Publicly traded REIT opening NoVA office

Maryland-based Federal Realty Investment Trust announced Tuesday plans to open its first full-service office in Virginia no later than July.

Deirdre Johnson, Federal Realty’s vice president of asset management, says the the publicly traded company has a letter of intent on a roughly 5,000-square-foot lease in Tysons that will house 20 employees

“Virginia is a very business-friendly state,” Johnson says. “We want to have a deeper presence within the market.”

Johnson says Federal Realty already has a three-person property management office in Charlottesville and a marketing director based in Richmond.

Federal Realty owns and develops The Shops at Willow Lawn, a Richmond-area shopping center. The company has its headquarters in Rockville, Md., and offices in Philadelphia, Boston and San Jose, Calif..

The company’s new office in Tysons will have staff for development, leasing, construction, asset management, property management and accounting, Johnson says. She would not say how much it’s costing to open the office, which will require renovations.

Johnson will lead the Tysons office along with Ramsey Meiser, who is senior vice president of development, and Rich Abruscato, who is vice president of leasing.