Another Park Crest Residential Tower Going Up in Tysons Corner

The 14-acre development in Tysons Corner known as "Park Crest" will get another residential tower. Life insurance company Northwestern Mutual purchased the undeveloped portion of Park Crest earlier this year and construction is to begin on the 19-story, 300-unit apartment - "Two Park Crest" - next month.

The Penrose Group and Donohoe Companies are partners in the development of the Park Crest site, and continue to work with architect Lessard Design to make Two Park Crest a reality.

Two Park Crest will be the second tower built in the Park Crest development, and will be under construction soon, confirmed a project architect at Lessard Design (formerly Lessard Group, now without a website). Construction at the Two Park Crest site will join another parcel of Park Crest now under construction: a 5-story, 354-unit apartment "Avalon Park Crest" by AvalonBay, to deliver next July. AvalonBay purchased the 2.64-acre site for $13.3 million in 2010.

The entire Park Crest site lies on sloping terrain, and the change in elevation has lent itself to the creation of a "terraced waterpark" that will be incorporated into the Two Park Crest site, explained Priya Sambasivam, an associate principal at Lessard. The water feature will crisscross through greenery and drop 20-to-30' from start to finish. Other on-site features of Two Park Crest include an outdoor pool, a fitness room, a cyber cafe, a game room, an outdoor Bocce ball court, and a "small dog park." Sambasivam added that the tower lobby will be "a grand two-story atrium."

Two Park Crest will be architecturally sympathetic in scale and style (contemporary) to the first completed residential tower in Park Crest, the 18-story "Park Crest One Condominium," but feature a strikingly smooth glass curtain wall facade offset with vertical bands of brick - unlike the highly textured exterior of Park Crest One, with numerous bays and rounded corners.

The condo delivered in 2008, and Penrose retained majority ownership of the remainder of the property. The 335-unit condo is 86-percent sold out and priced between $350K and $1.5 million said Mark Gregg, President of The Penrose Group. The other completed component of Park Crest is "The Lofts at Park Crest," a 131-unit apartment (95-percent occupied) with Harris Teeter grocery. The Lofts were sold to Behringer Harvard REIT for $67.5 million in January of 2010.

Two Park Crest will soon become the sole high-rise apartment under construction in the Tysons area, explained Gregg. Likewise, in 2008, Park Crest One was the first "luxury" high-rise condominium built in Tysons Corner in over two decades.

A third residential tower, the site of which was also purchased by Northwestern Mutual, is currently in conceptual design phase by Lessard Design and will likely be rental apartments. When complete, the entire Park Crest development will contain over 1,300 residential units, a mix of apartments and condominiums (high-rise and loft).

Of Park Crest's greater locale, Fairfax County planners believe that "by 2050, Tysons Corner will be transformed into a walkable, sustainable, urban center that will be home to up to 100,000 residents and 200,000 jobs." It's quite the goal, but they have nearly 40 years, and four metro stations on the way in their favor.

Virginia real estate development news

Tysons Developers Plan 40 Acres Along Silver Line

Cityline Partners has filed a petition with Fairfax County to rezone Scotts Run Station into a 40-acre mixed use office, residential, hotel, and retail area as part of the Tysons Corner Comprehensive Plan, which incorporates a redesign of a low density project dominated by surface parking. The application was accepted by the county, indicating county planners have given the project an initial review, though numerous intensive public and administrative steps remain before final approval of the plan.

Cityline Partners LLC is a subsidiary of DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners of New York City' Cityline was formed in 2010 to manage the land holdings in Tysons Corner, which encompasses 114 acres and 22 buildings, the largest of the several gargantuan projects that will reshape Tysons as a more urban, gridded, walkable destination - if and when the plan is realized.

Located in the former Westgate Office Park, the area to be developed is flanked by Route 123, I-495 and the Dulles Access Road. The site is within a quarter mile of the proposed Metro station scheduled top open 2013.

"We dont want to turn this area into a concrete canyon," said Tom Fleury, Executive Vice President of Cityline Partners. "We're looking to develop the property into a transit-oriented, walkable, sustainable, mixed-use development with Scotts Run Stream Valley park as the focal point and natural amenity." The project will house eleven office buildings, nine residential buildings, one hotel, and ground level retail space. The entire project encompasses 8.5 million gross s.f. And while several other developers in Tysons Corner have projects nearly as large - 23 acres planned by Capital One and 28 acres planned by the Georgelas Group - each of the sites represents a only a potential for build out and none of the developers have plans to assemble anything close to the approved development in the near future. Once approved, the land could be sold along with the plans, or developed over years since the approvals do not expire. In this case spokesmen for the developer say the project will remain in the planning stage for the next few years, with initial construction forecast in 2013 when the Metro station is operable. Architects for the project have not yet been selected.

