Fairfax County has cut off negotiations with a developer to convert a Reston park-and-ride lot into a mix of dwellings, shops and offices around aplanned Metrorail station, officials said, citing a failure to reach an agreement over financing.
The county had sought a public-private partnership to redevelop its nine-acre site on Wiehle Avenue, the last stop in the first 11.6-mile phase of the extension of Metro to Dulles.
Comstock Companies appeared to be on track to win the partnership after lengthy negotiations. County staff delivered a presentation earlier this month that forecasted the Board of Supervisors would give the project preliminary approval on Monday.
But the plan never made it that far. Fairfax County sent the firm a letter on June 13 to terminate negotiations, according to Cathy Muse, director of Fairfax County’s Department of Purchasing and Supply Management.
“There was a financial gap between the Comstock Companies’ position and our position that we have been unable to close after a year and a half of negotiations,” Muse said Monday. “We felt we weren’t making progress and we had spent enough time trying to.”
The negotiations were entered into under Virginia’s Public-Private Educational Facilities Infrastructure Act, which allows closed-door talks for projects that provide a public benefit.
Comstock Chief Financial Officer Beau Schweikert told The Examiner on June 8 the company had agreed to build a 2,300-space commuter parking lot and other amenities to serve the Wiehle Avenue Station, as well as 80,000 square feet of retail, 1 million square feet of office, as many as 560 apartments or condos and a large public open space.
The parties could not agree, Muse said, on both the level of private investment Comstock would commit and how much the county would pay to operate the site’s publicly owned facilities. Fairfax County Supervisor Cathy Hudgins said the county will be exploring new options and plans to send out another request seeking bids from potential developers. Neither Schweikert nor anyone elsewho could speak for Comstock Companies could be reached Monday.
