The Fairfax County Planning Commission will wait until next month before deciding what the future holds for the former American Press Institute Building on Sunrise Valley Drive.
The building, designed by noted architect Marcel Breuer, is an example of Brutalist design that should be given historical designation, some say. Others are of the opinion that it is an office building that has been sitting empty for more than four years and is ripe for redevelopment.
Sekas Homes is looking to rezone the 4.6-acres of land from industrial to residential in order to build 34 townhouses and 10 condominiums at 11690 Sunrise Valley Dr. A county staff report recommends approval of the application.
A public hearing was held earlier this month. Planning commission members will tour the building on June 2 and on June 16 will either recommend or deny the plan for approval. Read More
To some, the former American Press Institute headquarters on Sunrise Valley Drive is a vacant office building on a nice wooded lot. To others, it is a shining example of Mid-Century modernism and should possibly be included in the National Register of Historic Places.
Fairfax County and Commonwealth of Virginia Architecture experts have written to Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova asking for a last-minute reconsideration of Sekas Homes’ rezoning application for the property.
Sekas Homes application will go before the Fairfax County Planning Commission Thursday night.
Sekas is looking to rezone the 4.6-acres of land from industrial to residential in order to build 34 townhouses and 10 condominiums at 11690 Sunrise Valley Dr. A county staff report recommends approval of the application. Read More
Several concerned citizens — as well as members of the county Architectural Review Board — want Fairfax County to take another look at the historical significance of the former American Press Institute Building in Reston before giving the go-ahead for a residential neighborhood to be constructed there.
Developer Sekas is looking to rezone the 4.6-acres of land from industrial to residential in order to build 34 townhouses and 10 condominiums at 11690 Sunrise Valley Dr.
The Brutalist-style building, designed by noted architect Marcel Breuer housed the API from 1974 until API merged with the Newspaper Association of America in 2012. The building has been vacant since.
The Fairfax County Architectural Review Board will hold a meeting on the subject at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Fairfax County Government Center in Fairfax.
A large swath of land close to the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station may join the growing list of development projects in Reston.
According to the Washington Business Journal, Fraser Forbes Real Estate Services is marketing 23-acres south of the Dulles Toll Road to potential developers.
The land currently houses a collection of low-rise office buildings on and around Association Drive off of Sunrise Valley to Wiehle Avenue and backing to the Toll Road.
The area owned by eight different property owners, the WBJ reports. Fraser Forbes is marketing the site as the potential for up to 3 million square feet of mixed-use development.
“This group had been interested in doing something for a couple of years, it’s just taken this long for it to come together,” Fraser Forbes CEO Rich Samit told the WBJ.
“We ultimately don’t know what the specific mix will be, but we have a pretty big canvas to work with and ultimately it’s what’s in the eye of the beholder — it’s going to be market driven.”
Samit estimates the combined properties will sell for in excess of $100 million.
Samit said the site has a range of potential development scenarios, including as a town center with several hundred thousand square feet of retail and a variety of for-sale housing, office or potentially hotel uses.
An extension of Soapstone Drive is planned to eventually pass right through Association Drive. This will offer an additional crossing of the toll road and alleviate traffic on Reston Parkway, Wiehle Avenue and other main roads. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved the project in 2014, but it is many years away from being built. A community update meeting is planned for June 15.
Other planned projects nearby along Sunrise Valley include turning an office park at Sunrise Valley and Commerce Park Drive near the Metro Station’s south entrance into 500 residential units, a 175-room hotel, 400,000-square-feet of office and office and ground-floor retail.
Also on the docket: Sekas Homes‘ plan to turn the former American Press Institute buildings into townhomes; JBG’s expansion of Reston Heights; Lincoln at Commerce Park, which plans a 260-unit residential building on the same stretch of Sunrise Valley; and 49 urban-style townhouses at 11720 Sunrise Valley Dr. across from Reston National Golf Course.
In looking for ways to fund about $2.6 billion in transportation improvements in Reston, there has been talk among officials of creating a special tax district to cover some of the costs.
At a community meeting Wednesday, Fairfax County Department of Transportation officials said that idea is still on the table — but only for residents and businesses in developments within the Reston’s transit area. Transit areas are considered within one-quarter of a mile or less from Metro Stations at Wiehle-Reston East and (in 2o2o) Reston Town Center.
The Reston Network Analysis Group (RNAG) and FCDOT mentioned in February the possibility of taxing all of Reston or all of Special Tax District 5 (the Reston area that is already paying annually to fund the Reston Community Center). That idea has been discarded, FCDOT says.
