Demolition begins in preparation for Virginia’s first JW Marriott hotel

Reston Station, the mixed use development that has been in a state of constant construction for the past ten years, is once again shoveling dirt—this time on a new parcel of land. A demolition permit was issued earlier in April for the Sunset Hills Professional Center office park, part of which will be redeveloped into a 26-story luxury hotel and condominium tower. The developer, Comstock, announced in February an agreement to brand the 250-room hotel as the state’s first JW Marriott. The building had previously been planned with the Marriott Renaissance flag.

The new construction will be part of the first phase of Reston Row, Reston Station’s newest district. Reston Row will be built on the 8-acre parcel directly north of the Metro Plaza, and was approved by Fairfax County officials in January 2020 for up to 1.35 million square feet of total development. Comstock finished acquiring the land last year, and the new district will ultimately include four new buildings: two office towers, a residential highrise, and the hotel. Up to 115,000 square feet of retail will be included on the lower levels of the buildings, although the press release mentions only 65,000 square feet of retail—this might be due to market changes related to the recent pandemic.

Following the demolition of the office park, the initial construction will focus on undergrounding the utilities that run along the south side of Sunset Hills Road, and the construction of the five-level underground parking garage that will service the property. Utility work is expected to be finished by the end of the year, after which that portion of land will be dedicated to Virginia Department of Transportation for road improvements, including a bicycle lane. Once the underground garage is complete, vertical construction of the JW Marriott hotel, scheduled to open in 2024, can begin.

Reston Station first opened in 2014, concurrent with the first phase of Metro’s Silver Line. The Metro Plaza was built on top of the massive transit facility that services the Metro station, and acted as a community gathering place while residential highrise and three office buildings were constructed in the years following. BLVD Reston Station, a luxury apartment building, opened its doors in 2016. The Jahn-designed trapezoidal office tower came next, in 2017, and most recently, an office building anchored by Neustar and CVS was completed in 2020. The final highrise on the plaza is substantially complete and will open sometime in the next year, the whole building being leased to ICF International.

With construction on the Metro Plaza block wrapping up, the focus of development for the next decade will shift one block north. Without having to share the property with Metro facilities, the designers of Reston Row were able to incorporate much of the parking below grade, which allows for more flexibility in urban design. As a result, Reston Row will feature considerably more open space, highlighted by the one-acre “Great Lawn” at the center of the block, and a similarly-sized gateway park on the east corner of the property, which will accommodate pedestrians at the intersection of Wiehle Avenue and Sunset Hills Road.

As part of the approval process, Comstock provided several phasing plans, allowing for any of the four buildings to be constructed first. The plan contingent on the hotel being constructed first includes the Great Lawn park, as well as some of the needed road infrastructure. The gateway park might wait to be completed until the first office building is ready, but there might be some interim uses, such as pop-up retail, in the meantime. In all, half of the block might be redeveloped in the first phase, or more if other buildings end up being built simultaneously to the hotel.

The JW Marriott hotel will include 250 rooms, large social and professional meeting spaces, a lounge, fitness and spa amenities, and two on-site restaurants. The initial approved design for the building placed the restaurants across the porte-cochère from the main hotel, but the ultimate building plan has likely changed since the public hearing for the project over a year ago. On the top floors of the building, 90 luxury condominium residences will have access to all hotel amenities, as well as private outdoor space and a dog park.

As illustrated on the county-approved final development plan, the hotel was conceived as a 24-story building with a 50-foot tall architectural penthouse, which would result in a 327-foot tall building, higher than anything else in the Reston Station neighborhood by a large margin. With the addition of two extra floors, it’s possible that the building could reach the maximum approved height of 350 feet; it is possible that the penthouse could be adjusted shorter to maintain a similar height, or removed altogether. Final plans for the building have not yet been released to the public.

With three years remaining until the scheduled completion of the hotel, it is still early on the development timeline, and until the site plan is finally approved, the ultimate layout and design of any of the Reston Row buildings is subject to change. But, the demolition work underway is a promising first visible step towards the redevelopment and revitalization of a mostly-vacant 80s-era lowrise office neighborhood comprising several blocks. Fairfax County has committed substantial resources to infrastructure improvements in the vicinity, including an overpass for the W&OD trail at Wiehle Avenue, a new fire station, and the Soapstone Connector bridge over the nearby toll road. Private development of the nearby blocks around Michael Faraday Court and the extension of Reston Station Boulevard should also complement the new buildings at Reston Row, providing a base for the many new retail stores coming there and the Metro Plaza. More details on Comstock’s plans for the property should be available during the company’s annual stockholder meeting in June.