Tysons Corner real estate development news

Tysons Takes on Colossal Development Projects

Fairfax county has officially begun work today on the second of two projects that developers hope will constitute a monumental remake of the beltway suburb. Together, the real estate megaprojects will add two metro stations, millions of square feet of office, reshape the streets, and build untold condominiums and apartments on over 50 acres of land in central Tysons. County planners today "officially accepted" the Capital One application for study, and will now begin the long process evaluating the 23 acre development as they recently did for the Georgelas Group's "Tysonsdemo" project that will transform 28 acres over 3 sites in central Tysons. The two projects have more potential to change the face of Tysons than the sum of all other proposed projects combined, and County officials acknowledge that today they can move the process from the minutia of filing requirements to public consideration of its merits.

The Georgelas project was the first - possibly of many - accepted for consideration by the county under the auspices of the newly minted Comprehensive Plan, a restructured set of guidelines designed to move Tysons from its suburban inception to an urban grid. Tysons Planners have been meeting regularly with Capital One and Georgelas executives to hammer out a workable proposal, and today's technical acceptance of the Capital One plan moves the project to a full staff review with public comment periods. The staff will ultimately forward their recommendations for the two projects to the Board of Supervisors for judgment. The turning point, albeit a technical one, was welcomed not just by the sponsoring developers but by a county that has struggled for years to craft a metamorphic plan in what has been an urban planner's nightmare - wide, high-speed streets that isolate buildings and kill meaningful retail.

"Its a big deal in the sense that Capital One [and Georgelas] are the first projects that will begin to transform Tysons" said Brian Worthy, Public Information Officer for Fairfax. "Its very exciting that these proposals are taking advantage of the new plan," said Worthy. "Capital One’s application helps to advance the transformation of Tysons Corner into a walkable, livable urban center because it proposes high-density, mixed-used development near the Metro. This is exactly the kind of transit-oriented development that the plan to transform Tysons calls for." Capital One officials were unresponsive, but other participants in the process made it clear they thought the proposal had strong transformative potential. The site plan calls for 5 millions square feet in total development - 2.1 million s.f. of office space rising as high as 392 feet, a thousand or so residential units rising 20 stories, as well as hotels, parks, plazas and retail, all connected to what will be a brand new Tysons East Metro station. The design team includes Bonstra Haresign as Urban Planner and Architect and William H. Gordon Associates as Civil Engineer and Landscape Architect.

The Georgelas Group plans to redevelop 28 acres on three sites throughout central Tysons, with 14 buildings totaling more than 6 million square feet designed by WDG Architecture and Parker Rodriquez landscape architects. The plan includes office buildings that rise up to 360 feet, a Metro station and surrounding plaza, central "civic park", apartment buildings, and retail incorporated into parking garages at street level to mask their street presence topped with "sky parks."
Development will be balanced with civic areas and hotels that planners gauge will result in an overall presence of 65% office space and 20% residential usage. All office buildings will be designed for a LEED Silver ranking and for residences to earn general LEED certification, all designed to achieve "the urban aesthetic vision for Tysons."

Still, the proposal's impact is theoretical, as the plan must meander through the approval process, and Capital One has little inclination to start building right away, or even committing to a time frame for its first building. While it tentatively calls its 15-story office building adjacent to the current headquarters "the most likely to be constructed in the near term," it only promises to keep the plan as "an option...should the need arise." Similarly, attorneys for the Georgelas Group note that a full build-out "will take years perhaps decades" to complete even under the most optimistic scenario. Work will begin first around the new Tysons West Metro station with its tallest office building and possibly a condominium and retail element at the same time, but no timeframe is even hinted at in the planning documents. Cityline Partners and Mitre will likely precede the two with plans for a 340,000 s.f. office building likely to move more quickly through approval and into construction.

"We're at the start of a 40 year process," says Worthy, cautioning against expectations of a sudden transformation for Tysons. In fact some involved in the process see significant technical and practical hurdles in a vision that ties in Metro stations and extends streets while attempting a more cosmopolitan texture. "These guys will be guinea pigs for a brand new process," says one source familiar with negotiations, "all of this is too new to make any bets on how quickly it will proceed."

Tysons Corner real estate development news

Construction on Tysons Corner Apartment Building to Start Next Month

Tysons has it good these days. What was just a few years ago a distant, forgettable suburb with prohibitively wide streets that looked nothing like its urban neighbor to the east, now has the hope of a new comprehensive urban plan, a foursome of Metro stations on the way, and developers queuing up to build. The latest is AvalonBay, which paid the Penrose Group $13.3 million for just 2.64 acres of land on Westpark Drive and plans to start construction of a 354-unit apartment building next month.

