RTC West: A Project Primer for the Future

Just what is RTC West and where at the Reston Town Center will it be located?

That’s a question Reston Now got a lot on Tuesday, when it posted that Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant will be the first tenant at the 40,000-square-foot retail-and-restaurant destination.

A few basics:

RTC West is being developed by JBG Companies.

RTC West is NOT at the town center. RTC West will be built where three office buildings and a parking garage currently stand at Sunset Hills Road and Town Center Parkway. It is also bordered by the W & OD Trail and the Sunset Hills area that contains Chick-fil-A, Potbelly Sandwich Works, Chipotle and more.

JBG’s plan, which was approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors last week, will mostly add the retail space to the first two floors of the office buildings.

JBG says it plans to convert 15,100 square feet of office space to retail/restaurant space and add 25,000 square feet of new retail/restaurant space (on the southwest corner of the site), including outdoor seating.

The addition of RTC West brings amenities closer to where the Reston Town Center Metro stop will eventually open in 2018 or early 2019. While the Silver Line stop is called Reston Town Center, it actually will be located in the center of the Dulles Access Road just west of Reston Parkway.

That means pedestrians will have to walk about a quarter-mile from the station to the town center. Now they can walk through RTC West — or have a destination such as Cooper’s Hawk or other restaurants and shopping — closer to public transportation.

JBG had to agree to make transportation and pedestrian improvements, so look for walkways and crosswalks to be added to the the W & OD Trail and Town Center Parkway entrances of the development.

See the entire Fairfax County Planning Commission staff report on project on the Fairfax County Planning website.