AvalonBay Communities Inc. will move headquarters

JLL announced Thursday that AvalonBay Communities Inc. will move from its headquarters in Arlington to a 73,000-square-foot space in the 4040 Wilson Blvd. development in Ballston. Avalon, an equity REIT that specializes in multifamily projects, will take more than three floors of the The Shooshan Co.  and Brandywine Realty Trust’s final phase of their Liberty Center mixed-use development.

According to JLL, the AvalonBay lease — plus the existing lease with VIDA Fitness —  brings the commercial component of the building to 50 percent pre-leased. Avalon plans to move from its current location in the Ballston Tower on Glebe Road, which is right around the corner, during the second quarter of 2020. “We look forward to remaining in Ballston and designing a workplace where our more than 300 headquarters associates will be inspired to do their best every day,” said Kurt Conway, Avalon's senior vice president of brand strategy and marketing.

Situated across the street from Forest City’s redevelopment of the Ballston Mall, 4040 Wilson Blvd. is Ballston’s tallest building at 22 stories, and it offers unobstructed views of Washington, D.C. AvalonBay plans to take space on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors and a portion of the 7th floor, leaving about 117,000 square feet of office space still available. VIDA Fitness, which will open its first non-D.C. location, has signed a lease for 30,000 square feet on the building’s second floor.

“When we decided to amend 4040 Wilson to a mixed-use building consisting of roughly a 50/50 split of office and residential and increased retail last year, we did so in an effort to adjust to the recent market trends which consisted of more prospective tenants in the +/- 75,000 SF range and more retail demand along Wilson Blvd.,” Kevin Shooshan, leasing director of the Shooshan Co. said in a statement.

“AvalonBay’s decision to relocate its headquarters to what will be D.C.’s first vertical mixed-use development is a testament not only to the resurgent Ballston submarket, but to how forward-thinking companies are embracing community and innovative, smart and sustainable workplace design,” Jerry Sweeney, president and CEO of Brandywine Realty Trust said in a statement.

The Shooshan Cos. and Brandywine Realty Trust, in partnership with Clark Construction, will begin construction on 4040 Wilson in the first quarter of 2018. JLL’s Herb Mansinne and Robert VeShancey represented the landlord in this transaction.