Construction on Tysons Corner Apartment Building to Start Next Month

Tysons has it good these days. What was just a few years ago a distant, forgettable suburb with prohibitively wide streets that looked nothing like its urban neighbor to the east, now has the hope of a new comprehensive urban plan, a foursome of Metro stations on the way, and developers queuing up to build. The latest is AvalonBay, which paid the Penrose Group $13.3 million for just 2.64 acres of land on Westpark Drive and plans to start construction of a 354-unit apartment building next month.

The new Avalon Park Crest, as it will be called, follows on the heels of Capital One's application to create a gridded street system and multi-phase development on 23 acres at the Tysons Metro stations. With construction already approved by the county and designed by the Lessard Group of Tysons, the units are expected to be occupied in early 2012. Arlington- based AvalonBay will build, own, and operate the apartment building. AvalonBay will not seek LEED certification, but will incorporate "numerous" green features.

The site is now within Park Crest development that currently includes condos, apartments and a Harris Teeter grocery store, and already includes the 558-unit Avalon Crescent. Despite being an aggressive investor with 171 buildings and more than 50,000 units to its name, this is the first new community AvalonBay has built in the mid-Atlantic since 2005, though it has been planning another new community in Wheaton.

The building will hold a 2-1/2 level underground parking garage, wifi lounge, "ample" bicycle storage, and two private one-quarter acre courtyards with a pool, and outdoor cooking.

McLean, Virginia real estate development news