From the Washington Post: AEW Capital Management, following the lead of other Tysons Corner landowners recently, has decided to put three sites zoned for high-rise apartment buildings up for sale to interested developers.
The properties make up 2.59 acres along Fashion Boulevard behind Tysons Corner Center Mall, in a 19.5 acre development called Towers Crescent. The larger development already includes four office buildings, the most recent of which is 850 Towers Crescent Dr., a 13-story, 295,000-square-foot office building that AEW built with Quadrangle Development.
The sites for sale, near the intersection of Leesburg Pike and the Beltway, do not require zoning changes under the amended Tysons Corner master plan and can accommodate three towers of 16, 17 and 18 stories with as many as 919 total units, according to marketing documents issued recently by the brokerage firm Jones Lang LaSalle. The site is about half a mile from the Tysons Central 123 Silver Line Metro station currently being constructed.
AEW’s decision to offer the sites is another sign that the market for high-rise apartment development in Tysons Corner---something many planners and observers weren’t sure would materialize for years--has quickly matured since Fairfax County passed an amended master plan for the area in the summer of 2010.
The rush to build apartments in Tysons, where four Metro stations are set to open in late 2013 or early 2014, could pave the way for the area to add 80,000 residents by 2050, a goal adopted by Fairfax County in 2010. County officials hope that high-density development near the stations will help the area evolve from a traffic-strangled mess to a series of walkable urban neighborhoods.
But not everyone is in such a rush. Other developers have plans that are already approved, but have backed off from constructing new buildings until the county determines how to pay for the many road improvements needed for the area. In the fall, multifamily real estate investment trust AvalonBay indefinitely set aside plans to tear down warehouses on 5.5 acres along Tyco Road and build two six-story apartment buildings.
Planners and developers should learn more about the costs associated with building in Tysons on Jan. 19 when new estimates on transportation improvement costs are scheduled to be presented to the Fairfax County Planning Commission’s Tysons Committee. The Tysons Partnership, a group of Tysons employers and landowners, are also scheduled to make recommendations for how to pay for the improvements at the meeting.
