The corner of Elden Street and Worldgate Drive has been a construction site curiosity for a while now. Two office buildings that sat largely vacant for years are coming down, and the Town of Herndon is actively working through the final design reviews that will allow a major residential development to rise in their place.

As of early March 2026, the project is back before Herndon's Architectural Review Board for a design work session — the last significant hurdle before construction on the new buildings can actually begin. That's worth paying attention to if you follow Herndon real estate, are considering a move to this part of Northern Virginia, or are just curious about what's coming to one of the more visible underused parcels in the area.

Here's a full breakdown of the project: what's being built, who's building it, how the site is laid out, what the approval process has looked like, and what it all means for buyers, renters, and the surrounding neighborhood.

What's Going Up — and Who's Building It

The project occupies a 10.42-acre triangular site at 13100 and 13150 Worldgate Drive, bounded by Elden Street to the north, Worldgate Drive to the west, and Wiltshire Court to the south. Two office buildings that previously occupied the site are being demolished, along with roughly half of the existing parking structure.

What's replacing them is a mix of three residential building types:

A large multifamily apartment building. Boston Properties is the developer on this component. The building will be five stories above a basement level, with 359 rental units. The design wraps the building around the half of the existing parking garage that's being retained, creating two internal courtyards and presenting a continuous street edge facing Elden Street and Worldgate Drive. A new entrance road — designated Road A South in the site plan — will connect from Worldgate Drive directly to the building's main amenity areas.

52 stacked residential units. These are four-story, two-over-two stacked flats, being developed by NV Homes. Each unit comes with a private garage. They're clustered in the eastern portion of the site, arranged in rows along newly created internal streets.

47 townhouses. Also four stories, also by NV Homes, also with private garages. A new road called Road B will run from the townhouse section back to the main multifamily building entry, tying the two parts of the development together physically.

Combined, the project delivers 458 residences across a single 10-acre infill site — 359 rentals and 99 for-sale units between the stacked condos and townhouses. On parking: the apartment building's garage provides 498 dedicated spaces, plus 34 surface spots, 104 stacked-unit private garages, and 94 townhouse private garages, for a total of 730 parking spaces across the site.

A Walk Through the Site Plan

One of the more interesting things about this project is that it's designed to feel like a neighborhood rather than a single development. The site plan introduces a small grid of named internal streets: Forged Alley, Seeker Lane, Makers Street, Artisan Lane, Kindred Street, and Quest Lane. These run through the townhouse and stacked-unit section on the eastern half of the property, with landscaped pedestrian mews between the rows of homes and service alleys handling parking access from behind.

The multifamily building anchors the western end of the site — the bigger, more prominent corner that faces both Elden Street and Worldgate Drive. Its wrap-around design means the parking garage is hidden inside the building footprint, not visible from the street. The internal courtyards give residents outdoor space without the typical suburban surface lot feel.

Pedestrian paths connect throughout: from the townhouse blocks through the stacked-unit rows, and then back to the main apartment building entry. The intent is that someone living in one of the NV Homes townhouses could walk over to the amenities in the multifamily building, and residents in the apartment building have easy access through the neighborhood to Wiltshire Court and surrounding streets.

How the Approvals Have Unfolded

This project has been through a multi-year process. The concept first surfaced publicly in late 2023, when early plans to replace the vacant offices with housing began circulating. Herndon's Planning Commission voiced support in February 2024. The Herndon Town Council then unanimously approved the redevelopment proposal in late March 2024 — a clean vote that cleared the overall land use, unit counts, building types, and general site layout.

That approval was significant, but it wasn't the final word. Building designs still have to go through the Architectural Review Board before construction permits can be issued. The ARB focuses on the look, materials, and character of the buildings — whether they're compatible with the surrounding area and meet the town's design standards.

The project returned to the ARB for a work session in early March 2026. Town staff found the plans generally in compliance with Herndon's zoning ordinance, but flagged concerns about what they described as "extensive use of fiber cement paneling" along the Elden Street and Worldgate Drive facades. The design team will likely need to address that before the ARB moves to a formal public hearing. Once the ARB approves final designs, the project can move to construction permitting.

