When developer Macerich won approval a year ago to convert the Tysons Corner Center into an urban core of office, retail and living space, the decision was hung on one major contingency: the successful construction of an adjacent Metrorail line.
Now that the rail-to-Dulles project, which would have added four new stations in Tysons, has all but collapsed, Macerich may be forced to turn to a scaled-back plan it quietly passed as a fallback.
It could mean a 3.5 million-square-foot mall expansion touted as the premier example of “transit-oriented development” in Fairfax County reverts to a more traditional, car-dependent endeavor, the kind Fairfax County supervisors hoped to leave behind.
Prospects for running a new rail line through Tysons grew dim this month when the Federal Transit Administration, which holds $900 million of crucial funding, said the proposal was too expensive for the number of riders it would serve, among other problems.
“I think at this point in time, given the history of the project and all the resources that have been brought to bear here, we’re still very hopeful that the folks who are working on the project are finding a way to get it done,” said John Harrison, vice president of development for Macerich.
But Macerich is nevertheless prepared to put a Plan B in place. The more modest alternative, which is still substantial, would cut about 80,000 square feet of the project’s first phase of 1.4 million square feet — essentially trimming floors off the office and residential buildings and hotel.
Subsequent phases, whose progress is tied to milestonesin Dulles Rail’s construction, will likely be put on the back burner.
Community activists, who were already uneasy with the scope of the mall expansion and the traffic it would create, are even more concerned about a development without any heavy rail access that would have taken at least some motorists off the road. Routes 123 and 7, at whose intersection the mall sits, are considered some of the most congested arteries in the county.
Becky Cate, vice chairwoman of the Providence District Council, said she was “absolutely worried” about the project’s effect on traffic, especially because it’s already been mostly approved.
“There is not a darn thing we can do about what’s been approved,” she said. “There is nothing we can do.”
The Original Plan
» Four office buildings with a total of 1.4 million square feet
» 1,300 new homes totaling 1.6 million square feet
» A 300-room, 266,000-square-foot hotel
» Nearly 200,000 square feet of service-oriented retail
