Thumbs Up for NoVa Office High-Rise

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

One Reston Town Center, Reston, Va.

Washington—It’s been a long time coming, but the 420,000-square-foot One Reston Town Center office project in Reston, Va., has gotten the official green light. As first reported by the Washington Business Journal, Akridge and RTC Partnership LLC, developers of the $210 million building in suburban Washington, D.C., recently received unanimous approval of its revised plan from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

It was in 2012 when the Board signed off on the original plan for One Reston, but a change in the developers’ vision of the project led to the submission of a revised design in September 2015. For Akridge and RTC, it was all worth the wait for a simple reason. As David Toney, vice president of development with Akridge, told Commercial Property Executive, “It’s a great building in a great location,”

With the address of 1760 Reston Parkway, One Reston will occupy a coveted 2.4-acre site within the Reston Town Center mixed-use community. All eyes have been on the proposed tower for some time, and the finished project will attract an even higher level of attention, so to speak. At 23 stories, the HOK-designed property will change the Reston skyline as the city’s tallest structure. The project is expected to immediately take on local icon status, not just for its height, but for a collection of amenities never before seen in an office destination in Reston. One Reston will feature 15,000 square feet of retail space, but that’s just for starters.

“The process that we just finished created a corner, six-story glass atrium lobby to make a grander entrance to the building,” Toney noted. “We also reshaped the massing; we just made it a sleeker design and created more amenities in the building that would be more attractive to tenants.” Among those amenities are a private landscaped terrace on the 22nd floor and a rooftop sky lounge. The property will also feature a 3/4-acre elevated and landscaped plaza.

With the Board’s approval in hand, there’s just one more vital hurdle to clear before construction can commence on One Reston. “We won’t start building until we have a major pre-lease tenant,” Toney said. “There’s a lot of activity in the Northern Virginia market, which is a good sign of some growing demand. So we feel optimistic that with the changes we’ve done with the design of the building, we can find that pre-lease tenant to help kick off the project.”

Avison Young is overseeing leasing of One Reston, where the asking price of $55-$59 per square foot, according to the real estate services firm’s website, appears to be reflective of the project’s eminence.