In a few months, Reston in Fairfax County, Virginia, will see the world’s biggest technology company migrate eastwards, albeit for only less than two miles.
According to a lease agreement recently signed, Google will move its employee base of nearly 200 people this summer to Reston Station, an urban employment center on the Dulles Corridor, its developer Comstock said in an April 8 press release.
Google currently occupies 45K SF at Reston Town Center and its lease at the Boston Properties development was normally going to expire in 2025 but also included an early termination option for 2020.
The news of the lease agreement came in the wake of Google’s announced expansion plan around the US and specifically in NorthernVirginia where its workforce would be accordingly doubled. In early February, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said a $13 billion blueprint has been prepared to increase and improve the technology giant’s real estate holdings in the country. Outside Fairfax, Google has also been expanding elsewhere in Virginia, like its data center presence in Loudoun County. It bought 148 acres of land in Ashburn and Leesburg two years ago.
“Google first opened a small office in Reston back in 2005 and we have since grown to close to 200 employees, working on major projects across engineering, sales and more,” Liz Schwab, the head of external affairs for Google in Virginia, is quoted as saying in the press release. “We are confident that Reston Station will be a great new home for us and will provide room for future growth,” she added.
Google will occupy the top floors of the 16-story building designed by German-American architect Helmut Jahn. Google joins office tenant Spaces, and restaurants Founding Farmers, Matchbox, Starbucks and Sweet Leaf in the neighborhood. The building that features a concrete exoskeleton over a glass curtain wall is located above the toll road leading to the Dulles International Airport and is accessible from Wiehle-Reston East station on Silver Line metro.
“We are most thankful for the opportunity to be home to an industry leader like Google. We had the opportunity to discuss with Google our vision for the Reston Station neighborhood – what it is today and what the future holds – and are very happy that our ideas intersect,” Comstock’s Executive Vice President Tim Steffan said in the same press release.
Covering nearly 40 acres spanning the Dulles Toll Road and surrounding the subway station, Reston Station is home to more than 1,000 residents as well as businesses, retail establishments and restaurants.
