Skanska Wraps Up DC-Area Development

The building is the only new office property to deliver in this key submarket since 2021.

Rendering of the office building at 3901 Fairfax Drive in Arlington, Va.
The office building at 3901 Fairfax Drive rises nine stories. Image courtesy of Skanska

Skanska has completed 3901 Fairfax, its 201,000-square-foot office building in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor of Arlington, Va.

The developer broke ground on the $128 million project in 2021. The design architect and architect of record was Arcadis Inc., the MEP engineer was GHT Ltd., the structural engineer was IMEG and Skanska USA Building served as general contractor.

Mark Carroll, executive vice president of Skanska USA Commercial Development’s Washington, D.C., operations, told Commercial Property Executive 3901 Fairfax is the only new office property to deliver in the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor since 2021.

A new office building in Arlington

Skanska’s office building rises nine stories at 3901 N. Fairfax Drive. The property’s amenities include a 1,600-square-foot penthouse conference space that leads out to a 3,500-square-foot rooftop terrace, private tenant terraces, a 3,600-square-foot fitness facility, 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and an 8,000-square-foot public plaza at street level, along with three levels of underground parking.


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Its sustainability features include the use of lower-carbon concrete and a Dedicated Outside Air System (DOAS) that provides 47 percent more fresh air than required by code. In addition, 3901 Fairfax is precertified WELL CORE—reportedly the first such office building in Northern Virginia—and targeting Energy Star, LEED Gold and WiredScore Gold certifications.

The building is also transit-oriented, being within three blocks of both the Virginia-GMU Metro Station and the Ballston-MU Metro Station. The location is also less than 3 miles from the 31-story tower that changed hands in one of the top 5 office transactions in the U.S. as of April.

Avison Young is handling office leasing, while H&R Retail is marketing the retail spaces. There appears to have been no preleasing, although the building has generated interest from companies in the tech, energy and legal sectors, and several tenants are in leasing negotiations. 

Upward climb

As of mid-year, Avison Young reported recently, “the Northern Virginia office market is still facing an uphill climb to reach the levels of sales and leasing velocities from pre-pandemic times.”

Nonetheless, legal services and aerospace/defense companies are seeing job growth, the report revealed, and after a spike in late 2021, lease concessions are stabilizing around 12.1 percent as a proportion of overall lease value.

In June, Novel Office, of Dallas, sold Fair Oaks Plaza, a 183,810-square-foot Class A office building in Fairfax, Va., to a private buyer for an undisclosed price. The deal was arranged by Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap.