spaces, so please provide more.”
McKay suggested that the developer consider pre-wiring some spaces so they can support EV chargers “in the future if the demand is there.”
Dittmar is “willing” to look at providing more EV charging stations, Brant said.
“We’ve had discussions internally about how more and more electric vehicles are on the road these days,” Brant told the board. “More residents want that as an amenity, so there’s a chance that, once we get into the construction phase of this, there will be an opportunity to add more. So, that’s something the applicant will consider.”
An official proposal is on the table to redevelop an office complex adjacent to the Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library with townhouses.
The owner of 7600 Leesburg Pike submitted plans to Fairfax County on Friday (March 15) for a 165-unit townhouse development that would replace the existing 4-story office buildings. Built in 1986, the 230,620-square-foot property’s current tenants include Westgate Realty Group, Oak Hill Montessori and Standard Healthcare Services’ College of Nursing.
Townhouses would provide a more compatible transition between Route 7 and the single-family homes to the rear than the “more intense office use,” the application argues.
“The Applicant’s proposal is characterized by high-quality site design,” Walsh Colucci land use agent Lynne Strobel wrote in a statement of justification for the property owner. “…The proposed building will be consistent in character and scale with the various residential developments in the surrounding community.”
Sandwiched between the library and Saint Luke’s Methodist Church, the roughly 10-acre site in Pimmit Hills is already envisioned as a future residential development in Fairfax County’s comprehensive plan, but an increase in density is needed to accommodate the property owner’s proposal.
Requested by the developer Elm Street Communities in 2022, a plan amendment to allow 12 to 16 dwelling units per acre — which would yield 122 to 162 townhomes — will be reviewed by the county in conjunction with the new rezoning application.
Right now, the county recommends a density of five to eight units per acre. The increase would result in a development similar to the Tysons Ridge townhouses now under construction on the other side of the church building.
The proposed development will consist of 55 “traditional” single-family townhouses along the north and west perimeter and 110 stacked, two-over-two, multi-family townhomes.
In the statement of justification dated March 1, Strobel notes that the developer will provide recreational amenities, including common open spaces that will be publicly accessible and an extension of a shared-use trail.
The development plan shows four urban parks totaling more than 33,000 square feet in size, or 0.77 acres, and featuring a playground, a dog park, a pickleball court, open play areas and seating or gathering spaces.
“These open spaces will be highly visible and easily accessible by walking and/or biking,” the plan says. “They will be fully landscaped with a consistent aesthetic to create a sense of community identity. These spaces will consist of high quality materials…and will provide varied opportunities for socializing, small-scale recreation, passive activities, and future connectivity with the larger residential community and surrounding neighborhoods.”
Each residence will also have a private yard, according to the application.
As part of the project, the developer intends to extend Kilgore Road through the site to Leesburg Pike, constructing one 10-foot-wide travel lane in each direction.
Another office building in the sprawling Westfields section of Chantilly is being targeted for redevelopment as housing.
Developer Network Realty Partners wants to replace a vacant office building at 14101 Newbrook Drive and some of the adjacent office building’s parking lot with 109 single-family townhouses and two multi-family condominium buildings, according to a rezoning application submitted to Fairfax County on Friday (March 8).
The adjacent office building at 14200 Park Meadow Drive, whose tenants include homebuilder Stanley Martin’s Northern Virginia office, and enough parking to exceed the required minimum amount of spaces will be retained.
According to a statement of justification for the application, the proposed “Newbrook Park” development will further the “goals of creating an overall mixed-use 24/7 environment in the Westfields International Business Park,” as laid out in the county’s comprehensive plan for the Dulles Suburban Center.
“The Applicant’s proposal will replace an obsolete office building that has been vacant for multiple years, along with acres of excess impervious surface parking, with an integrated community of single family attached and multifamily dwellings,” the application said. “This proposal will implement the vision of increased residential use in Westfields…and with the varied unit sizes, will target the missing middle population of the County.”
Built in 1999, the 69,679-square-foot office building on Newbrook Drive “has been vacant for multiple years,” according to Network Realty Partners, which submitted the application under the names NRP Corporate Point Acquisition LLC and NRP Park Meadow Acquisition LCC.
County records indicate that the 166,380-square-foot Park Meadow Drive building is even older, having been constructed in 1989.
Both sites were part of the Westfields development plan originally approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1985, which zoned about 1,027 acres to mostly industrial districts. Known in the comprehensive plan as “Land Unit J,” the area is primarily developed with offices, but portions have been carved out over the years and rezoned for housing or other uses.
Stanley Martin built the Stonebrook at Westfields condos to the north, for instance, and construction is underway on the once-controversial Boulevards townhouses and condos to the southwest. A proposal to replace the nearby Park East Corporate Center with housing is under county review.
