As it continues construction on another office tower, Capital One is preparing for the next phase of development on its headquarters campus in Tysons.
The banking giant has submitted a plan to Fairfax County for an urban park with a temporary retail building at the corner of Scotts Crossing Road and the McLean Metro station tracks.
According to Capital One corporate spokesperson Angela Solomon, the proposed park will bridge the gap between Capital One Center and the Metro station’s second entrance. The 3.4-acre site is currently being used as a construction staging area.
“This [final development plan] provides for a connection to the McLean Metro Station on the Silver Line to connect to the ‘back door’ to the Station that is currently planned between WMATA and Fairfax County to help facilitate a pedestrian-friendly environment and accessibility to public transportation,” Solomon said.
The park is envisioned as similar in design to The Perch, the skypark on top of Capital One Hall. Possible amenities include water features, a playground, an amphitheater, a food truck area, and landscaping, all of which will be publicly accessible.
The permanent park will take up just a portion of the land designated as Block D in the overall development plan for the campus.
The application proposes filling the rest of the block with interim volleyball courts and a retail area until they can be replaced by a residential tower and and office building, respectively.
The retail building will be limited to 45,000 square feet in size and have some space for indoor recreational facilities. It will be complemented by additional outdoor amenities, with bocce or pickleball courts and mini-soccer fields cited as possibilities.
“These improvements will provide active and passive amenities and recreation opportunities for the Headquarters Campus’s employees and visitors,” McGuireWoods land-use planner Mike Van Atta wrote in a Jan. 26 statement of justification on Capital One’s behalf. “[They] will continue to transform the Campus into a region-wide destination with a vibrant mix of uses and supporting amenities.”
As part of the project, a ramp will be constructed off of Capital One Drive South to provide access to a new underground parking garage, which will provide additional parking in the short term before serving the future office building.
The streetscapes around Block D will be designed to “facilitate pedestrian connectivity” and include interim tree plantings, according to the statement of justification. The developer will also remove invasive plants and replace them with native species in accordance with its existing commitment to help restore Scott’s Run streambanks.
“Capital One is proud to call Tysons home,” Solomon said. “As our commitment to the greater D.C. region continues to grow, so has our physical presence here at Capital One Center. We are designing an environment where our associates and the surrounding Tysons community can live, work and play.”
Solomon says construction on the urban park project could start as soon as this summer, with completion coming by fall 2023.
The master plan that Fairfax County most recently amended and approved in July 2020 anticipates a total of 944,000 square feet of development in Capital One Center’s Block D.
The future residential tower will have 385 units on 33 floors, while the office building will be 22 floors tall with almost 450,000 square feet of space. The plan allows up to 45,000 square feet of ground-floor retail across both buildings.
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Sisters Thai is coming to Capital One Center.
Distinguished by interiors designed to evoke cozy living rooms, the restaurant chain has leased 5,029 square feet of space at 7730 Capital One Tower Road, the Washington Business Journal reported Thursday (Jan. 13).
Capital One Center confirmed in a press release that this will be Sisters Thai’s fifth location and its largest yet, joining venues in the Mosaic District, Alexandria, Fairfax City, and Potomac, Maryland.
“Having been a fan of Sisters Thai for the last decade, it is great to see their growth to become one of the region’s top destinations for Thai food,” Capital One Center Managing Director Jonathan Griffith said. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome them to the exciting new Capital One Center development in Tysons.”
Located under Capital One Hall’s box office, the new restaurant will offer Thai street food, curry bowls, and drinks from a central bar. It will also house an extension of Magnolia Boutique Dessert Bar & Coffee, the cafe that the Sisters Thai team runs on Maple Avenue in Vienna.
It is expected to open in late 2022.
“We are so excited to be a part of the growing development at Capital One Center, and host our flagship restaurant adjacent to Capital One Hall,” Sisters Thai owner Tammie Disayawathana said in a statement. “There is so much energy at Capital One Center and we’re proud to bring our family-run business to complement this mini-city.”
Capital One’s headquarters campus near the McLean Metro station has seen some significant changes over the past two years, starting with the arrival of Wegmans in November 2020.
