News and notes from Reston (tm).

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Game of Earth-Toned Thrones: Boston Properties Reston Town Center Acquisition Solidifies Developers' Grasp

Game of Drones.jpegDeveloper Boston Properties' announcement that it is forming a joint venture with an undisclosed partner to acquire the original Reston Town Center buildings on Fountain Square for $385 million signals the continuing consolidation of developers -- and development -- in Reston. Like that midnight dorm room game of Risk we keep yammering on about, a handful of big developers is getting ready to profit from bring about big change to our earth-toned community.

Boston Properties is already building out the last undeveloped block of Reston Town Center with the Avant, its 359-unit residential building, complete with 27,000 square feet of ground-level retail. Boston also owns 20 acres of land connecting the Reston Town Center with the future Metro station, including the current temporary park and ride lot, so it's safe to say they have Big Plans involving the station and its growing Reston Town Center portfolio. Hopefully it involves Jetsons-style moving sidewalks!

Of course, they're not alone. JBG is emerging as the king of Reston redevelopment, what with the now-approved Fairway Apartments redevelopment and its long-delayed -- but still on the books -- plans to continue redeveloping Chili's the land around the Reston International Center on the other side of the Toll Road as part of its Reston Heights project. The most recent plans there called for 145,000 square feet of above-grade retail, including a grocery, 10,000 square feet of "below-grade retail" (for the Mole People), at least 230,000 square feet of office space and nearly 500 residential units. Washington Nationals owner Lerner continues to prepare its own redevelopment of big-box schlockfest (and Macaroni Grill home) Reston Spectrum. And Comstock's private-public partnership with Fairfax County on Reston Station involves plenty-o-parallelograms to be built atop the Wiehle Avenue Metro parking garage.

But why should the familiar names have all the sweet redevelopment fun? Hines, a global developer of high-end properties, has submitted a proposal to redevelop the county-owned Crescent Apartments near Lake Anne; an announcement from the county on the future of the 16-acre parcel is expected sometime this fall. And other one-off development ventures, including what would be Reston's largest mauvescraper, are also in the works. But clearly there's big money to be had in Reston, and the big players are clearly getting their ducks in a row.

3 comments:

  1. What's missing from the article about Boston Properties is what's buried in the science section of their official proposal:

    "Boston Properties will form a joint venture with Trump Enterprises to acquire a controlling interest in the WO&D Trail for the purpose of redeveloping this meager underutilized pubic resource as the world's longest and narrowest private golf course renamed The Mighty Mighty Donald Dick Bosstones K Street Dickhead Lobbyists International Golf Club. With a 1st hole tee off in Purcellville, lobbyists will have an opportunity to board a limosine for the 500 foot ride from the start of the 8th hole located along the former boring WO&D trail at Reston Town Center for lunch at Clyde's."

    "Mr. Trump expressed his vision for Reston: 'What was once a silly biking and walking trail filled with stinky sweaty global warmin paranoid liberals will be beautifully transformed into a very long, and I do mean LOOONNNGGG, and straight golf course that's almost as long and straight as a certain architectural feature of my anatomy."

    Mort Zuckerberg, CEO of Boston Properties, expressed his excitement for the project, especially as related to his company's continued investment at Reston Town Center: "The WO&D Trail never really attracted the demographic of shoppers we need at Reston Town Center. I mean, get real, most of those bikers eat healthy, which certainly doesn't do anything to spur increased sales of artery-clogging specialities offered at one of our leading RTC restaurants, Pot Belly Sandwiches. RTC needs to attract more high income fat lobbyiest golfers, so Boston Properties is really stoked about privitizing the WO&D and finally putting this valuable strip of real estate into productive use."

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  2. There's no way I could play that course with my hook.

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  3. Rose By Any Other NameAugust 8, 2012 at 5:37 PM

    Ah, looking forward to yet more orgasmic bursts of real estate development. Whatever remains of Reston after all of this must be content to rest in the afterglow.
    Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live in an actual "real" town instead of a developers' playground?

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