Two items on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ agenda for Tuesday may mean the end of two structures that have stood in Reston for more than 40 years.

Jefferson Apartment Group’s (JAG) application to raze most of Tall Oaks Village Center and turn it into a mostly residential neighborhood will have a public hearing at the supervisors’ meeting (Fairfax County Government Center) at 3:30 p.m.

JAG’s plan for 156 homes (townhomes, 2-over-2 townhomes and multifamily units), 8,500 square feet of retail space and about 6,000 square feet of office was recommended for approval by the Fairfax County Planing Commission last week.

If the Board of Supervisors approved JAG’s plan it will be the first time an original Reston Village Center will essentially disappear.

Tall Oaks thrived in Reston’s early days, but as the community expanded, so did retail options. The center has been failing since Giant Foods left in 2007. The center is now only 13 percent occupied and other anchor stores have no interest in opening at the center, JAG reps have said.

The retail planned for the new Tall Oaks will be neighborhood-serving small shops such as fast food, coffee shops, and dry cleaning, though many residents are still lobbying for at least a small food store. Read More

The Fairfax County Planning Commission unanimously recommended for approval on Thursday Jefferson Apartment Group’s plans to redevelop Tall Oaks Village Center.

The planning commission held a public hearing on JAG’s plans for 156 homes, 8,500 square feet of retail space and about 6,000 square feet of office space last week. However, the commission deferred a decision until last week so some development conditions and contributions could be met.

One of the conditions: Reston Association’s request for money to improve the Tall Oaks Pool, which is across North Shore Drive from the village center.

RA CEO Cate Fulkerson said last week that JAG should contribute for ADA (Americans With Disability Act) accessibility upgrades; improvements to the parking lot; the addition of bike racks; and improvements to the underpass that connects Tall Oaks to the pool area.

Mark Looney, land use attorney representing JAG, said Thursday the developer has agreed to give RA $20,000 for pool improvements. He also said the developer has agreed to new conditions regarding school contributions and traffic improvements. Read More

After a lengthy public hearing on Thursday, the Fairfax County Planning Commission voted to defer decision on Tall Oaks’ Village Center’s redevelopment until next week.

The main issues are development conditions that the county staff has recommended but to which developer Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG) has not agreed. Reston Association, meanwhile, wants JAG to pay for specific improvements to the nearby Tall Oaks Pool.

After more than a year and 42 meetings with the county, RA and the community, JAG plans to redevelop the mostly empty village center into 156 residences (44 townhomes; 42 two-over-two townhomes and 70 multi-family units in two buildings); 5,809 square feet of office; and 8,584 square feet of retail.

In the 15 months since first presenting its plan to residents — many of whom were upset that the village center would morph from retail to mostly residential — JAG has made changes. Among them: adding green space; more than doubling the amount of its retail proposal; adding a community gathering place,  and recreational amenities such as outdoor fitness stations for senior citizens and a children’s play area that incorporates natural elements.

RA CEO Cate Fulkerson called out those amenities in her testimony to to the planning commission on Thursday.

“This plan is not ready for your approval,” she told the board. “It does not address leisure and recreation facilities for 156 new families. … The applicant only provides recreation facilities for young children and older adults.”

Fulkerson said RA has asked JAG for contributions for improvements to the Tall Oaks Pool, which is located across North Shore Drive from the new development. Fulkerson said the pool needs ADA (Americans With Disability Act) accessibility upgrades, improvements to the parking lot, the addition of bike racks, and improvements to the underpass that connects Tall Oaks to the pool area.

“Thus far, the applicant has not agreed to assist with the improvements,” she said.

Mark Looney, the land use attorney representing JAG, said the purchase of an office building at Tall Oaks (where additional retail will be located) was a financial stretch for the developer. JAG cannot commit the money at this time, but is open to more conversation with RA about future improvements, he said.

The 156 households at the new Tall Oaks will be RA members and will eventually add more than $100,000 annually in RA assessments, he added. Read More

July was supposed to be a big month for Reston development and redevelopment applications, with about a half dozen scheduled for public hearings and other review by the Fairfax County Planning Commission.

