McLean Citizens Association meeting on April 2.
Capital One wants to make its future headquarters office building the tallest in Tysons Corner.
McLean Citizens Association discussed the changes in the development plan at its April 2 Board of Directors meeting.
The Building 3 office building, if constructed as planned, will rise 470 feet - 32 stories - into the Tysons skyline due to the mechanicals that will be placed at the top. This will make it the tallest building in the urban center.
Their current McLean headquarters building is 14 stories. The new building is planned to be more than twice that size.
“This is going to be a monster of a building,” said board member Mark Zetts during the zoning presentation.
This is more than the current zoning laws allow.
To allow Capital One to have the building it drew up without it giving permission for other companies to ask for taller buildings, Zetts proposed to call it a “landmark gateway building,” a title of distinction, he said, to announce “you have arrived.” Because it will sit by the beltway and the metrorail station, he said it is in the perfect location to have the title.
The title also means that another developer cannot ask for a building to be constructed taller than the proposed Block B office building - keeping Tysons’ skyline from turning into one that rivals Manhattan.
“Why are you moving to make it a gateway building rather than telling them to drop the height?” asked board member Francesca Gutowski.
She asked if the county was going to tell Capital One to drop the height.
However, Zetts was pretty confident that giving Capital One the distinction was the best plan for Tysons Corner because of its size and proximity to the beltway.
The new plans also included creating an $11 million community center in the Capital One office park. The community center will remain there until it is replaced by a larger office building, Building 11, in an undetermined amount of time. The center will then be moved to the bottom two floors of the building.
The office park is planned to be 65 percent office, 25 percent residential space, 8 percent hotel space and 2 percent retail.
Board member Jeff Barnett was worried that McLean homeowners would have to pick up the taxes for the community center because is not going to generate taxes. However, board member Darren Ewing said this is the best plan to keep new Tysons residents in their community rather than pressing to use McLean’s community center.
“This is what we want at the end of the day,” he said.
The plans passed 31-1, with two members abstaining.
In other business, advertised Fairfax County 2015 budget plan was also approved by the MCA.
Also, McLean’s centennial gala is tentatively Nov. 28 at the McLean Community Center.