The new Avalon Park Crest, as it will be called, follows on the heels of Capital One's application to create a gridded street system and multi-phase development on 23 acres at the Tysons Metro stations. With construction already approved by the county and designed by the Lessard Group of Tysons, the units are expected to be occupied in early 2012. Arlington- based AvalonBay will build, own, and operate the apartment building. AvalonBay will not seek LEED certification, but will incorporate "numerous" green features.

The site is now within Park Crest development that currently includes condos, apartments and a Harris Teeter grocery store, and already includes the 558-unit Avalon Crescent. Despite being an aggressive investor with 171 buildings and more than 50,000 units to its name, this is the first new community AvalonBay has built in the mid-Atlantic since 2005, though it has been planning another new community in Wheaton.

The building will hold a 2-1/2 level underground parking garage, wifi lounge, "ample" bicycle storage, and two private one-quarter acre courtyards with a pool, and outdoor cooking.

McLean, Virginia real estate development news

Capital One Proposes a Remake of Tysons Campus

Following on the heels of Fairfax County's plan to transform Tysons Corner from a beltway exit to a citified, walkable community, financial giant Capital One has filed new plans for its Tysons Corner development, embracing the shift by proposing to turn its planned office park into a mixed-use model of urban planning. Capital One ensured future value of the land when it donated 3 of its 29 acres for an upcoming Metrorail station expected to open in 2013, a move it now seems ready to take advantage of.
Capital One had been approved for a 4-building office park on the 26-acre site just inside the beltway that it bought in 2000, but has built only one tower; in its place the company has now designed a mix of offices, parks, retail, residential and public spaces for what might someday be a live-work-walk community. No definitive time frame has been established. Capital One acknowledges that the economic outlook doesn't yet justify much of the construction, saying it has "no immediate plans" to develop the site. But "should the need arise," the bank wants an approved model in place and has stretched out its implementation over years as the climate in both financial institutions and real estate world improve.

Consolidation of Capital One's headquarters began back in 2002, when it built a 14-story headquarters on its newly acquired site. But rather than build out the remaining 3 buildings with their combined 560,000 s.f. of space, despite finally nearing capacity with 1000 employees, McLean based Capital One proposes to build on the new Tysons redevelopment plan and take the campus "in an entirely different direction" with a daunting 5 million s.f. of development. If approved by the county, the "vibrant urban center" would hold 2.1m s.f. of office space rising up to 392 feet (though just 28 stories), 980 to 1230 residential units rising 20 stories, as well as hotels, parks, plazas and retail, all connected to the Tysons East Metro station.

Few others have opted to launch similar projects; Quadrangle Development delivered the only new office building in 2009 and has held back on its approved residential development. But Capital One may have at least something in their wallet, since it is proposing a 15-story office building adjacent to the current headquarters and connected by an elevated walkway. It calls the building "the most likely to be constructed in the near term." The streetscape will be entirely reconfigured in what it calls an "urban grid system." Because the site is within a quarter of a mile of the new Metro station, density limits are eliminated, giving the region perhaps its best chance at a building that sets a new record for the area's tallest, possibly exceeding, just barely, Rosslyn's planned 390-foot Central Place tower. Capital One's application to the county will shoot for the USGBC's green building certification on each of its buildings by using green or reflective roofs, rainwater retention systems, pervious pedestrian paths, and a preference of foot traffic over vehicular access. Despite the nod to sustainability, the development will extend Scotts Crossing Road over the beltway and connect to Jones Bridge Drive on the west side of I-495, better connecting the overly wide roads that criss-cross the area.
County officials would not estimate the time frame for evaluating the application, a process that would include public hearings and studies, and presumably a series concessions between the county and Capital One; officials say they have not yet given input on the development plan.

Architects and planners envisioning the urban context include Bonstra Haresign as Urban Planner and Architect and William H. Gordon Associates as Civil Engineer and Landscape Architect. David Haresign, then Principal and Director of Architecture for Ai, assisted Capital One with initial site selection and designed the original master plan and the headquarters building, now iconic to the beltway bound as a curving "billboard" facing Tysons with the financier's logo. Like its planned successors, the first tower employed infrastructural adaptations to environmentalism, such as water-reducing plumbing, underfloor air distribution systems, pervious paving and local sourcing of materials, features not yet common at its inception.

Fairfax County real estate development news

Transforming Tysons?

