It came as a surprise, when I happened to be in the McLean Station area yesterday, to see another construction project underway that no one had been talking about. The aging and long abandoned Johnson Building on Colshire Drive was being ripped apart for demolition. The old building is directly next to MITRE Building 4 and behind the ongoing site work for HOARs Commons of McLean project. It is also in the path of the future Colshire Meadow Drive extension between Anderson and Colshire, and connection to Chain Bridge Road. This road grid will provide a fully parallel route and exit point from Tysons, relieving much of the traffic on Route 123. If this demolition is part of the process to its construction, it is a welcomed sight.
Ultimately, the Johnson Building property will be home to four new towers, between 300 and 400 feet, via the Scotts Run Station South rezoning project. The 30 foot hill that the building is sited on will be leveled for a new pedestrian friendly store-lined corridor called Station Street.
There are no announcements from Cityline at this time that they are beginning construction on any new towers on the Johnson property. It is more likely that this demolition and site work is part of the interim improvements to provide a secondary construction entrance in advance of future towers on the Johnson property that may or may not be preparing for construction. We’ll reach out to Cityline to see if there are any announcements coming up, stay tuned.