Many of those have been postponed at the developers’ request. This often happens in the summer months.

Here is a look at what is on the docket and what’s been moved forward a few months:

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — The church goes before the Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals on Wednesday, July 13 at 9 a.m. The church is seeking to permit for a place of worship on land zoned residential at Hunter Mill and Crowell Roads.

Tall Oaks Village Center — As previously reported by Reston Now, The Jefferson Apartment Group’s plans to redevelop the mostly vacant retail center into 156 homes and 8,500 square feet of retail has a public hearing on Thursday, July 14 at 8:15 p.m. Read about it in this previous story and also check out the planning staff report. Read More

The Jefferson Apartment Group is finally ready to move forward with its plans for redevelopment of Tall Oaks Village Center.

After more than a year of community meetings — and a few compromises — JAG’s plan has a public hearing date with the Fairfax County Planning Commission on July 14.

JAG bought the ailing village center in December of 2014. It is planning to build 156 residences (44 townhomes; 42 two-over-two townhomes and 70 multi-family units in two buildings); 5,809 square feet of office; and 8,584 square feet of retail.

JAG’s plan has changed several times since it first began envisioning the transformation of the property in early 2015. The first plan had about 3,000-square-feet of retail. It then expanded to 7,000 square feet, and finally, more than 8,000.

What the plan won’t include — an anchor grocery store. JAG says it has done several studies that show no grocery stores want to lease in that location. The 25,000-square-foot Giant left a decade ago, and two international grocers have since failed. The demise of the anchor space (since 2011) is part of the reason the village center is now mostly empty, JAG officials say.

However, some community members say poor center management pushed grocers out and a store would thrive if located there.

Read More

Just 18 months after closing his longtime Tall Oaks Village Center restaurant and relocating to Herndon, former El Manantial owner Humberto Fuentes has closed his newer restaurant, Europa.

Fuentes operated El Manantial at Tall Oaks for 11 years, bringing a high-end Mediterranean restaurant to the center. He closed El Manantial in the fall of 2014.

Fuentes told Reston Now in 2014 that he signed a five-year lease, rather than a 10-year lease, in 2009, when he noticed that Tall Oaks was losing much of its vibrancy and tenants.

“I realized this center is not going to get any better,” he said. “I want to operate in a better location.”

Fuentes then leased space on Station Street in downtown Herndon and opened under a new name.

Fuentes said early on that “business is better here than in Reston.” Locally owned Europa received mixed, but mostly positive, reviews from customers.

Europa closed on April 30, Fuentes said.

Meanwhile, Tall Oaks’ future as a retail center looks to be limited. Owners Jefferson Apartment Group will present its plan for a new residential with about 8,500 square feet of convenience retail/restaurant, to the Fairfax County Planning Commission July 14.

Photo: Europa Restaurant/Courtesy Europa

Reston Association Lake Anne/Tall Oaks Director Sherri Hebert says the community should move on from the idea that extensive retail will return to Tall Oaks Village Center.

Tall Oaks owners, Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG) showed the community a third version of its redevelopment plan this week. The plan calls for about 150 townhomes and condos, with a parklike entry, public art, a children’s play area and exercise stations.

JAG also plans about 8,500 square feet of retail and services, up from about 3,000 and 7,000 in previous versions. It does not include plans for an anchor grocery store, which a recent market analysis said would not thrive in that spot. The current grocery anchor space has been empty since 2011. 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.

It’s been five years since a store occupied the 25,000-square-foot grocery store space at Tall Oaks Village Center.

Giant Foods was in residence from the center’s founding in 1974 until 2007. In the following four years, two international groceries gave it a go, but came and went pretty quickly. Compare Foods, the last tenant, left in March of 2011.

The Jefferson Apartment Group purchased Tall Oaks for $14 million in late 2014. The developer has plans to tear down the strip center and redevelop it as residences (townhouses and condos) with 8,500 square feet of service and retail.

