A Reston company has completed the $75 million purchase of a 424-unit apartment complex in the Fair Oaks area and will begin converting the units to condominiums that will be marketed to first-time and "move-up" homeowners.
The sale of the Penderbrook apartment complex off Route 50 continues a trend of developers acquiring rental properties and turning them into condos, reducing the supply of rentals but offering many buyers an attractive first home.
Christopher Clemente, founder and chief executive of Comstock Homebuilding Cos., said the condominiums will go on the market this month. Current residents of the apartment complex will be given a chance to buy the units before they go on sale to the general public.
"Everybody who is renting there now will have an opportunity to purchase the unit," Clemente said. "They will have the first chance to buy before the project is open to the public. There will be a transition time allowed for the conversion so that nobody will be hurried out."
Clemente said sale prices for the one-, two- and three-bedroom units had not been set. "They will be affordable by Fairfax County standards," he said, "and I don't mean McLean, obviously."
The average sale price of a condominium in Fairfax County in January was $272,913, according to the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors.
Supervisor Linda Q. Smyth (D-Providence), who represents the Penderbrook area, said the issue of converting the apartment complex to condominiums came before the county Board of Supervisors last year because the development did not have the required number of parking spaces.
"It was an older development, and they might not have had the right number of parking spaces because the requirement was different when it was built," Smyth said.
She said the parking issue was worked out and that she had not heard of any concerns from residents since tenants began receiving notification of the sale last week.
Smyth said she is generally concerned about the number of conversions from apartments to condominiums in the county, particularly because developers do not have to notify the Board of Supervisors of the proposals unless an ancillary issue arises, such as the number of parking spaces.
The Penderbrook complex, built in 1988 and comprising 18 two- and three-story buildings, is just north of Fair Oaks Mall near the Penderbrook Golf Club in a neighborhood of townhouses and single-family homes.
Clemente said Comstock plans to spend "several million" dollars upgrading and improving the units. He said the improvements will include work on the exteriors, floors, balconies, and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning units.
Comstock, which completed an initial public offering of stock on Dec. 14, develops and markets residential property in the Washington area, as well as in Raleigh, N.C., according to its Web site.
Clemente said the company was attracted to Penderbrook because of its location in Fairfax County. In the last five years, 400,000 jobs have been created in the Washington area, and 75 percent of the new jobs have been "captured" by Virginia, Clemente said.
"It is in the heart of Fairfax County," Clemente said of Penderbrook, which is also minutes away from the county Government Center. "Jobs keep coming here, and people keep coming. Penderbrook is a very well-established community with proximity to the transportation network and Fair Oaks Mall. Homeowners we have sold homes to love living in the area."
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