It is easy to lose track of which construction site you are looking at, especially if you are driving around Tysons Corner. Route 7 has been one massive redevelopment site ever since the Silver Line construction began, to the angst of commuters. Now with the cranes and lurching rail fabricators coming off of Leesburg Pike, the future landscape of Tysons is becoming clearer.
The first of many rising skyscrapers that will soon grab the eye of the region is Ascent, a residential high rise by Greystar. The building is one component of the much larger Spring Hill Station rezoning by Georgelas. We broke the news (first) this past March when Greystar began excavation and site work, but vertical construction remained dormant for much of the summer. If you have looked to the West along Route 7 recently you know that is no longer the case.
The massive dual cranes popped up, almost over night, and now tower over the surrounding strip malls and parking lots. The eventual 25-story, 300′ tall high rise apartment building looks like it is back on schedule to begin leasing shortly after the opening of the Silver Line.
From the adjacent Georgelas office parking deck the magnitude of the construction effort can be seen. The site is composed of three separate operations independently moving forward at full speed. At one side an onsite concrete batch system is creating the structural skin for reinforced steel rebar. The skeleton of steel is interlaid by the two cranes which can reach all regions of the site.
If all goes to plan the structure should rise at approximately 1-floor every two weeks, slightly faster than the ongoing construction of Ovation Apartments, Park Crest Two, on Westpark Drive. Ovation has had approximately 2 months advance on vertical construction, and is almost above ground today. In the ultra-competitive world of high rise lease management, being the first one completed may provide a very large incentive.
More important than the construction of the tower itself, Ascent is a signal of improvements coming to Tyco, Greensboro, and Spring Hill Road as part of the proffered requirements for the overall rezoning. The new roads will have far greater pedestrian access and what is currently a fire lane will become a local street with a human scale streetscape.
The construction of these elements will be done by the developer per the current Strawman III funding system, and additional funds will be attained via a special tax district for additional improvements not directly associated with Ascent.
Greystar, JP Morgan, and Georgelas have all taken a large risk for their vision of the future for Spring Hill Station. What is asphalt and industrial buildings today, they envision as a city with as much occurring on the 20th floor as on the 1st floor. Hundreds of millions of dollars and nearly a decade of effort have been put on the line. The eyes of Fairfax County officials will also be focused on the success of Ascent as the project will continue to be an indicator and bell weather of future development.
