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The Landowners of Tysons

image: Fairfax County DPZ

For the fun of it, I digged info on “Who’s Who” Tysons Corner’s landlords. In this post, we’re trekking the landlords of Tysons using the data that was prepared sometime in 2005 for Dulles metrorail. So it may contain info that is not current as of this time of writing.

The landownership within Tysons Corner is divided into publicly owned and privately owned land.  The other day, Washington Post had a piece about West Group (link to post), the largest ‘privately-owned’ landowner, that is selling land holdings to another company. While West Group is the single largest property owner, Tysons Corner Property LLC owns the largest contiguous land mass in Tysons, according to Fairfax County record.

The landownership in Tysons is divided according to the proposed four rail stations slated for Dulles metrorail:

1. Tysons East
2. Tysons Central 123
3. Tysons Central 7
4. Tysons West

In Tysons East. Who knew? That with the exception to the large parcel of Gates of McLean condominium, north of this station is owned by the ‘whats-in-your-wallet’ Capital One (25 acres) and West Group (10 acres). On the south of the station, the land is owned by a ‘few’ large landowners (no further info). However, land ownership along Colshire and southeast Anderson Road that range from 10 to 20 acres is owned by a few companies that includes Mitre Corporation, West Group, Northrop Grumman, MR Commons and Safeway.

Move on to Tysons Central 123. This part of Tysons has large parcel of land over 20 acres. North of the station, the owners includes Tysons II Land Co LLC (30 ac.), Tysons II Mall. South of the station, which is the largest single land mass under one owner is owned by Tysons Corner Property Holdings LLC (Tysons I Mall) with over 80 acres.

Then to Tysons Central 7. On this part of the proposed station, land masses ranged from 5.5 acres to over 18 acres, is owned by a few companies, i.e. SAIC (18 ac.), Booz Allen Hamilton (13 ac.), Sherwood Tysons (Marshall Shopping) owns about 16 ac. Koons Auto Dealership owns about 14 acres. Pike 7 Plaza owns about 12.6 acres.

Last station is Tysons West. This part of the proposed station no biggie landowners per se, because ownership is divided among several car dealerships and Rosenthal that owns 12 ac. of land, which is  the largest piece over here.

Oh, there’s more here. There you have it..

West Group Change Hands

Washington Post reports that the owner of West Group, the largest landowner of Tysons Corner cashing in his 142 acre of holdings to an investment group led by Robert Pence, a developer with local “Fairfax” root. The new owner will continue to focus on West Group’s vision for redevelopment of Tysons Corner.

The WestGroup owns about 140 office and apartment buildings in Tysons. Its office properties have as much as 2 million square feet of space available, according to the company’s Web site.

WestGroup developed two major pieces of Tysons Corner’s current landscape: WestPark, outside the Capital Beltway, and WestGate, inside the Beltway. The company’s buildings are home to major companies, including Freddie Mac, Mitre and Northrop Grumman.

Full story here and here..

Dulles Metrorail & Harris Teeter Tysons (update)

OK, now we know that the Feds approved the project. This is the latest update from Dulles Metrorail, via email.

· On Jan. 28, the Fairfax County Planning Commission will  hold public hearings on the proposed Phase 1 stations to determine conformance with Fairfax County’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

· Utility relocations continue in Tysons Corner. The project team continues to work with local businesses to help ease the impact of these relocations.

So, project is really moving forward. For traffic and utility relocation update, here. Oh, and today happens to be: the grand opening of Harris Teeter in Tyson Corner. The blurb..

Shoppers surrounding the new store are also invited to a special event called Taste of Teeter on Tuesday, January 13 at 5:30 p.m. At Taste of Teeter, shoppers will be able to sample a wide variety of top quality products available at our store including Farmers Market produce; USDA Rancher and Reserve Angus Beef; Fishermans Market and Fresh Foods Market Deli/Bakery items, along with an extensive selection of national brand and private label products.

Food tasting! Yum..

Capital One Buys Chevy Chase Bank

Oy, credit card giant Capital One morphed into a bank. Thanks to the bailout money. What’s in your wallet HQ? is in Tysons. Global Macro Economonitor says the transaction is another bailout freebie.

I wrote a few weeks back about how your bailout money was being used for mergers and acquisitions to line bankers’ pockets instead of for making loans to desperate homeowners. After receiving $25 billion in bailout funds, Citigroup attempted to buy Chevy Chase Bank despite the fact it was near collapse. Luckily this deal was scuppered as Capital One has now acquired Chevy Chase, just as the Wachovia deal was canceled when Wells Fargo stepped in.

