As many of you saw yesterday we posted our visualization of the assessed real estate values for every parcel in Tysons. This graphic showed, regardless of property size, the total value of the property. It came as no shock that the mall (Tysons Corner Center) was far and away the most valuable piece of property in the district, followed by the Rotonda, and then a handful of other properties in the $200 to 500 million range.
That visualization did not however indicate the overall urban value, the amount of value vs the land space used. As I prepared this graphic I assumed that for the most part the mall and Rotonda would remain at the top of the list of most valuable properties in Tysons per acre, but in fact other properties excelled beyond both because of the very large nature of each property (in terms of property size).
We revised the vertical scale to be 1′ = $100,000 due to the decrease in values created by depicting the data on a per acre basis. Beyond that change, no modifications were made to the data except to divide the total value by the number of acres per property, and then attribute that many nodes to each property. This is a better indication as to the overall urbanity and utilization of the property.
The new leader of the most valued property becomes the newly constructed Ascent high rise, at approximately $125 million per acre. This is followed by the equally tall Ritz Carlton building, 1700 Tysons Boulevard, at over $100 million per acre. This shows that site condensed properties, with true high rise heights, create enormous land value and therefore tax revenue (not shocking to anyone who has ever visited New York).
While the mall does maintain over $15 million per acre, it no longer even cracks the top 10 in the most valuable land in Tysons, although that is quickly changing with the introduction of Vita, Tysons Tower, and the Hyatt shown as the taller cluster adjacent to the mall. Other interesting clusters include the Park Crest neighborhood, the strip of offices along Tysons Boulevard, and the corner of Leesburg Pike and Westpark where the Earnst and NADA buildings are located.
Counteractively, there are portions of Tysons which are clearly depressed in terms of overall land value due to extensive portions of the properties being covered in surface parking lots. Specifically, the southwest side of Route 7 shows much lower land values than the northeast side; on average $4,00,000 per acre vs $10,000,000 per acre respectively. Areas of Jones Branch, where there are some aging office buildings, are also showing depressed land values due to extensive surface parking.
Another interesting parcel is that of Capital One, which while being an impressive figure on the skyline, only averages $7,200,000 per acre in assessed value. Conversely, adjacent condominium Gates of McLean averages $8,100,000.
We are working towards creating visualization like this starting from the year 2000, to also help understand the trends and developments in Tysons. Stay tuned for more.