Tysons Partnership Looking to Add Data Hub to Rebranding Effort

Tysons Partnership wants to create a localized data hub as part of its rebranding efforts underway for Tysons.

The organization aims to create a public database with localized information from Fairfax County, from commuting patterns to how office and retail space are used.

Sol Glasner, Tysons Partnership’s president and CEO, told Tysons Reporter that the database will make it easier to collect and analyze Tysons-specific information.

The financial support for the hub is coming from Fairfax County’s $1 million — an equal match to Tysons Partnership’s fundraising — to help with the rebranding and work to find a sustainable business model, Glasner said.

After putting out an RFP, Tysons Partnership is now discussing the proposal with a prospective consulting organization, Glasner said. If all goes well, he’s hopeful the data dashboard, which will be available to the public, can be put together by the end of this year.

Glasner said that pandemic seems to increase the need for Tysons-centric data as county officials, planners and the private sector look to address affordable housing, walkability, transportation and development issues in the area.

“It’s like this big tapestry with a lot of moving parts to it,” he said.

Unlike the database, the pandemic may delay the group’s rebranding effort for Tysons. While Tysons Partnership aims to have the rebranding, which is being done with the help of Gensler, ready by early next year, Glasner that it’s unclear how the public health crisis will impact the rollout.

“We need to have a public that is receptive,” Glasner said. “Right now, people are preoccupied.”

Tysons Partnership doesn’t want to encourage large crowds in public places to reduce the risk of spreading the virus, he added.

“It’s very hard to know how all this will play out,” he said about the pandemic. “We could be in this mode for another year, another two years.”

When the rebranding does get revealed, Glasner said that people can expect place-making and place activation to help with community building.

Ultimately, the rebranding is meant to get people to think of Tysons’ four square miles as one place, Drew Sunderland, the director of marketing and placemaking at Tysons Partnership, previously told Tysons Reporter.

“We’re trying to create a common sense of community,” Glasner said.

As for the pandemic’s impacts on Tysons’ urbanization and appeal, Glasner emphasized that the creation of the Tysons Comprehensive Plan and completion of Silver Line Phase One years ago have set the area up for success.

“Tysons is a long term project that is measured in decades — not in months, years or even a single decade,” he said.