Between August and October of last year, the mixed-use development added The Perch skypark, a major performing arts venue in Capital One Hall, and The Watermark Hotel.
However, retail options are limited right now to Wegmans, The Perch’s Starr Hill Biergarten, a restaurant and bar called Wren in the hotel’s lobby, and the nail salon Nothing in Between Studio.
Capital One’s headquarters building previously had the City Works Eatery and Pour House and a Starbucks, but they have both closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Capital One Center expects to see more leasing activity this year, stating that several signings will be announced in the near-future.
Anticipated tenants include the not-yet-named occupants of the food trucks recently installed in The Perch. The trucks and a mini-golf course called Perch Putt remain on track to open this spring, Capital One Center Manager of Marketing and Community Affairs Meghan Trossen says.
Construction is also underway on a mixed-use building across the street from Capital One Hall that, when completed this year, will be able to accommodate anywhere from 1,500 to over 20,000 square feet of retail, according to Capital One Center.
Photo via Google Maps
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Nothing in Between Studio wants its customers to relax.
The nail salon opened the doors of its Tysons location on May 28, becoming one of the first retail tenants to take up residence in the Capital One Center development emerging near I-495 and the McLean Metro station.
Ongoing construction isn’t especially conducive to a stress-free environment, but Nothing in Between believes its emphasis on non-toxic products and wellness will prove enticing to the young professionals who populate the Tysons area.
“I really do think the aesthetic and experience and quality that we offer is very different, and we’re really excited to be able to offer that to the Tysons community,” Nothing in Between brand manager Amanda Vega told Tysons Reporter.
Nothing in Between opened its first location at 6410 Arlington Boulevard in Falls Church in November 2018.
A South Korean immigrant who worked in fashion before moving to Falls Church in 2014, founder Jade Kim Trusso wanted to offer an eco-friendly, cruelty-free option for nail care, avoiding the use of plastics, toxins, chemicals, and animal-based products like leather, according to Arlington Magazine.
Capital One Center then offered the business space for an expansion, according to Vega.
The studio’s reputation and mission made it an appealing addition to the development, Capital One Center Manager of Marketing and Community Affairs Meghan Trossen says.
“Nothing in Between’s great brand reputation in the Northern Virginia market and commitment to organic, non-toxic products stood out to our team,” Trossen said by email. “This zen oasis complements the dynamic environment at Capital One Center and has been a wonderful amenity to our mixed-use development.”
When Nothing in Between arrived in May, it was one of just two retailers operating at Capital One Center after Wegmans opened its 80,000 square-foot grocery store on Nov. 4, 2020.
The development previously had a City Works Eatery and Pour House, but the restaurant permanently shuttered last summer. The Starbucks at Capital One’s headquarters is also gone for good.
Since Nothing in Between opened, Capital One Center has add two dining options: Starr Hill Biergarten on The Perch and the Japanese restaurant Wren in The Watermark Hotel.
Vega says the development has been “very supportive” in helping market Nothing in Between and ensuring its success, even as Capital One’s return-to-office plans remain on hold.
While business was initially slow, it has picked up as more people have become aware of the new location, according to Vega.
“That Falls Church location, we do really well,” she said. “We’ve had clients come over that usually go to Falls Church, and they’ve come and tried Tysons.”
While the locations share a health-focused philosophy, massage services are only available at the Tysons site, which features four massage rooms as part of the team’s plan to ultimately expand beyond nail care to offer a wider range of wellness services.
The Tysons salon also aims for a more sophisticated atmosphere. Inspired by Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi, it has oak wood flooring, a tea bar, and paper lantern lighting.
The studio offers manicures, pedicures, and massages from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Saturdays. It is closed on Sundays.
Vega says walk-in customers are accepted, but she recommends making an appointment, since space is limited.
Nothing in Between doesn’t have any additional locations in the works, though some customers have asked about getting a salon in D.C. or the Ashburn area of Loudoun County, Vega says.