The transit areas are expected to see the greatest level of development — and will need the most street grid, lane additions and traffic signals, among other improvements — as Reston grows over the next three decades.
FCDOT’s Janet Nguyen says $1.34 billion in transportation projects will likely come from shared public and private contributions. That money would go for road widening, intersection improvements, the Soapstone overpass, and an Dulles Toll Road underpass near Reston Town Center, among other projects. Read More
Two vacant spaces at Plaza America are deep into the renovation process and plan openings this summer.
The sign for MOD Pizza recently was installed — along with a wood-burning pizza oven and other fixtures — at the space at 11642 Plaza America. MOD Pizza signed a lease for the location, formerly occupied by Vie de France, last October.
MOD Pizza is a Seattle-based franchise founded in 2008. It opened its first Washington, D.C.-area store earlier this year in Silver Spring, part of fast growth that the company founders hope will be 100 stores by 2016. Another Northern Virginia store is planned for Gainesville.
The restaurant is a fast-casual concept. Customers choose from a variety of speciality pizzas or create their own. The pizza is ready in about five minutes. Pizzas start at $7.47.
The usual toppings such as pepperoni, cheese and sausage are available, but so are hot buffalo sauce, siracha, feta and arugula.
Over at the other end of the plaza, Brown Bag is hiring for its new location at 11692 Plaza America. Brown Bag, a local fast-casual chainlet, signed a lease this winter for the space formerly occupied by Salaadworks, which closed last year.
Brown Bag started in Bethesda in 2002. It still has a location there, as well as franchises in Arlington and several stores in DC.
Brown Bag says on its website it takes pride in:
- Local artisan bakers producing multi-grain breads
- Produce from local farms, when in season
- All-natural dairy products
- Hormone-free, all-natural meats
- No trans-fats or processed ingredients
- Fresh squeezed juices
- Locally roasted coffee
- Homemade soups & dressings
On its website, Brown Bag founder Erich Fuldner calls Brown Bag “the anti-sub shop.”
Brown Bag said in a press release its plans to open the Reston store “this summer.”
The plans for Reston’s tallest building now include an outdoor rooftop terrace, where visitors and office residents will be able to see (on a clear day) from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the D.C. skyline. Plans also include a seventh-floor outdoor park with a potential bocce court.
These are some of the changes that RTC Partnership and Akridge are proposing as the plans for 1760 Reston Parkway, a 23-story office building set to be Reston’s tallest structure, head back to the Fairfax County Planning Commission this week.
The rooftop terrace is planned as an amenity for tenants of the building. It will be surrounded by a 35-foot tall glass screen wall with an opening on the west side to shield the space from strong winds; it will be constructed of aluminum and steel supports and clear glass.
The terrace will include outdoor seating; a trellis structure on the west side of the rooftop to provide shade for outdoor seating; an enclosed event space serviced with restroom and pantry facilities; and a 2,500-square-foot vegetated green roof. Read More
The owners of Tall Oaks Village Center set up in the center’s empty anchor space on Tuesday to present both a market analysis of why no grocery store will be returning to Tall Oaks and what owners Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG) have planned instead.
JAG has been planning mostly residential development at the nearly empty center since it purchased it in 2015. Community input to JAG’s plans was not well received in spring 2015, when it showed renderings of residential developments with limited retail (first 3,000 square feet, then 7,000 square feet) to citizens. Citizens also criticized lack of green space for the site.
What JAG plans now is essentially the same amount of housing — about 150 residences, which will be a mix of condos and townhouses.
However, an independent Fairfax County review of the retail analysis says the neighborhood could support up to 8,500 square feet of service and retail. JAG says it will acquire an additional existing office building to develop into service/retail.
Meanwhile, Bignell Watkins Hasser Architects have prepared a pretty cool animated 3D flyover tour of new Tall Oaks. Check it out below.
JAG also envisions well-planned outdoor space to give Tall Oaks a community feel, which was the original goal when Reston’s village center’s were planned. The plans include grassy areas, an outdoor terraced amphitheater area, benches, a children’s play area, and outdoor exercise stations.
The plans do not include an anchor store. The study presented Tuesday showed nearby competition and poor visibility means a grocery store — even a speciality one such as MOM’s Organic Market or Trader Joe’s — would not thrive on the site.
The 25,000-square-foot anchor site, which was the home of Giant Foods from 1974 to 2007, has been empty since Compare Foods (an international grocery) left in 2011. It has led to further vacancies at the 70,000-square-foot center.
Another high rise may soon be part of the Wiehle-Reston East skyline — and this one is also may cast a shadow on one of Reston’s Golf Courses.
