Akridge pitches additional residential development at Halley Rise

Halley Rise, the mixed-use development currently taking shape next to the impending Reston Town Center Metro station, could become even larger in scope.

As first reported by the Washington Business Journal, the real estate developer Akridge has submitted plans to Fairfax County that would introduce an additional 480 residential units and 9,250 square feet of ground-floor retail space to the 36-acre complex.

Located along Reston Parkway, the new development would join 1,500 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of office space, and 250,000 square feet of retail planned for Halley Rise by Brookfield Properties, which has been managing the $1.4 billion project.

According to a final development plan that Fairfax County’s planning staff accepted for consideration on April 14, Akridge’s parcel of Halley Rise would total 526,000 square feet with the vast majority of space devoted to residential uses.

The application states that the proposed “Block C” development would consist of two distinct buildings with a shared base and a nearly half-acre, elevated courtyard “with a variety of amenities.”

The larger eastern tower would wrap around an interior parking garage that would serve both residents and workers in an existing, adjacent office building. The development’s retail would be located on the ground floor of the smaller western tower.

Akridge says it plans to build condominiums in the western building “to provide opportunities for home ownership and appeal to a broader community,” but it still “reserves the right to operate this building as a rental apartment community,” citing “uncertainty” in the housing market.

In its conceptual designs, Akridge has proposed maximum heights of eight floors and 85 feet for both towers.

“Implementation of Block C will create residential opportunities and contribute to the necessary “critical mass” so that the mixed-use vision established by Halley Rise will be successful,” Wire Gill land use lawyer David Gill said in the application. “Our proposed implementation of that vision will not only enhance the Reston community overall but also support the larger street grid, existing office and larger community goals established by the governing approval.”

The Washington Business Journal reported that a subsidiary of Brookfield Properties still owns the 4.3-acre Block C site.

“Unfortunately I don’t have any information I can share with you at this point,” an Akridge spokesperson told Reston Now when asked why the developer wanted to get involved with the Halley Rise project.

Reston Now also contacted Brookfield for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

Brookfield broke ground on the first phase of Halley Rise in October 2019, an occasion that also saw the deployment of self-driving vehicles on the property. Anchored by Wegmans, the first phase will introduce 450,000 square feet of new office space, 640 residential units, 200,000 square feet of retail, and two parks.

Brookfield told Reston Now in October that it was still on track to open the first phase of residential units in early 2022, with the Wegmans grocery store following later that year. The first offices are scheduled to be delivered in mid-2023.

The overall project is not expected to be completed until 2026.