Mega-development to be retooled with senior-living tower
LONDON: Seniors housing is to be incorporated within a revamped community space on a regeneration site.
A decade after LCOR Inc. proposed a nearly 2,500-unit residential community in Tysons, it’s coming back a different plan and a new partner.
The developer has begun to redesign its 21-acre McLean Crossing project, which has been in the works since 2011 at Anderson and Chain Bridge roads. The developer’s latest idea is to downsize the residential component to 1.7 million square feet comprised of 1,600 residential units, plus 120,000 to 150,000 square feet of retail and 250,000 to 300,000 square feet of office, LCOR senior vice president Josh White said.
“We’ve looked at what could be there and how Tysons has evolved in general in the years since our plan was approved,” White said. “So, we re-evaluated and concluded we should review the plan and kind of renew the vision to establish a genuine neighborhood and an atmosphere that’s more desired.”
The resultant development would bring a much more diverse mix of uses to the land east of the McLean stop on Metro’s Silver Line — a station that had yet to open when LCOR’s plan was approved. The lower density will allow for more street-level pedestrian experiences and design, with about six acres of land would be reserved for park uses, White said. Diversifying the housing stock in the area is also desirable, he said, adding the development will pull more people from both Tysons and McLean.
The company is also bringing in a new partner for its next phase: Monarch Communities, which will built a 210-unit senior housing tower in the development. Andrew Teeters, managing partner of Monarch, said the company has been looking to build a senior community in Tysons or McLean since its founding in 2019, and LCOR’s project is a perfect fit.
“There’s been very limited new supply of senior housing in this area over the past 20 years, so you have this whole market, especially of adult children 45 to 60 whose parents are over 80, because they’re looking for the service-enriched senior living in more modern developments,” Teeters said.
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The area’s population of 75-plus seniors and older families in a three-mile radius of the site has lent the company to consider it an ideal market to develop senior housing, he added.
About 120 of the senior units will be independent living apartments, about with another 60 assisted living and 30 memory care units, which all vary greatly in size from studios to one-bedroom and two-bedroom units.
The developers have begun conversations with Fairfax County officials and will submit a concept plan for the site in early 2022, White said. They’re working with Paul Norman, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield’s capital markets and land advisory group, in the process.
The original plan for McLean Crossing was approved in 2013 and called for seven towers ranging from six to 23 stories with a combined total of 2,500 residential units and 50,000 square feet of retail, over some objections of some commissioners that a larger retail component would be preferable. Only one of the towers has actually been constructed so far: The $122 million, 319-unit Kingston at McLean Crossing, which is 97% leased.
At the time, White said, the developer envisioned McLean Crossing as a complement to the commercial-heavy 6.8-million-square-foot Scotts Run South development around the McLean metro, as well as the new Capital One headquarters with its own mini entertainment district. But a combination of things encouraged the change, according to White. For one, 2,500 apartments is a lot to absorb at once. But mixed-use development provides more amenities for residents and diversifies the income streams there, even during a pandemic, White added.
