"Why Reston's Hot": A Brief But Informative Essay Courtesy Of Your Friendly Neighborhood Developers

Have you heard? Reston is hot! And we're not just talking about the exciting possibility of ironic hipster bowling, silly rabbits!

With the Silver Line extension and expanding national tenants like Fannie Mae and Bechtel, Reston Town Center is surging in NoVa.

Hold up a second now. We need to grab our sunglasses.

And who better to tell you that you're in the epicenter of excessive heat than your friendly local developer? Let's get some good blockquote hotness, BFFs from Bisnow, who are hosting some kind of revenue-generating event seminar about Reston on June 9:

Walsh Colucci Lubeley & Walsh's Andrew Painter, our zoning guru moderator, tells us he thinks Reston is at a pivotal time in its history and that the demand to live in Reston—and rent and lease rates—have never been higher. "We're already seeing positive effects from the Silver Line," he says, noting that Reston has enough unique attributes to allow it to effectively compete with Tysons.

Being competitive with a collection of car dealerships, generic office buildings, and shopping malls? HOT. Even though we're still way behind in the critical cornhole and table tennis space.

You know what else is hawt? Mauvescrapers that were opposed by virtually every community organization!

Akridge VP David Toney, also a speaker at our event, says his firm and RTC partnered to develop 1760 Reston Pkwy, a $210M, 420k SF trophy-class office tower that will change the local landscape. It'll be the tallest building at 330 feet, 115 feet higher than the next tallest in the Town Center. (You'll see the building from Toll Road, and it will of course have stellar views.)

Stellar views are hot! Stellar views of an empty, once beloved midscale chain eatery a little less so, but still. Hot!

And there's more! Bechtel and Fannie Mae are expanding their respective footprints in our epicenter of hotness!

Bechtel principal Charlene Wheeless tells us her firm (which moved 625 employees from Maryland to Reston in 2012) is expanding its current footprint here by 175k SF at Boston Properties locations. ​“Reston is about more than just a place,” Charlene says. “It has a strong sense of ​community, and ​a​ vibrancy that meshes well with the fast-paced business culture." As part of the move, the engineering giant will relocate 700 jobs from its Fredrick, MD, operations, according to the Fairfax County EDA.

Also taking more space is Fannie Mae, which is leasing all of 12000 Sunrise Valley Dr (near the planned Silver Line station) from Brookfield. According to Reis, Reston's Q1 office vacancy rate clocked in at 12%, compared with 17.8% for the region.

Mathematical proof that we're 5.8 percent hotter than the region as a whole. Scorching!

With all this excitement, we think it may be time to change our anthemic Reston tune -- the one we roll down the windows and crank up while sitting in stalled traffic on Wiehle cruisin' from this classic to something more, um... what's the word?

Oh, yeah. That's it.