RA Narrows Search For New Headquarters Down to Three Sites, One Really Bitchin' Set of Filing Cabinets

Hey, remember that time there was an uneventful referendum about the Reston Association spending millions of dollars to buy a fancy new headquarters complete with filing cabinets and child labor cubicles, and when it didn't pass, they decided to lease instead, much as a cash-strapped family might do if it really, really wanted the Chrysler LeBaron with the leather interior?

Yeah, that was awesome. Well, it turns out the "special committee" formed by the RA to figure out what to do about the headquarters issue has narrowed the list of potential sites to three options.

A special committee has whittled the list of potential headquarters sites for the Reston Association to three. All are located within Reston.

Since May, the Special Committee of the Board has been working with Reston Association staff and Cresa Partners, the real estate services firm, to identify new properties. Working from Cresa Partners original list of approximately 30 sites in Reston, the special committee toured six sites for lease.

During a special meeting of the Reston Association Board of Directors on July 13, 2009, the Board voted to limit the square footage range for a headquarters to between 25,000 and 30,000 square feet.

Reston Association has some unique needs, not common to the typical tenant,” said Milton W. Matthews, Reston Association chief executive officer. “In order to serve our members, we need access to the building after hours and on weekends, plenty of available parking, and contiguous space on one or two floors,” Matthews said.

But what, you might ask, came of Bob Simon's idea to move the headquarters to Lake Anne, as a way of jump-starting the much-needed redevelopment there? A cynic might think the RA would politely pay lip service to this idea and then move on. In truth, they did much more, going "above and beyond" by devoting one paragraph to the idea in a press release:

Simon has long advocated for a presence for Reston Association in Lake Anne. In fact, he recently approached the Association with an idea to purchase or lease a former restaurant that’s located in Lake Anne. It represents about 4,000 square feet of space, which Simon believes could be community space. Matthews said the
Association is still evaluating the idea.

That would be the microwave tapas place that's been closed for nearly a year now. Of course, a paltry 4,000 square feet wouldn't hold the A-F filing cabinets for DRB violations, so let's move on.

The "special committee" plans to make a recommendation to the RA Board at its September meeting. In the meantime, the press release says anyone with new proposals or ideas should give Matthews a call. We're thinking about making him an offer he can't refuse on our unused storage room in the basement of Restonian World Headquarters.