Staff OKs Spectrum plan in Reston
By Gregg MacDonald
Plans to significantly transform the Spectrum shopping center in Reston moved forward last week as a county staff report recommended approval of the project.The redevelopment plan would put 1,442 residential units and almost 790,000 square feet of office and retail space on the 24.29-acre property, the current site of Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Citibank and other retail businesses.
“It is a long-term redevelopment proposal for the existing Spectrum Shopping Center,” said Mark Looney, an attorney with Cooley, Godward Kronish.
The northern and southern parts of the center “were zoned as part of the original Reston Town Center creation back in the late 1980s and it was underdeveloped with the current retail uses,” Looney said. “The project has always been designed to be an urban, pedestrian-oriented development opening onto Fountain Drive.”
The proposed redevelopment, as outlined in the staff report released May 8, will include the gradual removal and rebuilding of the existing Spectrum shopping center.
A mixed-use development will replace the southern section, where Best Buy is located, with two high-rise apartment buildings along Bowman Towne Drive and two nonresidential high-rises along New Dominion Parkway. All four buildings could be as high as 180 feet, the equivalent of 15 stories.
Construction of 790,000 square feet of nonresidential uses, including some retail, is also proposed. A minimum of 5,251 parking spaces would be provided.
Two residential towers are also planned for the northern part of the proposal, in the section currently housing the Harris Teeter grocery store.
Those two residential towers would be a maximum height of 120 feet tall. Harris Teeter would remain and possibly expand into the current Office Depot building, increasing the size of the grocery store from 56,000 square feet to 84,000 square feet.
Overall, the project includes two office buildings, seven new residential structures and one building that could be an office or hotel. The project would also create new, internal, privately owned east/west streets and eight “open-air public and private plazas.”
“I am pleased that the county recommends approval of this project,” Looney said Monday. “We were uncertain for a while that staff would ultimately make a recommendation for approval.”
A public hearing on the redevelopment plan is scheduled by the Fairfax County Planning Commission for Wednesday, May 21, at 8:15 p.m.
For more information, contact the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Zoning at 703-324-1290 or www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpz.