Brookfield To Introduce Self-Driving Cars At Massive Northern Virginia Development
One of the world's largest real estate firms will roll out self-driving vehicles at a huge property it owns in Northern Virginia this summer.
Brookfield Properties announced Thursday it will deploy Optimus Ride self-driving cars at an office park in Reston where it plans to launch a $1.4B development.
The vehicles will be introduced in June at One Reston Crescent and Two Reston Crescent, the two existing office buildings on the 36-acre site where Brookfield is planning a 3.5M SF mixed-use project.
During the initial rollout, three on-demand self-driving cars will bring tenants from the office buildings to the adjacent parking lots, not leaving the Brookfield-owned property. The program could be expanded when the developer completes new buildings on the site.
The project, branded as Halley Rise, is slated to include 1,500 residential units, 1.5M SF of office, 250K SF of retail and 5 acres of open space, plus new public streets. The developer signed a Wegmans grocery store to anchor the project's retail. It plans to begin construction in the middle of this year, complete the first phase in 2022 and finish the entire development by 2026.
"Brookfield is constantly exploring innovations that can improve the experience of our tenants," Brookfield Executive Vice President Greg Meyer said in a release. "We are excited to engage with Optimus Ride to deploy this program in an effort to increase mobility and add convenience for our tenants in their day-to-day lives."
