Half a mile from the Wiehle–Reston East station, three low-rise commercial buildings in Reston are proposed to be replaced with 90 stacked townhomes and three multifamily buildings. The community, which developer Pulte refers to as the “Lofts II at Reston Station” in documents recently submitted to Fairfax County, will substantially complete the transit-oriented redevelopment of the blocks north of the Dulles Toll Road and east of Wiehle Avenue. The name appears to be in reference to the existing Lofts at Reston Station buildings, which were completed in 2019.
The development would consolidate three existing parcels, and a portion of a fourth parcel which is dedicated solely to surface parking, into one single large block bounded by Reston Station Boulevard to the south and east, Michael Faraday Drive to the west, and Sunset Hills Road to the north. Reston Station Boulevard would be improved with an eight-foot wide sidewalk and extended east to the edge of the new property, where it would connect to both Sunset Hills Road and the planned South Lakes connector bridge running south over the toll road. Private roads through the property would provide access to garage parking for the townhome-style condominiums and the multifamily buildings.
The townhomes are “two-over-two” three-bedroom condos, some of which may have a fourth-floor terrace. Each unit would have a single-car garage and one driveway space on the ground floor. The three multifamily buildings are proposed to each be five stories tall, with garage parking on the first level. The application implies that the multifamily units will be for-sale. As a precedent, the existing Lofts community consisted of similar stacked townhomes and a multifamily condominium building, all of which were for-sale. The multifamily units will be primarily two-bedrooms.
The development will be solely residential, with no retail or office uses proposed in the Final Development Plan. The eastern-most of the parcels had been rezoned in 2018 to allow office, hotel, or senior living uses—although not in the final plan, the Conceptual Development Plan will retain that option from the previous rezoning. Pulte’s statement of justification asserts that residential is appropriate for the property due to its distance from the Metro station, and office uses are planned for more proximate areas.
The current uses, which date back to their initial improvements in 1982, are low-rise commercial and surface parking. One of the two single story buildings is in business as a cosmetic surgery practice, and the two-story building is home to the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. Much of the surrounding area prior to the opening of the Silver Line was dominated by office condominiums and light industrial buildings. If this new residential development is approved, almost every property in the vicinity between Sunset Hills Road and the Dulles Toll Road will have been rezoned for dense, transit-oriented development. Since the Metro station opened, the property to the south has been redeveloped with mixed-use apartment buildings. To the west, townhomes have been built or are under construction. The mid-rise office buildings to the east of the proposed community have not been rezoned, but are still in use and are modern enough to be compatible with the new and planned developments.
The applicant hopes that the addition of for-sale residential development will “provide additional missing-middle opportunities for homeownership” in Reston and claims that replacing the existing commercial uses with 190 residential units will decrease peak hour vehicle trips. The site will feature 30% public open space, which is an improvement over the current conditions which are mostly impervious surface parking. In general, the proposed development seems to be compatible with Reston’s comprehensive plan, and would create more homes within a reasonable walking distance from public transit and amenities. With work on the Reston Midline and Reston Station construction projects continuing, the Wiehle–Reston East station neighborhood is Reston’s most active development area and continues to deliver on the promise of urban, mixed-use development that helped justified the extension of the Washington Metro to Reston in the first place.