A total of 2,474 residential units have been approved in Land Unit J, which has a recommended ceiling of 5,500 units, per the comprehensive plan. Read More
A Chantilly office has landed AT&T for a rare full-building lease.
In late February, the telecommunications company signed a lease for 111,000 square foot at 4807 Stonecroft Blvd, part of the Westfields International Center at Dulles office park. It will take over the building in 2025 under a long-term lease, building manager Stream Realty Partners announced on Feb. 29.
“We are excited to welcome AT&T to Stonecroft IV and into our regional portfolio,” said Max Sanford, a partner at Menlo Equities, which owns the building. “Their decision to lease the entire building reaffirms the strength of the property’s offerings and its strategic location, and we look forward to their long-term occupancy in the building.”
The building includes new amenities like a fitness center, lounge, upgraded lobby and conference center.
The move comes as AT&T consolidates its Virginia offices, according to Bisnow. Plans for mixed-use development on the company’s longtime corporate campus at 3033 Chain Bridge Road in Oakton are already in the works.
Here’s more from Bisnow on how Stream Realty Partners landed the lease:
The telecommunications giant is consolidating from multiple Virginia offices, including 3033 Chain Bridge Road in Oakton, Stream Realty co-Managing Director Jeff Roman told Bisnow. Its Oakton building is slated for a 1.5M SF redevelopment from EYA and Carlyle Group.
The 4807 Stonecroft building had been occupied by Northrop Grumman starting in 2008, but the defense contractor vacated a few years ago, said Roman, who leases the building along with Stream Executive Vice President Malcolm Schweiker.
After Northrop Grumman left, then-owner Franklin Street Properties Corp. worked with the Stream brokers to secure an agreement with another defense contractor, Roman said, declining to name that firm. Franklin Street renovated the building as part of the effort to bring in that tenant, but the company decided not to proceed with the deal due to pandemic-related shifts, Roman said.
Franklin Street sold Stonecroft IV and another Chantilly building to Menlo Equities in November 2021 for $40 million. The Stonecroft building was vacant at the time, according to the Washington Business Journal.
Stream Realty Partners also touted the building’s location for providing “unparalleled connectivity” to government operations, including the CIA and FBI.
“This whole building lease represents another great office success in Westfields and continues to show commercial resilience in the Westfields community,” Westfields Center said in a statement welcoming AT&T.
Photo via Google Maps
The architecture consulting firm that helped design Capital One Center’s baseball stadium now has a base of its own in Tysons.
Little Diversified Architectural Consulting moved into a new office in Pinnacle Towers (1753 Pinnacle Drive) at the end of February, a spokesperson for the national company announced on Feb. 29.
Located in Suite 1100, the 7,500-square-foot space is hosting the firm’s 37 D.C.-area workers, who were previously split between offices in Arlington and Sterling.
“This move marks a significant milestone, allowing our growing team to collaborate more closely, innovate together, and better serve our clients,” Little marketing and business development manager Lillian Parker said.
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, where it was founded in 1964, Little now has more than 400 employees across five offices in the U.S., including ones in California, Florida and a second North Carolina location in Durham.
The company’s D.C. area office was located at 4245 Fairfax Drive in Arlington, but then, it acquired the Sterling-based firm Hughes Group Architects in May 2023. The new Tysons office is roughly 500 square feet smaller than the Arlington space, according to Parker.
Little provides architecture, site design, planning, marketing and engineering services. Its projects in Fairfax County have included Capital One Park, which kicked off its second season last month, and Herndon High School, according to its website.
Little’s arrival comes at an uncertain time for the office market in Tysons. A market study released last year by the Tysons Community Alliance found that foot traffic remained below pre-pandemic levels, and vacancy rates had climbed to 20% in 2023.
In mid-February, one of the area’s most prominent tenants, the media publisher Gannett, moved out of its longtime headquarters at Valo Park, announcing that it will relocate its corporate base to New York City while maintaining a D.C. news bureau for USA Today.
Though not in Tysons, another design firm — Land Design Consultants — announced last fall that it would open a second Northern Virginia office in Dunn Loring. About 20 employees were expected to move into the 4,000-square-foot space this past January.
Newspaper publisher Gannett has left its longtime home in Tysons.
The media company behind USA Today and hundreds of local news outlets across the U.S. moved out of its headquarters at Valo Park (7950 Jones Branch Drive) in February, setting the stage for a relocation to New York City.
In its latest annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gannett said it has leased an approximately 24,000-square-foot space in New York City that will serve as its new corporate headquarters, starting March 31.