“We’re definitely open to the possibility if the opportunity is right,” Vega said. “But for right now, we’re focusing on two locations and continuing to build up our clientele.”
Starbucks will not reopen at the Capital One headquarters in Tysons.
The coffee shop at 1610 Capital One Drive North has been closed for much of the past year during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the exact timing of the decision to keep it closed isn’t entirely clear.
After the location reopened in the second half of 2020, an anonymous tipster alerted Tysons Reporter on June 20 that it had closed again.
“Due to limited office occupancy during the COVID pandemic, Starbucks has temporarily closed this location but plans to re-open this location in the near future,” a spokesperson for Capital One Center, the surrounding mixed-use development, told Tysons Reporter at that time.
However, in an emailed statement, the Starbucks media relations team now tells Tysons Reporter that the company’s last day at Capital One was back on March 23:
As part of Starbucks standard course of business, we continually evaluate our business to ensure a healthy store portfolio. After careful consideration, we determined it was best to close the store at 1610 Capital One Drive North in McLean, VA. Our last day at this location was March 23, 2021.
As difficult as this was, we must make the right business decisions for the sake of Starbucks long-term growth. All Starbucks partners (employees) working at that store had the opportunity to transfer to one of our nearby locations.
We look forward to continuing to serve the McLean community and encourage our customers to visit us at our other stores in the area.
Starbucks opened at the Capital One building in March 2019, quickly becoming a regular haunt for the financial corporation’s employees.
The location is still listed as open on Yelp, where reviewers compliment the staff for their friendliness and level of service.
The Starbucks store locator includes a shop at 1680 Capital One Drive that also appears on Google Maps, but the listed phone number has been disconnected.
Tysons East still has a Starbucks in the Safeway on Colshire Drive, and there are seven other locations in Tysons overall, though one of the two shops in Tysons Corner Center remains temporarily closed.
Commuters driving down Route 123 in Tysons this morning (Tuesday) might have caught an unusual sight: a double-decker bus emblazoned with a Union Jack ascending into the air via a massive crane.
The bus was one of three vehicles installed in The Perch, the sky park that opened at Capital One Center at the end of August.
A post on the mixed-use development’s Instagram page also contains pictures and video footage captured by NBC4 of the crane lifting a 1947 Flxible bus and an Airstream caravan 11 stories in the air to the park on top of Capital One Hall.
A Capital One Center spokesperson confirmed that the vehicles will be repurposed as food trucks as part of The Perch’s second phase, which will feature an 18-hole “Perch Putt” mini golf course as well as the food trucks.
The tenant that will operate the food trucks remains “to be named,” the spokesperson said.
The second phase of The Perch is scheduled to open in spring 2022. The 2.5-acre park is anchored by Starr Hill Biergarten and already features bocce ball pits, a dog park, and an amphitheater.
Capital One Center in Tysons Corner welcomed three new permanant food trucks, hoisted via crane today onto "The Perch" rooftop venue. Here's the final installment, a double decker bus being lifted into place (in ~10x speed) #Chopper4 @nbcwashington @charlienbc pic.twitter.com/C21slpLWOR
— ʙʀᴀᴅ ꜰʀᴇɪᴛᴀꜱ (@Chopper4Brad) November 16, 2021
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(Updated at 7:30 p.m.) The Capital One Center development in Tysons is ramping up with lodging and dining.
The Watermark Hotel, featuring 300 luxury rooms, will open tomorrow (Tuesday), and the Wren — a Japanese-American bar and small plates restaurant — opens Friday (Sept. 24), said Tara McNamara, the hotel’s sales director.
“Our inspiration is derived from ‘izakaya,’ the Japanese concept of having a place to gather together to relax and chat while enjoying good food and drink,” chef Yo Matsuzaki said in a news release.
The restaurant’s fare includes oysters, sashimi, baby beet salad with yuzu pistachio vinaigrette, and grilled Black Angus ribeye — all of it prepared in front of guests. It will be open to the public from 5 to 10 p.m. with the bar operating from 3 to 11 p.m.