Fairfax planners want to flip the image you have of Tysons Corner on its head, transforming a commercial district with acres of traffic, where cars are a must, into a pedestrian friendly, mixed-use residential zone with less congestion and more public transit. In the most recent Tysons Corner Urban Center Draft Plan, planners detail how they will accomplish this makeover, hoping to piggyback on the four planned metro stops on the Silver Line that will fall within the Tysons environs. The plans are ambitious, but then the County is giving itself a forty year time frame for implementing these new strategies.

Today's Tysons has over 100,000 jobs but only 17,000 residents, which translates into Tysons' ubiquitous traffic. Planners hope that encouraging high density mixed-use development within walking distance of future metro stations will mean 100,000 residents and 200,000 jobs, or four jobs per household rather than the current ration of almost 6 to 1. Brian Worthy, Public Information Officer for Fairfax, said the goal is to "make [Tysons] a real place and not just a suburban office park."

The new proposed standards include maximum floor-area ratio (FAR) of 4.75 within one-eighth of a mile of the Metro stop and should be "developed primarily with multi-family housing." In the transit-oriented districts, planners recommend phasing the intensity, so developments from the one-eighth mark to the one-fourth mark will be allowed an FAR of 2.75 and those developments in the one-fourth to one-half mile mark a 2.0 FAR. The greater density closer to the metro would theoretically reduce car usage.

Slightly contentious elements of the draft plan are the proposed density bonuses for developers willing to build to LEED standards. Green bonuses come on top of more traditional bonuses for affordable housing or open public space. "For example, if a developer obtained a 20 percent density bonus for offering 20 percent affordable housing, the additional bonus for LEED certification would be for 10 percent of the resulting density cap, for a total bonus of 32 percent." Some think that's pretty dense - especially when you consider the initial 4.75 FAR. To put it in perspective in the"core area" of Tysons where you find Tysons Corner Center and Galleria at Tysons, the current FAR ranges from 1.0 to 1.65. But Worthy said "density really is the key incentive for development." Worthy added the community has been involved from the beginning in the vision and planning process; the public has had and will continue to have ample opportunity to give feedback on the plan.

To deal with the congestion and car-laden roads, planners suggest reworking superblocks to create a grid system with more streets and to improve connections to major transitways. The draft also recommends creating a new circulator system and local bus routes to serve the Tysons area. The plan suggests creating multi-modal hubs near the metro stations that offer car sharing, bike storage and bus service to allow residents to get to and from their destinations without cars. Just last month the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors authorized the Department of Transportation to apply for a grant from the Federal Transit Administration to support an Urban Circulator Program.

At next week's Planning Commission, Tysons Committee meeting staff will present the Draft Zoning Ordinance Amendment and the Tysons Task Force will provide comments on the Draft Plan Amendment. The public will have two opportunities to comment on the plan, on March 11th and 17th. Worthy said tentatively the Board of Supervisors could approve the plan as soon as this spring. From that point, "it's up to the developers and the market to take advantage of the opportunities" available in Tysons.

Tysons Corner real estate development news

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

JBG Plots a Mixed-Use Future in Tysons

Though commercial and retail development within the District has ground to a standstill, the reinvention of Virginia suburb of Tysons Corner is proceeding, at least on paper. In the wake of large scale projects such as BF Saul's Park Place II and Quadrangle Development's Towers Crescent, a JBG Companies subsidiary - JBG Rosenfeld Retail (JBGR) - intends to develop a sprawling 7-acre mixed-use development in an area that hosts not only the nation’s tenth largest mall, but its twelfth largest business district as well.

Dubbed the Tysons West Promenade, JBGR has taken on MV+A Architects to re-conceptualize the former Moore Hummer/Cadillac dealership at 8595 Leesburg Pike – directly across from the Tysons mall and less a thousand feet from the planned Tysons West Metro (now scheduled - in pencil - for a 2013 grand opening). Following demolition of the showroom and single-story structures currently on site, the multi-phase development will kick off with new construction in the form of a 250,000 square feet of retail and office complex, along with a pedestrian plaza and 1150 parking spaces. The only remnant of the site’s gas-guzzling past is to be the dealership’s 6-story parking garage, which JBGR plans to retain.

Phase I of development only scratches the surface of the development team’s vision for the property; current plans for a future second phase call for another million square feet of office, residential and hotel development. James J. Garibaldi, Jr., a Principal with JBGR, told Fairfax County’s Tysons Land Use Task Force in May that the “the site offers a remarkable opportunity for redevelopment into a pedestrian friendly, mixed-use, transit-oriented development in keeping with the goals and planning principles espoused by the [County].”

