Sprint Nextel has a sprawling complex of property, from Reston Parkway to Fairfax County Parkway. But I want to concentrate on the core part of their property, the section bordering Reston Parkway and the Dulles Toll Road.
This part of the corridor is ripe for development. Firstly has wide open space, and any new development would not result in lost of open space except for the ugly and sprawling surface parking. The Reston Parkway metro stop will be right across from them, and would be great spot for a Reston Town Center like development to occur. There aren’t many singe family homes that might feel disturbed either. In other words it is perfect.
But Sprint appears to continue building it’s ugly and inefficient 5 story office buildings. They could be building ten story office and residential buildings with ground level retail, and the ground retail aspect would work well as the land is relatively flat there. But even if Sprint did not follow the Fairfax Counties newly implemented Transit Oriented
Development (building walkable communities near transit stations) standards, there still is hope. Older and even uglier one and two story buildings have been demolished on their property.
This is also an important issue county wide. With property already seeing increases around proposed metro stations, many developers have started building in this prime real estate. For instance the property near the Reston International Center has recently gone more dense and walkable. But it seems the new buildings will lack ground level retail (think Reston Town Center, or Lake Anne). The county needs to implement special areas that not only encourage, but require developers to follow TOD standards.
Do you think Sprint should diversify development on it’s property? Or should it remain of surface parking lots and copy and paste architecture?
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