LoKL Gourmet, a gourmet food market and eatery, appears to have some planned changes in the works in McLean.
A recent building permit indicates that LoKL Gourmet is looking to expand at 8100 Old Dominion Drive, Suite E.
Located near the intersection of Spring Hill Road and Old Dominion Drive, LoKL Gourmet offers a juice bar, deli and gourmet market. Its menu includes breakfast sandwiches and burritos, lunch sandwiches, salads, juice and smoothies.
LoKL Gourmet also does school lunches for private schools in Northern Virginia, according to its website.
Image via Google Maps
For-profit school University of the Potomac opened a new 15,000-square-foot campus in Tysons.
The new campus is inside the building at 7799 Leesburg Pike — an office building in the southeast corner of the Leesburg Pike-Beltway interchange — with 15 new classrooms and areas for relaxation or studying. Classes at the new facility started on May 4.
The school is a for-profit business offering associate’s degrees to master’s degrees, as well as professional certificates, though it touts affordability with a $350 per month payment plan.
“The higher education space is going through a lot of changes, as prospective students look for convenience and affordability,” said Rick Murphree, the president of the University of the Potomac, in a press release. “We met the affordability challenge by lowering our tuition by nearly 40 percent. The addition of this new campus shows our commitment to students’ demand for convenience.”
Second photo via Instagram
Moge Tee expects to open in about two months in Tysons Corner Center as part of the bubble tea shop’s massive expansion plans for this year.
The upcoming Tysons location is one of several new shops in Virginia, Lin Luo, who handles franchise development, told Tysons Reporter. Moge Tee held a grand opening for its new store at 6122 Arlington Blvd in Falls Church last Sunday (April 21). The bubble tea shop also recently opened in D.C.’s Glover Park neighborhood.
This year alone, Moge Tee aims to open 40-50 stores across the U.S., including Atlanta, Miami and Los Angeles, according to a Moge Tee presentation sent to Tysons Reporter. So far, more than 20 stores have been leased or are under construction, the presentation said.
Moge Tee will occupy a 1,000 square-foot-space between the Pandora and Steinway stores on the first level near Nordstrom. The menu for its current New York City locations includes parfaits, coffee, cheese tea, milk tea, fruit tea and Uji matcha — a type of green tea.
Breakaway Fitness will celebrate its re-opening in Tysons this weekend after a major expansion.
Focused on strength and conditioning, the gym offers personal training, nutritional coaching programs, testing, group exercise and massages.
“We have been in business for 17 years and now have doubled our size,” a flier for the event says.
The gym consolidated its operations at two locations into the one at Tysons by expanding onto a second floor and adding locker rooms. Upstairs, people can run or lift weights in the open turf area. The downstairs is mostly used for classical powerlifting.
Another change recently has the gym selling memberships for the first time.
The grand re-opening is set to take place Saturday (April 27) at 1524 Spring Hill Road, Unit GG.
The “kid and dog friendly” event will feature a bounce house, snow cones and snacks and one hour free at Dogtopia, a dog daycare and spa next door — owners would need to bring in the paperwork for their dogs’ shots.
First photo courtesy of Breakaway Fitness, other photos via Facebook
A Tysons company is helping BMW move into the driverless car market with aims to reduce the time and cost to develop autonomous vehicles.
Tysons-based DXC Technology Co. has signed up to help BMW with the technology to collect, store, and manage vehicle sensor data in autonomous cars, the Washington Business Journal first reported.
“DXC will greatly support our commitment to maximizing innovation, which will benefit our customers,” Alejandro Vukotich, senior vice president at the BMW Group, said in a press release. “With the managed services, we are able to ramp up the solution to support the next stage of the future of BMW Group’s autonomous drive platform.”
The data DXC will be processing can be collected globally to maximize the efficiency of the vehicles and reduce costs. The press release also says the DXC programs are built with online collaboration in mind, meaning engineers in different locations can work together on data analytics for the self-driving cars.
Edward Ho, executive vice president of DXC Technology, said in the press release that the next five years are a pivotal time in the development of autonomous cars to revolutionize the car industry.
“DXC welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with BMW Group to advance autonomous driving development capabilities,” Ho said. “With the platform and tools provided by DXC, BMW engineers are able to significantly accelerate the engineering and testing of autonomous driving algorithms.”
Photo via Facebook
Technology contractor Applied Insight is packing up its bags in Ashburn and setting up camp in Tysons.
The company announced earlier this week that it will be moving into 1850 Towers Crescent Plaza, part of the Towers Crescent complex.
The new headquarters will function as a hub for the business as it moves into research and development on cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure projects for the federal government.
“Our move to Tysons is about convenience and collaboration,” John Hynes, CEO of Applied Insight, said in a press release. “It’s a more central location for the leadership team to come together when we need to.”
Hynes said the company already spends a lot of time meeting with customers in Tysons, making the new headquarters a more convenient spot.
“The new space also has great facilities for bringing our people together for training and collaboration on new projects, particularly in technology development and business development,” Hynes said. “It’s part of fostering the creative culture that will be key to our long-term success.”
Zantech, a technology contractor located just south of the Chain Bridge Road/Leesburg Pike interchange in Tysons, announced plans today to invest $317,853 in an office expansion while adding 120 new jobs.