However, the journalists and other staff at USA Today’s now-shuttered newsroom in Tysons will work remotely or out of its existing D.C. bureau, which will be maintained, according to Gannett.
“We’re embracing our flexible working model by investing more in our people and technology — rather than real estate,” a Gannett spokesperson told FFXnow. “We remain firmly committed to the sustainable future of journalism as we adapt to a progressively digital world.”
Some USA Today workers commemorated the closure of their newsroom in social media posts. Senior reporter Mike Snider reflected on buying a home in the area when Gannett moved to Tysons, as news staff gathered to “toast the building” on Feb. 15, a day before they had to clear out the office where he’d worked for more than 22 years.
In a Jan. 27 Instagram reel, newly hired visual editor Alexa Julianaard shared a recap of her first and only week working at the building, describing the office’s emptiness as “a little bittersweet.”
“I think it’s really cool how they’re embracing remote work,” she said in the reel.
Founded in 1906, Gannett operates approximately 340 news outlets that cover 220 different communities in the U.S., along with the U.K.-based subsidiary Newsquest. Including USA Today, the company employs around 3,200 journalists, according to its SEC report.
Though Gannett is the country’s biggest newspaper publisher in terms of circulation, hundreds of unionized journalists walked out in a one-day strike last June, criticizing a 2019 merger with GateHouse Media that they said had left the company burdened in debt and created “news deserts,” the New York Times reported.
The company built its corporate headquarters at Valo Park in 2001, opening two office towers on a 30-acre campus that included a jogging path, a fitness center, athletic facilities and a helipad.
As advertising and circulation rates declined in the early 2010s, Gannett started shedding some of its office space through sub-leases, the Washington Business Journal reported in 2013. Rumors that the company was looking to sell its headquarters came to fruition in 2015, when the London-based real estate investment company agreed to buy the site for $270 million, per the WBJ.
Around that same time, Gannett split up its media publishing and digital/broadcast operations. Tegna, the spin-off company created to house the digital and broadcast operations, including the local news channel WUSA9, is still headquartered in Tysons at 8350 Broad Street in The Boro.
According to the SEC report, Gannett is still leasing approximately 176,000 square feet at Valo Park under a deal that won’t expire until October 2030. Broker CBRE lists 83,651 square feet — the entire second floor — as available for sub-leasing.
A plan to redevelop two vacant office buildings on Worldgate Drive in Herndon is barreling towards official approval.
At a meeting on Monday (Feb. 26), the Herndon Planning Commission unanimously approved the redevelopment plan for 13100 and 13150 Worldgate Drive.
The developer, AM Worldgate Owner, intends to turn the existing office buildings into multi-family, stacked and townhouse residences. According to plans submitted to the town, the redevelopment would include 460 dwelling units.
A Fairfax County Fire Marshall review of a new entrance off of Worldgate Drive is pending but expected to wrap up before the Herndon Town Council reviews the application, town staff said in a memo.
The nearly 10.5-acre property is located on the north side of Worldgate Drive, east of Elden Street, west of Wilshire Lane and south of Chandon Park.
Staff and the planning commission worked with the developer to iron out concerns with the design of the new secondary access point called Road A. Ultimately, a new curb cut on Worldgate Drive, west of Wiltshire Lane, was proposed. Exiting traffic will be limited to right turns onto Worldgate Drive.
“These conversions are a bit quirky,” said land use attorney Ken Wire, the applicant’s representative. He noted that the developer expects to receive the final approval on the zoning map amendment application from the fire marshall soon.
The proposal was approved with little discussion.
“We’ve gone over this quite thoroughly in my opinion,” Planning Commission Vice Chair George Burke said.
Fairfax County will launch a new phase of public engagement next month on four potential development projects in Reston.
With Reston’s new comprehensive plan in place, county staff began reviewing several amendments proposed by developers last year. Submitted in 2022 as part of the county’s Site-Specific Plan Amendments (SSPA) process, most of the applications focus on bringing housing to areas previously contemplated for office uses.
Four of the applications will be discussed at an initial community meeting on Monday, March 4 at 7 p.m. at South Lakes High School (11400 South Lakes Drive).
Reston Corner
The application for Reston Corner seeks add a residential option to 12001, 12003 and 12005 Sunrise Valley Drive — a 14-acre office park south of Reston Town Center. The proposal would shift some of the site’s planned office uses into housing.
“All office uses are not the size to afford ‘Reston Town Center rents’ and having a diversity of office buildings and rental rates supports the county’s and Reston’s economic objectives, tenants, users and smaller businesses,” the application said.
Roland Clarke Place
Similarly, at 1950 Roland Clarke Place, the developer wants to replace a 1970s-era office building with a “multifamily residential building with structured parking that incorporates a meaningful indoor public facility and outdoor public open space,” potentially including pickleball and tennis courts or an elevated walking track.
