The McLean Metro station is—despite the name—located in Tysons, Virginia. Sitting between the Capital One Center campus and State Route 123, the Silver Line stop was surrounded mostly by lowrise office parks when it first opened in 2014. These days, many of its immediate neighbors are construction sites. A few years from now, highrise buildings with all sorts of uses will be within steps from its entrances.
As an outcome of the 2010 Tysons Comprehensive Plan Amendment, the properties immediately surrounding the Metro stations in Tysons are designated as Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) districts. These districts allow unlimited development intensity within a quarter mile of a Metro station, provided the uses are around 65% office and 20% residential. In the years following the approval of the amendment, a flurry of rezoning activity changed the future composition of the area around the metro stations, which would permit the eventual construction of millions of square feet of additional buildings.
Tysons East in particular saw its future change because of the location of McLean station. Cityline Partners, based nearby, is the developer behind Scotts Run, a planned neighborhood named after the stream that divides the area. Cityline’s rezoning approvals for the development will ultimately result in over six million square feet of construction. Capital One Center will include over five million square feet, and as of this writing, one and a half million square feet is already built and in use. These totals stand as a stark contrast to the mere one million square feet that existed in 2010, and demonstrate the unique growth that is taking place around the McLean station.
Currently, the McLean station TOD district has four highrise buildings under construction, and another two in active development, while the other three TOD districts in Tysons combine for just one. This is partly due to existing conditions in the other TOD districts as well as the recent completion of substantial projects near the Greensboro station. But it also is a result of the investment that Capital One and Cityline Partners are making in transforming the location. Before the end of 2023, the McLean Metro station will be the first in Tysons to feature multiple newly-constructed office towers (three), hotels (two), and residential buildings (four). All buildings currently under construction will also provide ground-floor retail, which will ensure a vibrant and walkable pedestrian experience to residents, visitors, and workers.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, McLean station was the second-most visited Silver Line stop in Tysons, with just two-thirds of the passenger volume of Tysons Corner station. It would not be a surprise to see McLean station become the busiest destination in Tysons when the crisis finally ends and Metro traffic exceeds pre-pandemic levels.