County Mulls Over 141-Acre Mixed-Use Project

ASHBURN, VA-A 141-acre stretch along Belmont Ridge Road at the Dulles Greenway–or Route 659 at Route 267–could become home to a large mixed-use development about 30 miles outside of Washington, DC, now that the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors has moved along the review process for the project. Proposed by the property owner, the McKelvie family, Goose Creek Village North would provide commercial as well as residential offerings and would cost an estimated $100-million-plus to complete. The plan for Goose Creek Village North proposes approximately 870,000 sf of office space, 165,000 sf of retail and more than 600 townhouses. Centex Homes is currently on board to handle construction of the residential portion. As for the office segment, the demand exists in the area; the office vacancy rate in the Leesburg/Route 7 Corridor submarket is 1.2%, according to Advantis Real Estate Services Co.’s Year End 2004 Office Report. The entire site, however, is presently zoned for industrial space only and must be approved for rezoning to accommodate commercial and multifamily development. As it stands now, the Zoning Commission has to sign off on rezoning the area before the proposal is referred to the Office of Transportation and Land Use Committee for review on April 25, Jennifer Grimmell of the Department of Planning tells GlobeSt.com. Already the project has passed the scrutiny of the Planning Commission. If all goes as planned, development of Goose Creek could get under way sometime in 2007.