Paula C. Squires// May 15, 2017//
Clemente Development Co. has submitted design plans to Fairfax County for a $1.3 billion, mixed-use project on a prime piece of real estate at Tysons Corner.
The Tysons-based company is proposing a 2.8-million-square-foot development of five buildings that would include office space, a hotel, condominiums and service businesses on 7.4 acres of land adjacent to the Spring Hill Metro station.
The breakdown in terms of space would be 529,673 square feet of office,111,793 square feet of retail, 786 apartments, 320 high-end luxury condominiums, a 330-room hotel, and a 300-seat, 24,834-square-foot performing arts center. The project would be called the The View at Tysons.
Dan Clemente, chairman and CEO of Clemente Development, says the firm already has a contract to the buy the land, which has been held for years by the Cherner family. “We have it under contract. We will, in fact, buy the land as soon as the zoning is approved,” he said. “Our project is fully funded. This is not pie in the sky. We’re ready to go.”
Clemente added that his company already has invested about a million dollars in the design application, which includes detailed engineering and traffic studies. The company is seeking to rezone the property from a general industrial and retail zoning to a newly adopted zoning for Tysons, the PTC, or Planned Tysons Corner Urban.
According to Clemente, the county’s zoning process for Tysons typically takes 12 to 18 months.
“This is a very important site, because it was originally designated as the model for Tysons. The initial developer who had the land under contract, [the Georgelas Group] did not go forward, because their contract was due to go to closing in 2008, and you know what happened in 2008,” he said, referring to an economic depression that decimated real estate markets.
Since the property never went to closing, it was taken off the market. It went back on the market last year, when Clemente said his company made an offer to buy it. He said terms of the purchase contract prohibit the disclosure of the purchase price for the land located in the northeast quadrant of Leesburg Pike and Spring Hill Road.
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