That redevelopment, however, will have to wait as JBGR reformulates their Promenade site plan. According to Brian Worthy of the Fairfax County Office of Public Affairs:

"The developer...had submitted a site plan to the County. That site plan was recently disapproved...because of concerns about grading along Route 7 not conforming with the work that's going to be happening there in anticipation of Metro. There were also some issues about how they were going to preserve trees on site and nearby...but the developer may be resubmitting their plan."

JBGR representatives declined DCmud's requests for comment on the current status of the project. Enquiring minds, however, will be able to investigate the developer’s plans for themselves this May 17^th through 20^th at RECon: the Global Real Estate Convention in Las Vegas, where the team will be showcasing a scale model of the Promenade.

Tyson's Developer Thinks Condos

With its fourth high-rise approaching completion, the Towers Crescent office park in Tyson's Corner is finally a reality. Now the developer behind the project, the Quadrangle Development Corporation (QDC), is testing the waters for an additional three buildings that would add upwards of 900 residential units to Fairfax County, while re-branding Tyson's as a place to live and not just the site of the nation's tenth largest mall. "The County has been seeking to encourage more residential development at the center of Tyson's Center - making it more of a 'live, work, play' 24-hour environment," says George Boteler, who oversees leasing operations for Quadrangle. "Right now, there's over a 100,000 people who work in Tyson's Corner; only about 17,000 live there. The County is anxious to increase that, as a way of combating congestion."

The three planned buildings would include between 750-919 units, for a total of 919,000 square feet, and stand next to their cubicle-filled brethren along the Towers Crescent Drive – a stone’s throw away from the Tyson’s shopping complex. The buildings - 1860, 1870 and 1880 Towers Crescent Drive (pictured) – would receive a significant marketing boost once they complete their planned pedestrian overpass. Designers hope a bridge over Fashion Boulevard will provide an infrastructural link between the development and their more than 300 neighboring shops and restaurants, and help in changing the perception of Tyson’s as one of the most unfriendly and perilous neighborhoods for pedestrians in the metro area, if not the universe. The McLean office of Davis Carter Scott is handling designs for the project.

Originally, the entire Towers Crescent project had been envisioned as office space; that changed in late 2007, when Fairfax County allowed the developer to substitute the aforementioned residential units in place of 300,000 square feet of office space. "It was a three for one density bonus - three square of feet of residential for one square foot of commercial," says Boteler. "The development of even more mixed-use project was viewed as beneficial." It was a logical adjustment, but one that was immediately followed by the housing market's shift from boom to bust. Nonetheless, Quadrangle is still dedicated to getting towers five, six and seven in the ground in the near future. Says Boteler: "The market will dictate [our timetable], depending on how long it takes to work through the overhang of condominiums on the market today. We're ready to start on design and development on the buildings, so whenever the market shows signs of life [we'll begin]...The plan is to build it regardless of whether it starts as apartments or condominiums, but to build it to a condominium standard."

If Towers Crescent's prime location adjacent to the mall is any indication, they shouldn't have trouble dealing with either of those options. In the coming weeks, months and years, the site will be on the receiving end of two huge boons to the Tyson's area: WMATA’s addition of a Tyson’s Corner Metro station – planned for completion in 2013 – and the Hilton Hotel Corporation’s relocation down the block to competing office development, BF Saul’s Park Place II. Delays aside, Quadrangle may have real estate's three guiding principles - location, location, location - in check for quite some time.

Tysons Corner commercial real estate news

Tysons to Convert Current Sprawl into Urban "City Center"

Having driven through the maze of roads and stores spread across the Tysons Corner landscape (roughly the area surrounding Routes 7 and 123 just west of the Capital Beltway in Fairfax County), any concept of corralling this retail and office-heavy sprawl and one day making it a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban center would be met with polite skepticism. However, this is exactly what Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors envisions, based on the Board’s passage this week of a proposal that would surround the Tysons Corner Center mall with a "ring" of eight 30-story towers (four residential, four office) containing over 1,400 residential units (124 to be affordable housing), 1.4 million sf of office space, and a 300-room hotel. The 3.5 million-sf project, proposed by the Macerich Co. (owners of the 300-store mall), would double the existing size of the mall area and hopefully create a small, vibrant city, with the ring of towers providing a "town center" of sorts with the mall at the center. Plans also call for all parking to be placed underground, allowing for the creating of plazas and an ice rink. With the planned extension of a Metrorail line stop at Tysons mall in 2012, the proposal could turn Tysons into a close-in commuter city, as well as provide residential space for those working in this area. This project is scheduled to break ground in 2008, and be completed around 2020 assuming everything proceeds according to plan.