Fairfax County’s housing authority now owns two vacant lots next to the Innovation Center Metro station in Herndon, and it expects them to hold about 400 affordable homes.
The Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority, or FCRHA, announced the purchase on October 13. County land records show the sale closed more than six weeks earlier, on August 28, for $22,885,000. The FCRHA describes it as a $23 million off-market purchase paid for with federal money.
The lots sit at 3625 and 3627 King Johns Way, a few hundred yards west of the station, inside the Innovation Center South development. Add the housing authority’s other site on the north side of the tracks, Dulles Greene, and the FCRHA now controls land for roughly 835 affordable homes within a short walk of one Silver Line stop.
The housing authority paid about $22.9 million for 1.93 acres of vacant land
Fairfax County’s real estate records list both parcels as vacant land:
| Parcel | Land area | Legal description |
|---|---|---|
| 3625 King Johns Way | 46,151 sq ft | Innovation Center South, Parcel A3 |
| 3627 King Johns Way | 37,870 sq ft | Innovation Center South, Parcel A4 |
| Total | 84,021 sq ft, about 1.93 acres |
The seller was Nugget A LLC, and one deed (Book 28786, Page 2188) covers both lots. The name matches Nugget Joint Venture, the Rocks Engineering entity behind Innovation Center South when it broke ground in 2015. The two neighboring parcels, 3624 and 3626 King Johns Way, passed to Nugget Office LLC on August 21. CBRE markets 3626 King John’s Way as the Innovation Center of Virginia, with up to 1.1 million square feet of office space for lease.
At about 400 homes, the housing authority paid roughly $57,000 in land cost per future home. Four hundred homes on 1.93 acres also works out to more than 200 units per acre, a density usually reached only by a tall apartment building with structured parking. For comparison, the private plan the county approved last year for 2140 Rock Hill Road allows up to 432 homes on about 8.6 acres, roughly 50 units per acre, and Dulles Greene’s 435 homes on 9.6 acres works out to about 45.
Both lots carry PRM zoning, the county’s Planned Residential Mixed Use district, which allows dense, mixed-use buildings near transit. The FCRHA has not said whether a building of about 400 units would need further county approvals.
Rocks Engineering planned more than 1,000 apartments at Innovation Center South
The two lots belong to a much larger plan. Rocks Engineering broke ground on Innovation Center South in June 2015, and Bisnow reported at the time that the family-run firm envisioned more than 1.6 million square feet of apartments, offices, a hotel and retail around the future station, including more than 1,000 multifamily units. Bisnow put the infrastructure cost to Rocks and the county at about $45 million, and the county planned a 2,100-space commuter garage for the station.
The station opened in November 2022 with the second phase of the Silver Line. It sits in the median of the Dulles Toll Road and Airport Access Highway, just east of Route 28, one stop before Dulles International Airport. Eleven years after the groundbreaking, the county’s records still list these two Innovation Center South lots as vacant.
The FCRHA has not named a builder or set income limits
The October 13 announcement gives three details:
- About 400 homes. The FCRHA says the site could yield about 400 units.
- Several years to build. No construction date.
- Federal money. The FCRHA credits its place in HUD’s Moving to Work program for the speed of the deal. Moving to Work gives a small number of housing authorities more freedom in how they spend federal housing money, and FCRHA Chair Lenore Stanton said that freedom let the authority move quickly on a market opportunity.
The announcement does not set income limits. Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman said the homes would be “affordable to a broad spectrum of people” and would serve workers from Dulles Airport to nearby tech employers. For comparison, Dulles Greene’s homes would serve households earning 30 to 60 percent of the area median income, or AMI. AMI is the midpoint household income for the region, which FFXnow puts at $166,100 for a family of four.
The announcement also does not name a development partner. For Dulles Greene, the county picked a nonprofit builder through a request for proposals, and the FCRHA has not said whether it will use the same process here. Deputy County Executive Jennifer Miller tied the purchase to the county’s ability to recruit and keep workers.
Dulles Greene, across the tracks, goes to hearings in November and December
The King Johns Way lots are the second site the housing authority owns at this station.
Dulles Greene covers 11.1 acres south and east of Dulles Greene Drive, north of the Dulles Access Road and within a quarter mile of the station. The housing authority owns 9.6 of those acres. The county’s plan amendment, SSPA 2023-III-18UP, would allow about 435 affordable apartments in a mix of one- to four-bedroom units. The county approved an agreement with the nonprofit True Ground Housing Partners to develop it in January 2026.
The schedule ahead:
- November 18, 2026: Planning Commission hearing on the Dulles Greene plan amendment.
- December 8, 2026: Board of Supervisors hearing, 4 p.m.
County staff have also proposed waiving property taxes on new nonprofit-owned affordable housing for up to 50 years, with Dulles Greene as one of two pilot projects, according to FFXnow’s October 8 report. A tax break that long lowers a project’s upfront financing costs, which could reduce how much the county has to contribute.
Private housing plans are moving near the station too. In November 2025 the Board of Supervisors added a mostly residential option to the plan for 2140 Rock Hill Road, which had called for an office-heavy mix, and Supervisor Bierman said the project could include up to 432 units. The developer, Stout & Teague, said in December 2025 that it expected to file a rezoning in the first half of 2026.
The two housing authority sites and the Rock Hill Road plan add up to nearly 1,270 proposed homes near one Metro stop.
Owners near the station should expect years of construction and more neighbors
For owners near the station. Homes on both sides of the Toll Road near Route 28, from the Rock Hill Road and Dulles Greene area to the neighborhoods off Sunrise Valley Drive, sit closest to these projects. Hundreds of new households within walking distance of the station means more potential customers for shops and restaurants near the Metro. It also means construction traffic around Rock Hill Road, Sunrise Valley Drive and the Route 28 ramps once building starts.
For buyers shopping new construction. A buyer comparing new communities near the station can now mark two more lots as committed to affordable housing. Those lots are no longer available for market-rate townhomes or condos.
For renters and first-time buyers. The King Johns Way homes will not open for several years, and the income limits are not set. Dulles Greene is further along, with hearings this fall, and is the project to follow first.
We will follow both projects through the county process and update this post when the housing authority names a builder or files plans for King Johns Way. For more on what is opening around Innovation Center, see our posts on Huey Magoo’s at Arrowbrook Centre and Voodoo Brewing at Dulles Station.
If you own near the station and want to talk through what these projects could mean for your home’s value, or you are weighing a purchase in the Innovation Center area, reach out. We work with buyers and sellers across Herndon and Reston every week.
See something missing or wrong? Email us at [email protected] and we will check it and update the post.
