How Metro Has Supercharged Tysons Growth
The Metro’s debut—with four shiny new Silver Line stops—changed everything for Tysons. These days, the upscale community is well on its way to becoming a full-fledged metropolis, the true downtown of Fairfax County. That's why we're hosting Tysons Tidal Wave on March 22 at 8280 Greensboro Dr at 7:30am.
One speaker is Michael Abrams, an SVP at Foulger-Pratt, who closed a deal at our event last year by popping out of the audience waving a deposit check to buy a piece of the 1.5M SF Tysons Central project from NV Commercial.
On that site, Michael is developing a cutting-edge office building within walking distance of the Greensboro Metro station. This amenities-driven tower—the kind that might make its future tenants want to sleep at work—will have about 375k SF.
Previously a collection of low-rise retail buildings, Michael says “the market rationale for this building is the ongoing migration of office tenants from isolated, auto-centric locations to walkable contemporary environments that offer 24/7 live/work/play communities.”
What we are seeing in Tysons is consistent with the further-along evolutions of Arlington or Bethesda, and why the Metro’s Silver Line was such a crucial piece of the puzzle. Michael, who sent us a picture of himself taking a break in the islands before our event, added that “what we see all around Tysons is an ongoing evolution of the marketplace with dense, mixed-use projects.”
One such project in the making is The Boro, a development also just a hop and a skip away from the Greensboro Metro stop. At completion, The Boro will be more than 4M SF of apartments, shops, offices and hotels, all tied together by a kid-friendly public park. The anchor retailers at the Boro will be a 70k SF Whole Foods (the largest in the DC-area) and a 15-screen Showplace Icon movie theater.
The project is being developed by The Meridian Group, whose managing director, Gary Block, will also be a panelist at our event.
Another speaker will be Jim Policaro, VP at Lerner Enterprises, which has been fine-tuning Tysons since the 1980s (think: Tysons Galleria and the Ritz-Carlton). Policaro estimates that of the approximately 6.8M SF in development to Lerner’s name, only 3.1M SF has been completed.
Lerner's most recent project, as well as its first post-Metro initiative, has been 1775 Tysons Blvd, a 476k SF, 17-floor, LEED Platinum office building. Two marquee tenants, EY and CSC, have already signed on to make this trophy office building their Tysons home. Lerner will follow the corporate tower, due to be completed this spring, with two 31-story luxury residential towers.
“We see this as an evolving city over the next 30 to 40 years,” Jim says. “There is a lot of activity occurring since Metrorail's arrival and that is a positive sign for the future of Tysons."
Learn more about the waves these companies—and more—are making in Tyson’s, come to Tysons Tidal Wave on Tuesday, March 22. Sign up here.
