It was a couple of years ago that Tesla pushed the Virginia state legislature to allow a direct sales showroom in Tysons, along Tyco Road. After winning that battle Tesla has successfully become a member of the Tysons community. Looks like their plans for the commonwealth are getting bigger, and the gateway to the state, the engine of the economy, remains Tysons. The Elon Musk lead company is looking to bring sister company SolarCity, a residential solar energy leasing company, to Virginia. Will Virginia’s protectionist energy laws cause similar obstacles to the growth of the company and jobs in the commonwealth? (Southeast Energy News)
Meridian has quickly become one of the biggest development names in Tysons, with their Boro project at the Greensboro Metro. It doesn’t come as much surprise that they are expanding their holding in the growing city, and doing so adjacent to their already ongoing development. Bisnow notes that the Maryland based developer recently closed on funding sources, and it appears has now applied a significant portion of that to purchase the 764,000 square foot office building complex, home to Fortune 500 Booz Allen. Although the sales price was not disclosed, it is estimated that it went for more than $200 million. If so, the sale marks another property selling for greater than $10 million per acre.
Are low interest rates fueling a booming Tysons or a shift from auto-centricity to walkable and transit oriented user preferences? Gerald Gordon, CEO of FCEDA, dove into the topic recently in an article by InsideNOVA. In the article it is noted that Tysons vacancy rates in offices remain high — and it is absolutely undeniable that hotelling and changes in office use are a major cause — but as noted in a recent real estate panel discussion, much of the vacancy exists in obsolete offices preparing for demolition.
Speaking of the FCEDA, the annual report for 2016 is out for how the county did on attracting business. 7,500 new jobs were captured by the FCEDA in 2016. The biggest move came from Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) who brought 500 new jobs to Tysons. In Q4 the county added 1100 jobs, 438 of which came to Tysons, constituting 40% of all jobs that were added in Fairfax.