It’s been a couple of months since we have talked about Capital One’s future headquarters building, the soon to be tallest occupied building in the Washington metro region. As the building continues to climb, now forming its final mechanical and top floors artifice, it is becoming more apparent that while the building height is a big deal, it could have easily been another 20 stories without sticking out.
At 470′ it is going to be nearly double the height of the old Capital One headquarters, but being next to 495, and setback far from residential buildings, the tower doesn’t seem like the tallest in the region. It seems a bit comical that so many non-Tysons (many from McLean) residents were against the height of the building, given the lack of impacts this tower will make — other than adding thousands of jobs to the region.
If there is any group that has rights to complain, it is the Gates of McLean, which have had to deal with dust, day time noise, and torn up pavement as the project progresses. Of course, once complete, the presence of the growing Fortune 500 company, a soon to begin construction Wegmans, and the overall continued development of the area around McLean Station is going to be an amenity and value boost to many of the properties.
The tower facade looks to be nearing completion, maybe another month or two left before the tower exterior is finished. Then the behind the scenes development of the interior will take over. Look for completion of the tower and occupancy at some point around New Years. No word yet on how and when Capital One plans on consolidating some of its recently expanded footprint in Tysons, but moving its thousands of employees into this building, directly adjacent to metro, will likely help take hundreds of vehicles off the road that would otherwise be driving down Route 7 or Route 123.
