Cityline signs three apartment developers

The largest landowner in Tysons Corner has inked three deals for hundreds of new apartments with major development partners in recent months, signaling continued and possibly growing interest in the suburban city by housing builders from around the country.

Cityline Partners, a crew of veteran Tysons developers, is managing the redevelopment of the Westgate and Westpark office parks for DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners, a Credit Suisse company that bought the property in 2010. Cityline recently finalized contracts for new apartment developments with three builders that could mean hundreds of new units for the area in coming years if they are approved by the county. [View map of DLJ’s empire.]

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The rush to build apartments in Tysons, where four Metro stations are set to open in late 2013 or early 2014, could pave the way for the area to add 80,000 residents by 2050, a goal adopted by Faifax County in 2010. County officials anticipate that high-density development near the stations will help the area evolve from a traffic-strangled mess to a series of walkable urban neighborhoods.

Already, the Georgelas Group announced that it had tapped South Carolina-based Greystar to build a 400-unit, 25-story apartment tower at the intersection of Leesburg Pike and Spring Hill Road. AvalonBay is building 354 units in mid-rise buildings at its Avalon Park Crest development.

Cityline’s deals to sell land to Rochester, N.Y.-based Home Properties, Irving, Texas-based JLB Partners and Houston-based Hanover Co. are part and parcel of Cityline’s strategy to acquire zoning approvals from Fairfax County — a process its executives know intimately — and then sell parcels to developers that have expertise to match, according to Thomas D. Fleury, Cityline executive vice president.

“What we’re trying to do is sell what we don’t do. We’re not residential developers, we’re not hotel developers,” he said.

Retaining sites to develop office projects

Cityline already has sold off parts of the portfolio that have existing office buildings and lack redevelopment opportunities in the near term. Fleury said the company plans to retain sites suitable for office development. In the meantime, it has taken a leading role in figuring out the parameters of the county’s development guidelines, with Keith Turner, a Cityline senior vice president, serving as chairman of the Tysons Partnership, an advocacy group formed by Tysons employers and landowners.

“At the end of the day, we’ll be left with the office parts, and that’s what we do do,” Fleury said.

Officials from Cityline and its development partners declined to share some details of the deals and plans, citing confidentiality agreements governing the contracts.

The plans furthest along are from Home Properties, a real estate investment trust that specializes in multifamily residential development. In December, Cityline filed a final development plan application for Home Properties with the county that calls for replacing a 75,000-square-foot office building at the intersection of Westpark and Westbranch drives with four apartment buildings totaling 669 units. All the units would be within half a mile of the planned Tysons Central 123 Metro station.