For nearly a decade the Tysons II property has been developed asymmetrically, focusing entirely on the west side of Tysons Boulevard. After several years of delay, Lerner Enterprises announced earlier this year that they would begin vertical construction of their newest addition, 1775 Tysons Boulevard.
The building itself is similar to prior projects in the Tysons II portfolio, especially next door sister building 1800 Tysons Boulevard. Both have ground floor food options geared towards serving the office itself. Unfortunately, both come with a huge allotment of parking despite being 1 block from metro, in the form of a disruptive adjacent parking garage. I suppose this is better than parking being provided by a massive surface lot.
1775 Tysons Boulevard will come with a small, urban format, plaza and park which will be a more suitable public space than the often barren and unusable plaza below 1800 Tysons Boulevard.
No word on if 1775 will be a catalyst for improvements at the much maligned intersection of Galleria and Tysons Boulevard. The future building users, many of which could be coming from metro, may have significant reservations over the pain staking process of crossing a street only a few hundred feet from rapid transit.
Lerner’s newest addition to the Tysons II portfolio will take another year to top out and complete glazing. After that time, the interior development and tenant improvements will be a factor of whether the speculative office building will be capable of garnering interest from leasees. Tysons Tower was able to fill up a significant portion of their project space prior to completion, part of the reason being its proximity and correlation with transit and non-traditional office access, which includes a direct walkway and plaza to the metro. Reduction of parking minimums didn’t seem to have any negative impact in prospective lease desirability, something Lerner Enterprises has been more hesitant in accepting.
Taking all elements of the project comprehensively in consideration, it remains difficult for me to pinpoint whether this project is good or bad for the goals in Tysons. It’s development next to metro, but in design essentially ignores the transit option. It will bring new office space, but also a dead zone in a prime area of town used as a parking garage. It adds a small park in the urban core, but it leaves the road grid a mangled mess of superblocks in its direct vicinity. Whether it becomes a benefit or obstruction to future Tysons will likely take time to tell.