Wagering on Metro Expansion
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Wagering on Metro Expansion

Railway expansion attracts new multi-use development - and economic growth.

As the effort to expand Washington, D.C.’s MetroRail mass transit system continues, developers are taking the initiative by investing in properties near proposed station sites.

Herndon hasn’t been left out of the rush.

Kevin Dougherty and his Herndon-based development group, Crimson Partners, are staking the largest claim to date along the proposed mass transit pathway with a 2.7 million square-foot, mixed-use development worth an estimated $1 billion, situated directly next to a proposed Metro stop, east of Elden Street on the Dulles Access Toll Road.

The project will include residential, office, retail and hotel space and is slated for completion in 2011. In total, the project will contain 1,000 luxury residential condominium units.

"Do you see how that window at the end of the hallway looks? It’s the little things that just add to the overall quality of this project," Dougherty said as he walked through a hallway in the Mark, what will be the flagship luxury residential building still under construction.

"It’s the glass that’s really important," Dougherty said, stepping over a roll of pink insulation as workers' saws buzz in the background. "It’s a little more cost, but at the end of the day it makes all the difference. I just think it makes it so much better."

Crimson Partners has worked on developments throughout the Washington, D.C. area since 1992, including Market Square in Washington, D.C., Avion office and research and development park in Fairfax County and the Spring Park Technology Center in Herndon.

Dougherty said that constructing a mixed-use development right near a proposed Metro stop has been the most original thing about this particular project.

"I saw that the amount of land in the Toll Road corridor was decreasing quickly," Dougherty said. "When you think of the growth of the city of Washington, you’re going out in concentric circles."

"It used to be a long way to Dulles Airport [from Washington, D.C.]. It’s not so far any more," he said.

THE PROJECT, which Crimson Partners have dubbed "Dulles Station," was designed as an "urban oasis in the suburbs," where walking everywhere is feasible, Dougherty said.

"It’s this creation of an urban concept of living, where you can go to the gym, get a cup of coffee and then pick up your dry cleaning without getting into your car," Dougherty said, pointing out that the bricks on different portions of the buildings’ exteriors would be different colors to emulate an urban atmosphere.

"The old office parks were just too plain. You have to get in your car to go anywhere," Dougherty said. "It’s very secluded."

"Here we’ll put exercise areas, offices, coffee shops, all with large windows looking out directly on to the street," he said. "It’s so you do not feel so secluded. You feel connected."

The group that designed the project, RTKL Associates, has "pioneered this concept of urban fusion," according to Dougherty, who said the pedestrian atmosphere that the development encourages will not just be attractive for its convenience, but for releasing some of the financial pressure on commuters caused by recent record gas prices.

THE PROPOSED METRO station that would be adjacent to the site, now being referred to as the "Route 28 / C.I.T." [Center for Innovative Technologies] stop, is scheduled for completion sometime between 2011 and 2015, according to Patti Nicoson, president of the Dulles Corridor Rail Association, a non-profit group dedicated to the expansion of Metro services to Dulles.

"It’s just the kind of development that you want to see around the Metro," Nicoson said. "People can live and work there, they can take the Metro to go into the city or to the airport. It’s this mixed-use concept … that we’re pushing for."

Although Dougherty said that the development would be going on whether or not the Metro was expanding, Nicoson said that the rail project is acting like an investment magnet to the area.

"In both Fairfax and Loudoun Counties you’re seeing a lot of developers using [the Metro expansion project] as an economic tool," Nicoson said. "There’s been an interest in all of the property along the [proposed] MetroRail… all of these property values have gone up."

"It’s great because it will raise property values and open up even more jobs in the Dulles Corridor," she said. "Right now employers have a hard time finding employees [in the area] because of the traffic, but the Metro can take them out here."

THE TOWN OF HERNDON and the Herndon-Dulles region could see substantial positive economic effects as a result of the Crimson Partners and the MetroRail expansion, said Eileen Curtis, president of the Herndon-Dulles Chamber of Commerce.

"The town is going to benefit from it in that it will bring a whole new section of consumers for restaurants and the town’s products and services," Curtis said. "On the other hand, it could bring 1,000 more cars into traffic … before the Metro gets there."

"This is not just a case of the economy moving forward, as it has been for quite some time," she said, "but also in the dovetailing of this new idea of the Metro station with a pedestrian development."

For Dougherty, the quality of the development and the close vicinity to the proposed Metro stop are going to be what attracts people looking for homes in the area.

"People are going to want to live where quality matches the inside and the outside," Dougherty said. "I think the investor frenzy has left the market and people want to buy houses to live in them again … and we offer that quality."

"This type of density and mixed-use projects around the [future] Metro stations are the wave of the future, and they’ll be the model for other transit stations," Curtis said.

"I think it will be a good addition to the area," she added. "When you have a good business, it attracts more business."