The Worldgate Corridor — What's Already There

The Worldgate area sits just inside the western edge of Herndon, right off the Dulles Toll Road (Route 267). It's a corridor that's always been more commercially oriented — office parks, the Worldgate Centre shopping area, and a cluster of apartment communities built during earlier development cycles. The Westerly at Worldgate apartments on Wilkes Way represent a more recent wave of residential activity in this exact pocket.

From a transit standpoint, the corridor is well-positioned. The Herndon Metro Station on the Silver Line is accessible, making the area genuinely useful for commuters heading to Tysons, Rosslyn, or D.C. Washington Dulles International Airport is roughly five miles away. One thing often overlooked: the street network around Worldgate Drive and Elden Street is actually pretty walkable by Northern Virginia standards — sidewalks, street trees, and enough retail density that a car trip isn't always necessary for daily errands.

What It Means for Herndon Real Estate

New construction for-sale product in an infill location. The 99 NV Homes units — 52 stacked condos and 47 townhouses — represent real new-construction for-sale inventory in a neighborhood that doesn't turn over frequently. Pricing hasn't been released publicly yet, but for a new-construction four-story townhouse or stacked condo with a private garage in this location, expect numbers that will be competitive with — and likely higher than — comparable existing inventory nearby.

A large new rental supply. 359 apartments is a meaningful number to add to the rental inventory in this corridor. When a building of that size leases up, it typically creates some short-term softness in nearby rents. That said, rental demand in this part of Northern Virginia has proven durable. Proximity to Dulles Technology Corridor employers, Silver Line transit, and D.C. keeps absorption solid over time.

The office-to-residential shift. The Worldgate project is part of a broader pattern in inner-ring Northern Virginia suburbs. The suburban office market has had a difficult decade — pre- and post-pandemic shifts left a lot of suburban office product struggling. In corridors with good transit access, converting those sites to residential makes more practical sense than waiting for the office market to rebound.

Effect on surrounding home values. Near-term impact on established homeowners nearby is probably modest — the project is going up on a site that was already commercial in character. Longer term, adding density to a transit-accessible corridor tends to support area values: more residents mean more demand for local services, more foot traffic, and more rationale for continued investment in the public realm.

Practical Takeaways

If you're looking to rent: Don't plan your housing timeline around this building being available soon. Design approvals are still in progress, construction hasn't started on the new buildings, and no completion date has been announced.

If you're interested in buying one of the NV Homes units: Get on their interest list now. Watch the NV Homes website for updates on this community. New construction in desirable infill locations tends to move quickly once sales open.

If you're a current homeowner in the area: Construction activity will continue for an extended period — some noise and traffic disruption at the corner. Once the buildings are up, the neighborhood gets meaningfully denser and more pedestrian-active, which is generally a positive for long-term value.

If you're thinking about buying or selling in the broader Herndon area: A project like this draws buyers into a neighborhood who might not have been paying attention to it before. If you've been weighing the timing of a move, it's worth getting a current market analysis so you know what you're actually working with.

Where Things Stand Right Now

The office demolition at 13100 and 13150 Worldgate Drive is actively underway. The ARB work session in March 2026 means the design review process is live and moving. A public hearing before the ARB is the immediate next milestone, after which — assuming approval — the project moves to construction permitting for the new buildings.

This project has been in the pipeline for a few years, which in Northern Virginia development terms is actually a relatively clean path. The Town Council vote was unanimous. The Planning Commission was supportive. The main open item right now is final design sign-off, not fundamental opposition to the project.

When construction starts and the buildings begin to rise, this corner of Herndon is going to look very different from what it does today. For a 10-acre infill site with transit access, a thoughtful mix of building types, and a neighborhood-scale street plan baked into the design, that's a pretty good outcome for a piece of land that's been largely sitting empty.

If you have questions about what this project means for the surrounding real estate market, or you're trying to figure out whether it makes sense to buy, sell, or rent in this part of Herndon, reach out directly — happy to talk through the specifics.