Ground to Break Soon for Arcola Center in Northern Virginia
December 14, 2006
The 400-acre Arcola Center in Loudoun County, Virginia will begin to take shape in 2007-08.
Dulles, Virginia, December 7, 2006…The long-awaited 400-acre Arcola Center in the Dulles area of Loudoun County, Virginia will begin to take shape in 2007-08 with a 670,000 square foot lifestyle retail center, to be followed by the adjacent mixed-use town center combining first-floor boutique retail stores and restaurants with second-story office space.
Arcola Center is Buchanan Partners’ exciting planned mixed-use development on approximately 400 acres in the nation’s wealthiest county, Loudoun County. It is strategically located at the juncture of Route 50, Route 606, and Loudoun County Parkway in the southeast part of the county, surrounded by thousands of homes but virtually no commercial space. Based on well-established “smart growth” principles and incorporating the recommendations of a local citizen task force, Arcola Center will be a vibrant, 24-7 community that combines residential, commercial, retail, entertainment, and cultural uses.
Designed to be built out over a ten- to twenty-year period, Arcola Center is planned for up to 2.1 million square feet of office and commercial space, up to 1.1 million square feet of retail space, and approximately 80 acres of town homes and multifamily housing. Also planned are two hotels and a civic/cultural tourism and educational destination featuring a restored slave quarters dating from the early 1800s. All this will be located within a carefully planned, pedestrian-friendly live-work-play environment that will transform the western gateway to Loudoun County.
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors’ October 2006 approval of a Comprehensive Plan Amendment for the Arcola area of Route 50 has permitted Buchanan Partners’ development team to move forward on the first phase of Arcola Center, a much-needed retail center serving the Dulles South area. Buchanan and its KLNB retail leasing brokers (formerly part of Madison Retail Group) are presently in active negotiations with some of the best-known stores in the U.S. to become part of the new 670,000 square foot lifestyle center to be located on the eastern portion of the Arcola Center site. Anchored by the nation’s most popular discount department store and a big-box home improvement center, this center also will include an array of medium-box stores catering to a wide range of family needs: furniture, clothing, pet care products, electronics, baby products, and more. This center should be open for business by the fourth quarter of 2008.
Adjacent to the lifestyle center and easily accessible on foot or by auto will be the heart of Arcola Center: a Main Street town center centered around a plaza with a custom-designed fountain and outdoor restaurant seating. Main Street will be lined with approximately 145,000 square feet of boutique-type in-line shops and restaurants with professional office space on the second floor. Very few locations in the U.S. combine Main Street and lifestyle center shopping options in a way that allows each center to draw from the others’ customer base. Buchanan believes that this synergy will be an important factor in the early success of Arcola Center.
Large and small businesses will find a wide variety of office space locations and configurations within Arcola Center -- ranging from traditional leased office space and flex space to office condos, which offer business owners the tax and investment benefits of owning their own business property. Smaller businesses can select office-over-retail locations, providing employees with the convenience and stimulation of a vibrant Main Street environment. In all, Arcola Center will have up to 2.1 million square feet of office and flex space. By taking advantage of the housing opportunities at Arcola Center, employees will be able to walk to work, thus saving money, reducing stress, and providing them more free time to spend with their families.
Buchanan Partners has selected award-winning homebuilder EYA (formerly Eakin/Youngentob Associates) to master-plan Arcola Center’s residential neighborhoods and build a portion of the town homes. EYA, whose motto is “Life within walking distance,” is the Washington metropolitan area’s premier developer of innovative urban neighborhoods and neo-traditional communities. Says EYA’s Bob Youngentob: “Most people think of Loudoun County as a single-family bedroom community. By building higher-density housing within walking distance of shops and offices, we will provide an alternative way to live in the County.”
EYA, along with other residential builders yet to be determined, will build homes in two sections of Arcola Center. The 69-acre Village at Arcola Center, located on the northwest corner of the site, will combine multifamily housing and town homes with a town green, recreation center, office space, and retail stores with second-floor office space. The Village will be designed as a transition to the historic village of Arcola, which is not part of the Arcola Center project. The other residential neighborhood, to be called The Residences at Main Street, will be located on 55 acres fronting Route 50. A portion of the homes in this neighborhood will be designated as affordable housing and workforce housing.
A unique facet of Arcola Center will be the educational and tourism destination focusing on a restored slave quarters building dating to the early 1800s. Buchanan Partners is working with Friends of the Slave Quarters, the Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association, and the Loudoun County Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services to develop this historic structure as a cultural "anchor" for the area. It will be a destination for heritage tourism, particularly for those interested in African-American history.
For more information: Visit www.thearcolacenter.com.
One of the top 20 commercial developers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, according to the Washington Business Journal, Buchanan Partners has developed a portfolio of over three million square feet of commercial property. The portfolio includes office, industrial, flex and retail space projects that have been developed, acquired, approved, or under construction. Buchanan Partners also has acquired, planned or developed over 1,600 acres of commercial land over the past seven years. For more information, see the company’s Web site at www.buchananpartners.com.
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