Comstock Looks To Start Loudoun's Tallest Office Building Next Year
Loudoun County — a suburban community filled with single-family housing, low-lying retail, wineries and data centers — is poised to get a real estate product that many urban areas are finding elusive: a new trophy office building.
Comstock Cos. is planning to start construction next year on One Gramercy, a more than 200K SF office tower at its Loudoun Station mixed-use development, executives said at Bisnow’s Loudoun County State of the Market event July 31.
Comstock CEO Chris Clemente credited Loudoun’s strong office demand as critical in its plans to start construction on today’s equivalent of a development white whale.
“We build in other markets as well, but as of late, we are seeing more demand for office space in Loudoun County than ever before,” he said in his opening remarks at Comstock's BLVD Gramercy East building at Loudoun Station.
“And as a result, we have a 200K SF-plus building that is primed for starting development construction probably in the first half of next year.”
Clemente said the company’s leasing team is in discussions with “multiple” prospective tenants for the development and is working out some possible design changes that may need to be made “to accommodate all the interest.”
The developer built 50K SF of office space at the Loudoun Station development in 2012, and Clemente said it leased up in the first year and has remained fully occupied. It has been working for years to move forward with another office building.
Comstock first filed plans in 2020 for the One Gramercy office tower as part of the third phase of the Loudoun Station development at the Ashburn Metro station, the last stop on the extension of the Silver Line that opened in late 2022.
The initial plans called for a 12-story tower, which would make it the tallest building in the county, but it might be even taller: A JLL marketing brochure from 2023 shows plans for a 15-story building, including nine floors of office space with a sky terrace atop a five-level above-ground parking structure and a one-story lobby.
Loudoun’s 7.9M SF office market has an 11.5% vacancy rate, according to CBRE’s second-quarter report, the second lowest in Northern Virginia, following Prince William County’s 6.9% vacancy rate for its 3.7M SF of office space.
The county has the only office under construction in Northern Virginia, Kite Realty Group’s 35K SF building at One Loudoun, which is set to deliver next year. It has yet to sign any leases, according to CBRE.
At the Bisnow event, county leaders touted Loudoun’s growth as a market where businesses are increasingly looking to locate.
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall said that over the past decade, the number of businesses in the county has grown by 40%, with the county now home to “over 14,300 businesses in 11 different industry areas.”
“Those are good numbers,” she said.
Loudoun County Economic Development Executive Director Buddy Rizer said that since he has worked in the region, the number of businesses has grown by 179%. Rizer joined the county department in 2007.
“We are a place of business,” he said. “Where we once were a bedroom community or a suburb, we are the center of gravity for job growth in the Northern Virginia region.”
Loudoun’s Data Center Alley is the world’s largest data center market. The 521-square-mile county houses about 46M SF of constructed or permitted data centers and 61.5M SF of potential data center development, LoudounNow reported in March, citing a county staff report.
Rizer highlighted the county’s strength in the technology industry — sectors like the space industry, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and clean energy — and its low exposure to the federal government compared to the rest of the region.
From the stage, the economic development chief directed a question to Comstock's executives in the audience:
“Can I book a groundbreaking for March on the new office tower?”