Golf Course Overlook LLC has filed a rezoning application with Fairfax County seeking to convert a three-acre parcel wedged between Sunset Hills Road and a corner of the private golf club. The site, northwest of the W&OD Trail, is about one-third of a mile from the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station and currently is Golf Course Plaza, a 45-year old, three-story office building with surface parking.
Developers would need to change the zoning from I-5 (General Industrial) and RE (Residential Estate) zones to Planned Residential Mixed-Use to proceed with the plans for a single high rise with 413 residential units.
Plans call for replacing the office building and surface parking lot at 11480 Sunset Hills Rd. with an approximately 392,600-square foot building with three levels of underground parking.
“The property’s location, adjacent to the private Hidden Creek Country Club and Washington and Old Dominion (‘W&OD’) Trail, provides a unique opportunity for a residential use in the Wiehle-Reston East Transit Station Area,” the application says. “It will allow natural views across the attractive golf course and immediate access to the W&OD Trail for both recreation and access to the Metro Station.”
The property is part of Isaac Newton Square, an aging low-rise office park that is considered to be Reston’s next big area for transformation. This is the first application filed for Isaac Newton Square, which currently has allowed densities of up to a 2.0, which is relatively low density. The new project would seek much higher density due to its location close to the Metro.
It is also one of several rezoning or development applications surrounding Reston’ golf courses. While a years-long zoning appeal to change public course Reston National has been shelved for now, there are plans for major development (API building, Association Drive, Commerce Park, VY) along Sunrise Valley across the street from Reston National, which ultimately will be located in between Wiehle-Reston East and the future Reston Town Center Metro.
This is the first application that plans to build near Hidden Creek’s property, but is part of several development projects along Sunset Hills and Wiehle (1831 Wiehle, The Aperture, Michael Faraday). Read More
For more than a year, Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG) has been brainstorming what to do with Reston’s Tall Oaks Village Center, which it purchased in 2014.
JAG wants to build mostly residential on the land at Wiehle Avenue and North Shore Drive. Many Tall Oaks-area residents are still hopeful for the return of retail, which has essentially died over the last decade. The 70,000-square-foot center has been without an anchor grocery for five years — and a majority of the smaller retail spaces remain empty too.
JAG said in May of 2015 that large retail was untenable at Tall Oaks. Then it commissioned a consultants’ report, which was presented Tuesday night and echoed that analysis.
The study by national real estate consultants RCLCO says no grocery will work at the 42-year-old village center. Not traditional (i.e., Giant or Safeway), not speciality (i.e. MOM’s Organic Market) and not a Trader Joe’s. (RCLCO looked at all three).
“The conclusions are a grocery store is not supportable,” said RCLCO’s Len Bogorad, speaking to the community in the chilly, dark and empty 25,000-square-foot grocery space for dramatic effect. “Without a grocery anchor, there is limited demand for other services as well.”
Bogorad said heavy competition from nearby grocery stores at North Point Village Center, the Spectrum, Plaza America and other centers, combined with limited access and visibility for Tall Oaks mean the center could support about 7,500 square feet of retail. That number is, not coincidentally, nearly the exact amount JAG was proposing in its most recent vision for Tall Oaks.
Barbara Byron of Fairfax County’s Office of Community Revitalization says the county had a third party review RCLCO’s findings. The review, by consultants RKG, said about the same thing — that Tall Oaks could support about 6,000 square feet of retail but could also support a bit more in services. RKG says there should be about 3,000 square feet of service-oriented businesses at Tall Oaks.
JAG took that into account when unveiling its latest proposal for the center. The newest draft keeps roughly the same number and layout of residences, but adds additional retail and service space in an existing office building for about 8,500 square feet (up 21 percent from the previous proposal). The new plan also adds 39 percent more green space.
The tweaked plan contains structured open space, including a small amphitheater, lawn areas, a public art/fountain feature and outdoor exercise stations geared toward senior citizens.
There are also plans for a children’s play area that will be “very Reston,” with natural materials, said Duncan Jones, JAG’s Director of Development & Investments.
Will Tall Oaks Village Center get another shot at being a retail destination?
Come to a community meeting Tuesday, May 10 to find out the results of a retail study — and whether it has any impact on Jefferson Apartment Group’s (JAG) plans for the ailing shopping center.
The meeting is at 7 p.m. in the vacant anchor store space at Tall Oaks.
The future of the village center has been been a development topic for more than a year and JAG’s proposal is now scheduled to go before the Fairfax County Planning Commission on June 23.