The Wren is located on the 11th floor by the hotel’s lobby, overlooking part of Tysons as well as The Perch, the recreational space featuring a park, brewery and other amenities that opened in late August. The park is located above Capital One Hall, a new performance venue opening Oct. 1 with Josh Groban.
This past weekend, a three-day festival showed off the sky park’s amenities. Superheroes rappelled down a side of the hotel to wash windows for the event.
Grab-and-go options in food truck façades are slated to be added by The Perch in the coming spring in a portion of the roof that construction crews are still preparing.
Capital One Financial owns The Watermark Hotel and is rolling out its debut with rooms for employees as the company navigates a return-to-work policy this November that keeps telecommuting in place on Mondays and Fridays.
The hotel’s suites feature local artists’ works that adorn everything from soap holders to wallpaper sponge paintings.
Jonathan Lee with B.F. Saul Company Hospitality Group, which is operating the hotel, shared with visitors how Capital One executives tested out which mattresses to pick for the hotel.
One was a base model, another was the kind used at the Ritz, and a third was ultra luxury: Without knowing which was which, the executives’ preferences centered on one choice, Lee said, causing the mattress budget to go through the roof.
A Capital One Center spokesperson later denied that executives had tested the hotel mattresses, calling the account inaccurate.
(Updated on Sept. 10)Â The Tysons skyline will soon look a little emptier, as one of the three cranes looming over Capital One Center near the Capital Beltway is scheduled to be disassembled next week.
The move marks a turning point in construction on the mixed-use development forming around Capital One’s headquarters. The Perch sky park opened to the public last month, and the performing arts venue Capital One Hall and The Watermark Hotel will come online this fall.
The next phase focuses on two office towers — one 24 stories tall and the other 30 stories, plus a roof — that the cranes have been piecing together on the site. Linked by an atrium, the buildings will encompass 900,000 square feet of office and retail space, slated to be finished in 2023, according to Capital One Center.
Miller & Long — one of dozens of subcontractors for the project — topped off both towers earlier this year, but crane operators have been assisting other parts of the build, and the skyscrapers are still a hard-hat site.
The tallest crane, which towers 550 feet above ground, will come down by mid-October, and crews will remove the remaining crane on the north side of the new buildings by the end of the year.
The bulk of Miller & Long’s work on Capital One Center occurred last year even as the COVID-19 pandemic upended the construction industry across the country.
Construction jobs in Virginia took an initial hit before the industry bounced back to its pre-pandemic peak of over 207,000 jobs by the end of 2020. Since January, though, employment has dropped again by several thousand.
Miller & Long CEO Brett McMahon says the dip stems from a statewide pause in college and university construction. He says that’s only a limited factor for dips in jobs statewide, not Tysons.
“The state university projects…started getting pushed and pushed and pushed,” he said. “That part of it may be a big chunk of what’s affecting the overall demand for construction.”
However, Miller & Long expects to see continued growth in the D.C. region and is “pursuing a record number of projects,” Vice President of Logistics Jim Martinoski says.
While other businesses faced multi-week shutdowns or had to adapt to work-from-home setups, construction of the two Capital One Center office towers only halted for one day due to COVID-19 sometime around late spring of 2020, Martinoski says.
Even for a commercial development project, Capital One Center has been a massive undertaking, sprawling across 26 acres of land at the intersection of I-495 and Route 123.
Miller & Long poured 100,000 cubic yards of concrete for the Capital One headquarters, which began in 2014 and finished in 2018. The adjacent block featuring Capital One Hall, The Watermark Hotel, and Wegmans required another 100,000 cubic yards.
The new office towers have consumed 90,000 cubic yards of concrete. Typical jobs for 20 to 30-story buildings involve 20,000 to 30,000 cubic yards.
The Capital One campus is part of a development boom in Tysons that has also seen a shift to more eco-friendly buildings, according to Miller & Long.
While working on Capital One Center, the contractor has started using more environmentally friendly cement made in batches at the site, reducing the need for trucks to haul it to the work site as has been done traditionally.
“It’s amazing how much it has grown,” McMahon said of Tysons. “It was a bit of farmland when I was a kid.”
