Reston Station Apartments May Begin Next Year

Reston, Va.–Ground breaking for the first component of the Reston Station Metro Facility, a complex that will ultimately include a residential component, has been set for this spring. The developer, Comstock Partners L.C., moved closer to beginning the project with the selection this week of the James G. Davis Construction Corp. of McLean, Va., as the general contractor for the development’s parking facility.

Located on the Dulles Toll Road at the Wiehle Avenue exit, the Reston Station Metro Facility is being built as part of a public-private partnership between Comstock and Fairfax County. It will form the foundation for Reston’s first TOD, a 1.3 million square-foot, mixed-use development to be built above the Reston Station Metro Facility. Planning is currently underway for the buildings above the Reston Station Metro Facility, which will include office, retail, residential and hotel uses.

Among the first of those buildings will be the residential tower. “We are currently in the design phase for the first building on the Plaza, which will be about 400 residential apartments,” a spokeswoman for Comstock tells MHN. “Construction could begin as early as the summer of 2012, which would be concurrent with the ending stages of the construction of the 2,300-space subterranean parking garage, which will deliver in mid- to late 2013. The residences could deliver in mid-2014.” Hickok Cole Architects has been selected as the architect responsible for the residential tower, including the parking and 9,000 square feet of retail.

There is, she adds, a large demand for residential space in the area. “Reston Station will be the first mixed-use, transit-oriented development in what had been an industrial/office corridor,” she notes. “The need for residential units is great. Moreover, the capital markets like residential projects, and Comstock is ready to deliver a new community integrated with Metro’s Silver Line.”

The partnership between Comstock and Fairfax County provides for all costs associated with the private development portions of the Reston Station Metro Facility, and certain public improvements to be paid by Comstock. Costs to be covered by Fairfax County are limited to costs associated with the commuter transit facility portion of the development and certain other public improvements, which is expected to be about $87 million.

Comstock Partners is a privately held real estate company that specializes in urban, mixed-use and transit-oriented developments in northern Virginia. Its other current projects include Loudoun Station, a 3 million square-foot TOD located at the Ashburn, Va. terminus of phase II of Metro’s Silver Line extension to Dulles Airport.