Reston, not Tysons, begins to dominate Northern Virginia real estate (Vienna: 2014, leases)

[NOVAEER]

Reston, not Tysons, begins to dominate Northern Virginia real estate - The Washington Post

[JD984]

Originally Posted by NOVAEER

Reston, not Tysons, begins to dominate Northern Virginia real estate - The Washington Post

It seems like there's a disconnect between the title of the article and its contents when you consider that:

- the article focuses on Reston Town Center rather than the larger Reston area along 267;

- the stats in the article show that RTC rents have been more expensive than Tysons or RB (Rosslyn-Ballston) Corridor rents for over a decade; and

- the spread between RTC rents and those in Tysons and the RB corridor has actually narrowed over the past decade, with RB Corridor rents higher than RTC rents in 2012 and 2013.

If you focus on the article's contents, what jumped out the most (at least to me) is that there's currently a lot of available office space in the RB Corridor, due to some of the big buildings that have gone up in Rosslyn that don't yet have tenants.

[YellowKing]

Not sure why anyone would choose to live in the RTC over the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. That being said, I lived in Tysons for quite some time and you'd have to lobotomize me before I'd tolerate that crap again.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by YellowKing

Not sure why anyone would choose to live in the RTC over the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. That being said, I lived in Tysons for quite some time and you'd have to lobotomize me before I'd tolerate that crap again.

The article and the headline are both discussing the markets for commercial/office, not residential, real estate.

[NOVA_guy]

I like Reston but it's too far out. If I had the option I'd for sure pick Tysons.

[PK12]

Originally Posted by NOVA_guy

I like Reston but it's too far out. If I had the option I'd for sure pick Tysons.

You completely read my mind - exactly my thoughts as well.

Reston is great, but tooooo darned far ... and by far I mean far from DC.

[tysonsengineer]

I gave OConnell some crap for this article. I like Reston, I even like the message of the article (that urbanity by itself is actually a selling feature and a marketable asset to an area even without mega infrastructure like metro). But the article misses a couple elements, RTC is a single owner property. It is about the size of 1 rezoning project currently underway in Tysons. Its easy for something of that size to exceed expectation and be something special. Its much harder for multiple properties (without guidance from the jurisdiction) to find a common planning goal instead of trying to one up and make life harder on the neighbor/competitor. This is the biggest change in Tysons, theres a set of common requirements and a master plan.

That being said, Avg Reston is a more valuable asset in office than Avg Tysons is today. Completely agree with that. The thing the article doesn't mention is that Tysons office stock is not Class A recent construction. Those that are lease at a much higher value (see Tysons Tower which leases much higher than the rest of Tysons).

Lastly, I'll end with this, what R-B is facing today, is a good thing so long as they can capitalize on it. Open office means falling prices. Falling prices means small businesses can get a space.

[gomason]

I wonder what percentage of the spike of vacancy in RB corridor is because of that one building. I'm sure it accounts for a sizeable chunk because it is one of the biggest buildings in the whole DC area.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by NOVA_guy

I like Reston but it's too far out.

Originally Posted by PK12

Reston is great, but tooooo darned far ... and by far I mean far from DC.

Yeah. If I was living in Northern Virginia I'd want easy access to The District, of course, for when I wanted to actually do something that was culturally-enriching or urbane.

When I lived in Reston I'd drive to either the Vienna or West Falls Church Orange Line Metrorail stations (20 minutes each from Reston), park, and then ride the rails into the city (another 20-25 minutes). 40-45 minutes to get into the city is much further out than most people would want to be in an era where priorities are shifting towards moving closer to the heart of the action---not further away from it.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Yeah. If I was living in Northern Virginia I'd want easy access to The District, of course, for when I wanted to actually do something that was culturally-enriching or urbane.

When I lived in Reston I'd drive to either the Vienna or West Falls Church Orange Line Metrorail stations (20 minutes each from Reston), park, and then ride the rails into the city (another 20-25 minutes). 40-45 minutes to get into the city is much further out than most people would want to be in an era where priorities are shifting towards moving closer to the heart of the action---not further away from it.

I think you overestimate the number of people in the region who consider DC the heart of their action. If you can see concerts at Patriot Center, Wolf Trap, Birchmere, State Theatre, Jiffy Lube, etc., then the importance of being within 30 minutes of, say, the 9:30 Club or the Warner Theatre diminishes. Same goes with respect to restaurants when you compare, say, the plethora of affordable ethnic options in the suburbs with some great, but typically more expensive, options in DC.