JAG reps say a recent consultants’ study, reviewed by the county, shows that no grocery store will thrive at Tall Oaks because of severe nearby competition (Whole Foods, Giant, Safeway, Harris Teeter and future Balducci’s) and lack of road visibility.

JAG held a community meeting in the store space on Tuesday. With no heat or light, the old bones of the place are far from historic. With all store accoutrements stripped away, what’s left is rust, dust, must, and for Tall Oaks-area residents, memories.

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.

Read More

The future of Tall Oaks Village Center is back open for discussion.

Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins and The Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG) are holding a community meeting May 10 to share a revised proposal for the ailing Village Center, which has been mostly vacant for several years.

The meeting is 7 to 9 p.m. at Tall Oaks, 12040 North Shore Drive,.

The future of the village center has been been a development topic for more than a year and the new proposal is 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 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.

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.

JAG representatives said in February they would also conduct a market study examining the area’s retail viability. The results of that study are expected to be available at the May 10 meeting.

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

Jefferson Apartment Group’s (JAG) public hearing before the Fairfax County Planning Commission will not happen until sometime this summer at the earliest.

The developer, which purchased the ailing shopping center in December of 2014, has had two spots on the planning commission docket this spring, both of which have been delayed. JAG is now slated for a hearing on June 23.

JAG representatives said in February they needed additional time to conduct a market study examining the area’s retail viability.

JAG’s current plan is for 150 homes and about 7,000 square feet of retail space on the parcel at Wiehle Avenue and North Shore Drive. That plan has not been well-received by community members or Reston Association, which said in a letter to county officials last summer that the plan fell “woefully short” on retail and community space.

JAG’s plan features a variety of townhomes, 2-over-2 townhouses and condos. The retail space has been expanded from the original plan for 3,000 square feet of retail. Read More

Jefferson Apartment Group’s (JAG) plans for Tall Oaks Village Center will be delayed as the developer conducts a market study examining the area’s retail viability.

JAG’s plan, which had been slated to go before the Fairfax County Planning Commission in early May, is for 150 homes and about 7,000 square feet of retail space. It has not been well-received by community members or Reston Association, which said in a letter to county officials last summer that the plan fell “woefully short” on retail and community space.

JAG’s latest plan features a variety of townhomes, 2-over-2 townhouses and condos and about 7,000 square feet (up from the original plan for 3,000 SF) of retail, and what critics say is limited open space.

JAG representatives said at community meetings in spring of 2015 that Tall Oaks’ current 70,000-square-foot 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 the 25,000-square-foot anchor/grocery store space, to retailers but there was no interest. Read More

This is an op-ed by Bill Woloch, PhD Architect. It does not represent the opinion of Reston Now.

I recently had the honor and a pleasure to sit down with Mr. Bob Simon, the founder of Reston and talk to him regarding his thoughts of the future development Tall Oaks Village Center.

After my discussions with Mr. Simon, I put pen to paper and developed a concept plan for the Tall Oaks Village Center that may be more in line with public thinking of what Tall Oaks Village Center could look like.

If you venture to Lake Anne and look at the mix of residential and commercial properties you will find a very quaint setting. I found out that originally a lot of the business areas on the ground floor of many of the buildings were originally residential and eventually converted to commercial space as Lake Anne Village Center evolved. This evolution of space function should be planned for in the Tall Oaks redevelopment strategy.

Applying this principle between commercial and residential space is somewhat unique in terms of planning developments, but the concept has already been proven in Reston with the continual evolution of the Lake Anne Village Center and should continue into the future.

The buildings themselves could be anywhere between three stories to five stories tall with underground parking and centered around a community plaza. The plaza would have areas of high, medium, and low activity. Covered and uncovered areas should exist in and around the Plaza and seating areas so the space can be enjoyed for a whole host of purposes. Planned and unplanned functions can occur in the new Tall Oaks Village Center similar to what at Lake Anne and the Mosaic District.

The Mosaic District in Fairfax was developed and is managed by a company called Edens. This small piece of geography has to be visited to understand how a small outdoor space can successfully bring the community together and offer something to everyone who visits. Read More