Adjacent to The Point at Reston apartments, the site was already envisioned as the second phase of a mostly residential development, but that had to be dropped because the county’s comprehensive plan currently requires any redevelopment to be 75% residential and 25% non-residential.
The new Reston Comprehensive Plan adopted in September maintains that split but allows public amenities to count toward the non-residential component.
“The residential building will complement the existing neighborhood and the public use component will help complete the existing neighborhood by bringing much needed amenities to the residents in both the adjacent apartment building and surrounding townhouse developments,” representatives for the property owner wrote in the application.
Samuel Morse Drive
An application from the developer Pulte Homes proposes residential uses at 1810, 1825, and 1850 Samuel Morse Drive and 11111 Sunset Hills Road. The application seeks to replace three existing, “outdated” office buildings with single-family attached and multi-family residential units.
“Although the property has good pedestrian access to the Metro Station, it is a real challenge for the existing office buildings to compete with newer, larger office buildings at the Metro station that provide better amenities, better visibility, more usable office space configurations and easier access to Metro for office employees,” Pulte said in its proposal.
Roger Bacon Drive
At 11260 Roger Bacon Drive, the developer is seeking the county’s permission to increase the density of a planned residential mixed-use project, which would replace an existing five-story building. The proposed plan amendment includes a grid of streets linking Roger Bacon Drive, Michael Faraday Court and Lake Fairfax Business Center.
Image via Google Maps
Social media giant TikTok appears to be eyeing space in Herndon.
Fairfax County’s land use database shows that the video-sharing service has applied for a permit at 13641 Sunrise Valley Drive near the Innovation Center Metro station.
The application was accepted by the county on Feb. 8 to allow commercial additions and alterations for a new tenant layout, but it’s unclear how much square footage the company will lease or what function the space will serve.
TikTok didn’t return multiple requests for comment from FFXnow. The applicant address listed on county permits is for the company’s California office at 5800 Bristol Parkway in Culver City, according to documents reviewed by FFXnow.
The company originated in 2016 when ByteDance, a Chinese technology company, launched the video-sharing platform Douyin. After success in China and Thailand, the company expanded in 2018 under the brand TikTok, which has since become one of the world’s most dominant social media apps.
In recent years, TikTok has come under scrutiny in the U.S. for its Chinese ties, which have raised national security issues, and its possible effects on children and teens. The company’s CEO and other social media leaders testified before Congress on Jan. 31, as federal lawmakers consider privacy, safety and content regulations.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has prohibited TikTok on state government devices, and he advocated for a ban on the platform for kids under 18.
This is not the first time that permits by TikTok have surfaced in the county’s database. Last year, a permit application for an interior tenant fit-out at 1900 Reston Metro Plaza was submitted in August but then quickly voided.
At the time, the company didn’t respond to comment requests from FFXnow. A representative for Comstock, the developer that owns the property, told FFXnow there was “no deal in progress at Reston Station” for TikTok.
TikTok established its global headquarters in Singapore and Culver City in 2020. Its owner, ByteDance, also has offices in the Seattle area, New York City, Chicago and D.C., among other U.S. cities.
Image via Google Maps
Global cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks Inc. will lease one of Boston Properties’ new office towers in Reston Town Center.
The company — which currently leases space at RTC West (12110 Sunset Hills Road) — plans to occupy 58,000 square feet of space at a 20-story office tower in Reston Town Center, the Washington Business Journal reported.
The new lease was signed on Jan. 12 for 58,000 square feet in the tower at 1950 Opportunity Way — one of two office buildings built in Boston Properties’ nearly 5-million-square-foot expansion, just north of the Reston Town Center Metro station.
According to the WBJ, the building at 1950 Opportunity Way will be close to fully leased with the Palo Alto deal. Other tenants of the paired office towers, which total 1.1 million square feet of space, include Volkswagen and Fannie Mae.
In a quarterly earnings call in late January, Boston Properties Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Michael LaBell noted that Reston Town Center is 94% leased.
“Because it is such high quality kind of a live work play kind of place, and these clients really, really value that,” LaBell said during the call. “So we’re outperforming from a rental rate perspective, and we’re seeing positive absorption there.”
LaBelle told investors that Reston Town Center had signed a “60,000 square foot new lease with a technology company” that’s relocating but didn’t name the tenant.
Originally approved by Fairfax County in 2018, the Reston Town Center expansion is planned for 4.8 million square feet of development on a 33-acre site northwest of the Sunset Hills Road and Reston Parkway intersection. Skymark Reston Town Center, a 40-story residential building, is currently under construction.