The master-planned property, located near Route 28, Interstate 66 and the Washington Dulles International Airport, is in the planning stages and can accommodate the development of more than two million sf of office space. "BPG's purchase of parcel 24 gives them one of the largest remaining tracts of FAR in Fairfax County," says Millennium Realty's Mike Shuler, who represented BPG with colleagues John McEvilly and Rob Walters. "The secured nature of the site and the ability to build surface parking makes the site very competitive in Northern Virginia."

As it stands, the plan for Commonwealth Centre includes the development of approximately 1.3 million sf of class A office space contained within eight five-story structures. The first building will be 165,000 sf, and is on schedule to get under way in the first quarter of next year. Development plans appear to be timely, as there is a significant demand for office space in the area. The office vacancy rate in the Route 28/Chantilly submarket is 4%, according to Cushman & Wakefield's Third Quarter 2005 MarketBeat Snapshot report for Northern Virginia. That figure held steady from the second quarter of this year, but is down from the 6.8% vacancy rate during the first quarter of the 2005.