Dulles Rail Extension Got the OK

The long due 23.1 mile Dulles Silver Line is almost here. The Federal Transit Administration signs off on the rail extension from West Falls Church station all the way to Loudoun County via Dulles Airport, finally. Guess, this might be the ‘silver lining’ of $4 gas prices. The Sec. of Transportation will have to give the final OK for the project.

In case you’re wondering, Tysons stations will be elevated. And utility relocation work had already started back in the Spring of this year eventhough project approval was still in limbo.

The money quote, via Loudoun Extra.

Federal regulators have signed off on a long-awaited extension of Metrorail to Tysons Corner and Dulles International Airport, officially reversing their threats earlier this year to kill the $5.2 billion project.

The Federal Transit Administration approved the extension, which now heads to U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and the Office of Management and Budget for final sign-off. Approval from the FTA, where regulators had attacked the proposal as too expensive and poorly managed, is widely viewed as a critical moment for a project that local and state officials say is crucial to relieve traffic and spur economic growth at Tysons Corner and along the Dulles corridor.

The first phase, with 4 stops at Tysons Corner terminus at Wiehle Avenue in Reston corridor schedule to complete in 2013. Then second phase to Route 722 in Loudoun will complete in 2016. I would say give and take another year to complete the project – in 2017.

With this project surely coming on the pipeline, Reston is calling your name ..

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Dulles Rail Map

Is This Good Idea?

From reader MP.

..I am thinking to buy condo at Lillian court because new metro make price go up. This is good idea?

Location close to a metro is one of big things in real estate domain. You see it all the time in ads. Walk to a metro. Few blocks from metro, etc. etc. OK, you get the idea. Yes, having Dulles metro coming to the area of Tysons Corner in addition to the proximity to shops, restaurants, etc. could make a difference in prices. Location, location, location.

Builders do this all the time. They bought land based on master plan for a certain area, sit and wait for years till the time comes to build their properties and sell them. For lack of a better word ‘speculative.’ If you are buying a condo in this location – sounds that you know about which condo to buy – what you want to know more, are the things related to the condo itself. Because this condo would pass ‘the location’ test.

For example. 1) what’s the comps for the hood (active listings, under contracts and solds), 2) what is the owner vs tenant ratio, 3) what kind of expenses condo fee covers, 4) assessments (past, present, future if any) and many more condo related questions – the kind of questions you should know before taking the leap.

Oh by the way, whether you are first-time buyer or not, you might want to consider using the service of a Realtor to ‘represent’ you in the home buying transaction. Here is why. Listing agent represents the seller and obviously the seller’s best interests. The same thing is true with buyer’s agent. Buyer’s agent represents buyer’s best interests. Although in Virginia a Realtor is allowed to do ‘dual‘ meaning “to represent clients at both side of a transaction (buying and selling),” I would not recommend anyone using a Realtor who are willingly be your dual agent! There’s just something wrong with representing both sides at the same time. Personally, I think it’s loaded with conflict of interests. Period.

How could you represent the best interest of your clients (in the same transaction) and be fair to both parties? A friend told me once before about this dual agent thing.. she said, “It’s like going through a divorce, having one lawyer to represent both husband and wife.” Yep. She nails it.

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Further reading: 10 Questions to Ask Condo Board

Land Use Task Force Recommendations for Future of Tysons

With the coming of four metro stations part of Dulles Rail slated for Tysons Corner, the Tysons Land Use Task Force envisioned the creation of a liveable and vibrant urban place for people to live, work and play. Fairfax County sees Tysons population to swell from 17,000 to 100,000 denizens and from currently at 105,000 to 200,000 jobs by 2050. A lot of growth in a very short time. That’s why the plan for Tysons’ future growth is concentrated in areas within 1/8 of a mile from a metro station. That translates to: higher density.

In a nutshell, this is how they see the future of Tysons Corner.

• Tysons 1700 acres will be divided into eight mixed-use districts.
• Ninety-five percent of the new housing will be transit-oriented-development or TOD within 3 minutes of walk (pretty ambitious, you think) from station and from buses. Then there is a plan for circulator which connects the four metro stations with areas not served by metrorail.
• It put emphasis on high environmental standards. New buildings must be green construction standards and all buildings must be LEED silver certified by 2013.
• Strong focus on affordable and workforce housing. The plan requires 20% of residence be set aside as work force/ affordable housing. Fairfax’s median income for work force/ affordable housing is between 60 to 120 percent of area median income.
• 160 acres of green and open space throughout the hood which effectively would double the existing green space.

From here the plan goes to Planning Commission and Planning staff for comprehensive plan text before coming up with the final version. So, it’ll be months before we see anything close to the final touch.

source: Fairfax County