The company was founded in 2007 and provides technical support primarily for federal government and contracting clients, according to a press release from the Gov. Ralph Northam’s office.
“Strengthening Virginia’s position as a leader in information technology remains one of my highest priorities and partnering with a forward-looking firm like Zantech reinforces the Commonwealth’s reputation as an epicenter for this industry,” Northam said in the press release. “We look forward to Zantech’s continued growth in Fairfax County.”
Zantech’s expansion in Virginia is being supported by the Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP), a program run through the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to provide consultative services and funding to companies creating new jobs.
Photo via Facebook
Cvent is expanding in Tysons, adding 72,000 square feet of office space to their headquarters and opening up 67 new jobs at a company that offers some unusual perks.
Cvent creates software for businesses to organize meetings and events. The company will occupy three additional floors of Boro Station at 1765 Greensboro Station Place.
Erica Stoltenberg, a Cvent spokeswoman, said the company includes a few travel opportunities for high-performing employees. Notably, an exchange program offers an employee at the Tysons office and one at the company’s office in India a chance to “switch positions” for a few weeks.
Top-performing sales reps are also given a free, all-inclusive trip to Mexico each year.
This seems to fit with reviews on Glassdoor.com that call the office highly competitive, with a good group of driven coworkers, and one that offers jobs to young people fresh out of college. For those applying to the company, Stoltenberg said the company is looking for employees with an “entrepreneurial mindset” who are “natural go-getters who embody that start-up mentality.”
Stoltenberg also bragged about the company’s all-out Halloween party, which includes divisions competing for best costumes and best overall decorations.
Other perks at the company range from the standard “free office coffee” to onsite massages and other wellness activities.
The company recently expanded into the fifth floor of their headquarters at 1765 Greensboro Station, just south of The Boro development. Stoltenberg said part of that move included discussions with employees to figure out what enhancements or additions were most needed.
“As we expand, it’s important the new floors are constructed in a way that means we have the best environment for our growing team,” said Stoltenberg.
Tech company Cvent announced an expansion in Tysons last year, and now that expansion is bringing a host of new jobs in the Tysons area.
Cvent creates software for businesses to organize meetings and events. The company signed a 72,000-square-foot expansion that will see the company occupy three floors of Boro Station at 1765 Greensboro Station Place.
The company is advertising a total of 67 jobs. Among those, the company is looking to hire:
- Graphic Design Lead
- Sales Executive
- Lead Corporate Recruiter
- Product Designer
- Training Coordinator
- Solution Specialist
- Manager, AV and Communications
- Service Associate
- Implementation Consultant
- Instructional Designer
- Principal Project Designer
There’s a handful of internships with the company available as well:
- Pricing Internship
- Accounts Payable Internship
- Sales Training Internship
- Sales Operations Intern
- Event and Marketing Intern
Photo via Facebook
Changes don’t happen quickly at Breakaway Fitness. The walls are all mustard-colored brick and there’s not a TV in sight.
Co-owner Christa Dalakis takes pride in the facility being an “old school” type of gym. But after 17 years of operating in Tysons, starting next year the gym will be going through some changes.
The big one is the gym will be nearly doubling in size, consolidating its operations currently spread out in two locations into one, expanding the facility at 1524 Spring Hill Rd onto a second floor. The gym will also start selling memberships for the first time.
“So right now, we just do appointments,” said Dalakis. “With new membership, you can come in on alternate days of training or just use membership without training.”
Formerly, clients who came in for training sessions could de facto come in on other days to work out, but with the new expansions Dalakis said she thought it was fair to start charging a membership for that.
Memberships are $50 per month for the rest of the year for those who purchase in January or $75 per month for those who purchase after January. Training sessions are priced separately, though Dalakis says the first session of training is free.
There’s no less than 16 gyms in the Tysons area, but Breakaway Fitness is a “mom and pop” type gym that bears little resemblance to the state-of-the-art workout centers or yoga studios across the area. It’s a distinction Dalakis wears proudly.
“We’re ‘Cheers’ without the beers,” said Dalakis. “You walk in and everybody knows your name. It’s a home feel.”
The block Breakaway Fitness inhabits is one of Tysons’ last refuges for independent businesses in an area increasingly overrun with upscale development and a flood of national chains. The new upstairs location is located next door to the 1st Stage Theater and over The Palladium, a nightclub that opened earlier this year.
“It’s a type of gym that doesn’t really exist anymore,” said Dalakis. “There’s not a lot of frill.”
The new upstairs will be an open turf area where people can run or lift weights. The downstairs will mostly be used for classical power lifting. The expansion will also add locker rooms for the gym. Dalakis says the old school atmosphere will remain the same, though.
“There’s no TV’s on our ellipticals,” Dalakis says. “You’re there to work out.”
The new joint location means that Dalakis can once again work alongside her husband, who had formerly been handling training at the other gym location a few blocks away.
“Now that in the same location, going to bring back even more of the family atmosphere,” said Dalakis. “It’s hard to explain what we bring to the table, but anyone feels comfortable when they step into our place of business.”
The new gym location and new membership requirements will start on Jan. 2. Dalakis says the gym will have a grand reopening celebration, but hasn’t selected a specific date yet.
Photo via Facebook
