Finally, The One Quote That Proves Reston Gets The Midscale Chain Retail We Deserve

Wonder why our beloved fake downtown gritty urban core and awesome village centers strip malls aren't filled with authentic local shoppes, offering artisanal goat cheese cultivated from free-range grazing animals or sustainable hand-knit fashions ethically produced by Peruvian orphans using fair-trade wool? Or, for that matter, a local bookstore or maybe even a coffee shop that doesn't happen to have 23,999 other locations?

Turns out we don't want any of that crap. What do we want? Show us the tags, baby:

From a retail perspective, [JBG Principal Greg] Trimmer says the Reston market is booming.

"75 percent of people in Reston will consider brand name more than price. Retailers cannot get here quickly enough."

Do modern web browsers still support the [blink] tag? If so, it's worth repeating again:

"75 percent of people in Reston will consider brand name more than price. Retailers cannot get here quickly enough.”

Small wonder then, that when people are asked to dream big about possible businesses coming to Reston, our champagne wishes and caviar dreams circle around places like this. And if you notice more people wearing black than usual this week, it might be because Loudoun bragbait grocery chain Wegman's announced it's coming to Tysons, not a certain stucco wasteland in Reston as some once hoped.

But fear not, Reston! We can have nice things, so long as those nice things are large chains that duplicate services already offered by other large chains:

The JBG Companies have signed 24 Hour Fitness as an anchor tenant for the Reston Heights expansion on Sunrise Valley Drive. 

It will be 24 Hour Fitness’ fourth Northern Virginia location. The national chain, which has more than 450 locations nationwide, has gyms in Tysons Corner, Falls Church and Fairfax.

How many mega-gyms and indoor rec facilities does that make for us?

We'll note without irony that we also just learned that Reston Kabob, one of the last small businesses in the spot where the Reston Heights expansion will soon rise, is closing in July. They might return once construction is finished. Or maybe some awesome midscale national kabob chain -- let's call it the Kabob Grill -- will swoop in and take its spot.

The current kabobery owners have another location across Fairfax County Parkway in.... Herndon. Our neighbor to the west may be a little different, but they certainly have lots of the kinds of places we say we want, the end.