JAG purchased Tall Oaks in December of 2014. The group held a series of community meetings in the spring of 2015, where it initially outlined plans to turn the 70,0000-square-foot center into more than 100 multifamily units and townhomes and limited (about 3,000 square feet) of retail.
Tall Oaks’s 25,000-square-foot anchor space, occupied for years by Giant Foods and then briefly by two international grocery stores, has been vacant for more than five years.
At a meeting last year, Tall Oaks representatives said at community meetings in spring of 2015 that Tall Oaks’ current retail space — which went from 90 percent occupied in 2007 to 13 percent in 2015 — was not viable.
They said they shopped the store vacancies, including grocery store space, to retailers but there was no interest.
That did not sit well with neighborhood residents, who said the center could work as retail if marketed properly. Reston Association also said in a letter to county officials last summer that the plan fell “woefully short” on retail and community space.
JAG then came back with a new proposal, which offered a reduction in the number of residences and doubled the planned retail space to 7,000 square feet.
Several Tall Oaks-area residents have said they would like to see a study done independent of the one JAG is conducting.
They have also said they would like to see about 10,000 square feet of retail, as well as more green space, on the site.
Graphic: Tall Oaks concept as of June 2015/Credit: JAG
On the docket at tonight’s Reston Planning and Zoning Committee: The idea to allow Reston’s high-density areas — and some residential areas — to become more populous.
Fairfax County has proposed an ordinance to establish a maximum FAR of 5.0 for Transit Station Areas and a maximum FAR of 4.0 for Commercial Revitalization Districts, (CRD), Commercial Revitalization Areas (CRA), and Community Business Centers (CBC).
It also wants to see residential areas increase from 1.5 FAR to 2.5 FAR if provisions for open space and affordable housing are put in place.
FAR stands for Floor-Area Ratio, a mark of density.
Representatives from Fairfax County’s Department of Planning and Zoning will attend tonight’s meeting at 7:30 p.m., at the North County Governmental Center, 1801 Cameron Glen Drive, Reston.
The Reston P & Z Committee does not have any real power in the approval process — that ultimately falls to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, which will hold a public hearing on the issue on June 21. But the Reston meeting is a good chance for those with Reston interests to hear more and ask questions. Read More
Developer Sekas Homes is seeking a zoning change in order to build townhomes and condos across from Reston National Golf Course.
But the proposed development would be the end of the former headquarters of the American Press Institute, a 42-year-old Brutalist-style office building that has been empty for several years.
If approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, the plan means tearing down the 48,200-square-foot building designed by noted modernist architect Marcel Breuer.
Sekas’ plan was in front of the Fairfax County Planning Commission on Thursday. The commission will make a decision May 26 on whether to recommend the project for approval to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
Seakas wants to rezone 4.6 acres from industrial use to residential in order to build 34 townhouses and 10 condos at Sunrise Valley Drive and Roland Clarke Place.
The residential development would be just east of Reston Heights, JBG’s mixed use development that features hotels, condos and offices.
Unlike many current Reston redevelopment proposals — which are high-rise multifamiliy buildings — this plan is a relatively small one as it is located more than one-half mile from Wiehle-Reston East and the future Reston Town Center Metro station.
According to a county staff report, the townhomes would be four stories tall with agarages on the lower level. Interior units would be about 1,170 square feet, while end units would be about 1,600 square feet.
St. Johns Wood Apartments near North Point might more than double in size in the next few years.
Developer Bozzuto has plans to turn the 250-unit garden apartment complex into 511 multi-family units and 51 townhomes.
Bozzuto and Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins will present a revised proposal for St. Johns Wood Apartments at a community meeting on Wednesday, May 4.
The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the Hunter Mill District Office, 1801 Cameron Glen Dr. in Reston.
St. Johns Wood’s 14.3 acres have been through a couple of changes since first plans were shown to community members more than a year ago.
Two Reston development projects were approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors last week.
IntegraCare’s independent and assisted living planned for the Hunters Woods area and a new Chick-fil-A restaurant for North Point Village Center have now cleared the final planning step and can proceed.
Here’s what’s being planned:
Senior Living: Pennsylvania-based IntegraCare plans to build a 230,000-square-foot complex at 2222 Colts Neck Rd., the site of the former United Christian Parish.
The 4.3-acre lot at 2222 Colts Neck was first approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for 210 senior housing units in 2007.
The building will be 230,000 square feet in two wings, one along Colts Neck and one along Reston Parkway. The estimated completion date is 2020.
IntegraCare plans to retain 91 of the 210 previously approved independent living units and to add 79 assisted living, 24 memory care, and 16 high-acuity assisted living/memory care rooms. Read More
