In my former life as a local development civil engineer I had plenty of “get me out of here” moments discussing what I believed were benign and helpful development plans with neighborhood leaders and residents. I remember one particular meeting on a renovated Elementary School.
As the civil engineer on the project it was my job to discuss some of the improvements for recreational fields, our stormwater management improvements which would reduce erosion runoff from the existing condition, and a host of ideas that I thought added benefit to both the neighborhood and students as a community. What I got was an earful of construction questions about noise, traffic, and even a question about the legal status of the construction workers who would be working on the site.
You never know who you will be talking to or what concerns they may have, especially when you are the first one coming around to talk about a project. When I heard Cityline would have many of their integral members visit One Park Crest to discuss Arbor Row, I was worried for them. I had no idea if it would be well received because Park Crest has about as diverse of a cross section of age, gender, race, and background as one could imagine. What I learned is that many of the residents welcomed the city environment that has been pitched by Tysons planners for the past 2 years and saw the Arbor Row project as an improvement over the abandoned and aged office buildings along Westpark.
Whew. Seriously I was very thankful that most of the comments and questions were reasonable and on point because as I have said in previous articles, I see Arbor Row as one of the best plans to date in Tysons Corner. Of course development plans, even to an eye who has seen dozens, don’t tell the whole story. Last night a few new tidbits about the project scope were provided.
Keith Turner confirmed that approximately “half of the site, with 2.5 million square feet of development, would be residential or retail use.” The retail located on the ground floor of each high rise would be “local serving retail. We did not want large scale foot prints to try to compete with the mall for large tenants. Most spaces will be for small shops with only a few spaces exceeding 5000sf and those are intended for restaurant tenants.”
The attendants of the meeting learned more (perhaps than they wanted to know) about the condo/apartment financing market when one resident questioned whether any condominium units would be part of the residential component.
“Unfortunately, the market as it is, no one is financing condominiums. This is a shortfall of the home ownership market more than anything,” said Tom Fleury of Cityline. “We are seeing more people wanting to rent, and in order to attain financing for new projects in the current environment they have to be apartments.”
This is an interesting contrast to what actually occurred in One Park Crest, where over the past 18 months the occupancy went from below 50% to only a few high end units left. It appears the issue is one of perception when it comes to condominium construction, that the market is not there, and therefore the funding will not be there. I hope over the 5 to 10 year process to complete Arbor Row this market condition is continuously revisited to determine if it remains valid. As much as renting in cities has gone up, there is still, of course, a need for home ownership in cities as well. This is something that is well balanced in Arlington and retains young families in urban regions creating a sense of community involvement.
Construction of Arbor Row is anticipated to begin within the next 12 months pending rezoning approval and final development plan approval. When construction does begin, it will be a shotgun start. Two residential towers within block F, the residential tower in block B, and possibly the construction of the new AMT headquarters on block A are all anticipated to be early components of the project.
“How large will Tysons Corner be compared to Reston” asked one resident.
Mr. Turner did a good job of explaining that Tysons is a 50-year project and really as one developer it is difficult to determine the final size of the new city. Really though, when one looks at what each project proposes, the answer is that there will be many isolated Reston Town Centers in the short term when each of these projects completes the first phases of their projects. Eventually these nodes of construction will form more of an interwoven fabric as they complete the connections to their neighbors and create a city that is far more urban and robust than Reston. The 1180 units anticipated with Arbor Row will be part of the human element which of course is needed to take the current office park environment and complete the concept of a city.
There are many complexities to this plan which can not be discussed in one meeting, or article for that matter, alone. Likely more explanation of the park plans (including land grants to the public), the road and pedestrian connectivity, and a hundred other elements will be necessary to make residents and interested parties feel more comfortable.
“Tysons Corner is the 12th largest city (commercial business district) in the US, but it lacks most of the traditional components of a city,” Turner said. “Building these parts; more transit-oriented mixed-use development, an urban grid of streets, a multi-modal transportation system, public facilities and civic uses, urban parks and recreational opportunities is not easy, or inexpensive, but it is a task that we believe in and have accepted.”
“We are extremely excited that our Arbor Row application is finally up for review by the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors thereafter. We think it is a great transit-oriented, mixed-use application that will help begin the transformation from suburban to urban in Tysons.”