Union Station Shopping Concourse Gets a Facelift

While plans for improving access at Union Station's Main Hall advance, as do earthquake repairs and enhancements outside at Columbus Circle, managers of the retail spaces inside are also making some tweaks to the shopping and train concourse.

Jones Lang LaSalle, which manages the all the interior and exterior retail spaces for

Union Station -- is in the middle of a modest renovation along the easternmost concourse.

It will include new, brighter and more dramatic signage for retail tenants along the passenger concourse, as well as a new walkway to improve pedestrian traffic flow to the easternmost end of Union Station, which is home to a well-trafficked McDonalds but little else.

The renovated retail spaces will include what Jones Lang LaSalle calls "extensive use of glass to provide more visibility to other areas."

Already some changes have come to the passenger concourse. The post office and liquor store on the westernmost end have been moved, with the liquor store, popular among MARC riders, who are allowed to drink on trains -- moving downstairs to the food court.

In its place is Pret a Manger, which despite its French name is actually British. The chain, which has more than 30 locations in Manhattan, is following in the footsteps of other well-known New York-centric retail chains and now has five stores open in the District.

Lakewood, Colorado-based EinsteinNoah Restaurant Group, which owns Einstein Brothers Bagels and Noah's Bagels, and already has several stores in the Washington D.C. metro area, plans a store in the eastern part of the concourse. It will replace car rental counters that have been moved upstairs. Jones Lang LaSalle says the improvements to the concourse will be completed by late April.

Tysons Tower Tees Up

Tyson's Corner has a new office building. 1850 Towers Crescent, the newest addition to the office building refuge, adds new landmark for beltway drivers, with 295,000 s.f. in 13 stories and 14,451 s.f. of retail and restaurant space - all now looking for takers. Designed by SmithGroup, the structure features a south-facing brick facade opposite a curved glass curtainwall, maximizing natural light on its northern exposure and presenting its better side to south-bound travelers. DC-based Quadrangle Development Corporation touts the empty building as the only new corporate home to open in Tysons in 2009. Construction began in August of 2007 and achieved substantial completion in August of this year. Designers did not shoot for green certification on the building. 1850 Towers Crescent Plaza is the last of 4 office buildings designed for the complex, but plans for 3 residential buildings are being kept warm. The office park includes the iconic, Philip Johnson-designed office tower known to any Tysons visitor for its curved facade and slender, impractically-scaled columns meant as a nod to Jeffersonian design principles, but for which few people have much affection. Steven Cohen, Vice President and Project Manager at SmithGroup, says the biggest challenge in realizing the 10-year-old project plans was second-guessing the market. Given the cap on total development space for the project site, Quadrangle had to decide how much square footage to leave on the table for its three un-built residential components. Meshing with the existing fabric proved another obstacle. "There was the challenge of making it unique, especially trying to balance it against the Philip Johnson building; our charge to give it its own presence, but one that ties in nicely with the existing buildings. That's why we gave it two very distinct faces." said Cohen. County planners also prioritized the plan to integrate the site with the Tysons Corner mall, and work continues on a pedestrian bridge, nearly complete, that will link Towers Crescent with the mall via the top level of the parking garage and link, they point out, the Silver line metro when it opens "in 2013," providing a "pedestrian-oriented urban center." Interested corporate tenants should contact Jones Lang LaSalle, which is leasing the building, but did not return calls for this article.

Tysons Corner, Virginia real estate development news