The Herndon Town Council approved two apartment projects near the Herndon Metro station in April and June, and the town’s development activity page now lists both with approved plans. 575 Herndon Parkway, the former Booz Allen Hamilton office building next to the station, won approval on April 28 for 525 apartments. 250 Exchange Place, a block of one-story offices a short walk away, won approval on June 23 for 400 apartments and 62 stacked townhouses.
The Nell is rising at 555 Herndon Parkway, and a fourth building is in review at 535 Herndon Parkway. Counting a dormant 2022 approval at 593 Herndon Parkway, known as Parkview, the four projects in the core around the station’s north entrance add up to about 2,000 apartments. Parkview and Fairbrook, a larger mixed-use plan approved in 2020, both carry approvals for hundreds of homes, and the town now lists both as inactive.
Herndon planned its Metro core for about 2,357 homes in 2012
The Herndon Transit-Oriented Core, which the town calls the HTOC, covers about 38 acres on nine properties around the north entrance of the Herndon station. The Town Council adopted the plan for it on February 28, 2012, as an amendment to Herndon 2030, the comprehensive plan the town adopted in 2008. The plan set target densities highest closest to the station and estimated that by 2035 the core would hold 2,357 homes and about 4.1 million square feet of office, hotel and retail space, including about 3.45 million square feet of office, according to the 2012 plan. The town’s Herndon Metro area plan page tracks progress on the nine original parcels.
The town rezoned the core to a planned transit-oriented district, PD-TOC, in 2013, allowing redevelopment up to a floor area ratio of 4.3. Floor area ratio measures building floor space against land area, so a 4.3 allows 4.3 square feet of building for every square foot of lot. Each project inside the core needs a development plan that the Town Council approves.
The Nell at 555 Herndon Parkway will deliver first, with move-ins planned for early 2027
Fairfield Residential bought the 555 Herndon Parkway site in November 2023 and is building The Nell there: 399 apartments and 5,360 square feet of retail and restaurant space, according to the town’s listing. The Town Council approved the current plan for the site on December 13, 2022, by a 3 to 2 vote. The approval also allows a future office tower of about 200,000 square feet, which Fairfield has no near-term plans to build.
Fairfield expects its first residents in early 2027 and construction to finish in the late spring of 2027, according to FFXnow. The company’s own listing shows the building as coming in 2027 with studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments.
575 Herndon Parkway trades the former Booz Allen office for 525 apartments and about half the Metro promenade
The site holds a 139,200-square-foot office building from 1988 that has sat largely vacant in recent years, according to the town’s staff report. Its assessed value fell from about $24.2 million in 2023 to about $8.5 million. Bristol Herndon Parkway LLC, an affiliate of Bristol Capital, owns the 4.64-acre property, and Woodfield Development is the developer.
The approved plan replaces the building with a single seven-story building:
- 525 market-rate apartments, mostly one- and two-bedroom units, with some studios and three-bedrooms
- 9,222 square feet of retail and restaurant space and 5,987 square feet of commercial or office space
- A structured garage with 638 spaces, according to the staff report
- 1,200 square feet set aside for the town, rent-free for 10 years
- A 12-foot shared-use path and rebuilt bus bays along Herndon Parkway
- A pedestrian corridor along the toll road side that completes the final link of the Sugarland Run Trail
The project also builds a pedestrian-only stretch of the Herndon Metro Promenade along its west edge. FFXnow described that segment as about half of the promenade, 35 feet wide, which would widen to 70 feet once the Parkview site next door redevelops, in its May 12 coverage.
The Planning Commission recommended approval 7 to 0 on March 23, and the Town Council approved the plan 6 to 0 on April 28, with Councilmember Alam absent. The town’s listing gives the retail space as 13,788 square feet, a figure that does not match the approved plan’s breakdown. No construction start has been announced.
535 Herndon Parkway is still a draft, with 400 apartments planned on a cleared lot
The development plan for 535 Herndon Parkway, filed as DP #25-01 by Herndon MF LLC, calls for up to 400 apartments and at least 5,000 square feet of retail in a seven-story building on 4.2 acres at Herndon Parkway and Exchange Place. The plan states that the existing building has been removed. The town’s Architectural Review Board held work sessions on the design on April 1 and June 3, 2026. No Planning Commission or Town Council hearing has been scheduled, and the town lists the plan as a draft.
Parkview’s approval for towers up to 275 feet has sat unused since 2022
Lerner Enterprises won approval on August 9, 2022, to redevelop Parkview, an office site of about five acres at 593 Herndon Parkway. The unanimous Town Council vote allowed two options: two residential towers of 225 and 275 feet with a 275-foot office tower, or three office towers. The town’s listing gives the program as 675 apartments, 400,216 square feet of office and 9,900 square feet of retail.
The town lists Parkview under inactive approved projects, and no site plan has been filed, according to FFXnow. The promenade at 575 Herndon Parkway reaches its full width only when Parkview builds its share.
250 Exchange Place opens the next ring out from the station, with 462 homes
250 Exchange Place sits outside the Metro core, in the Transit-Related Growth area, a buffer district the Town Council planned on April 23, 2024, by a 7 to 0 vote. The project is the first rezoning in that district. Rooney Properties plans to replace five one-story office buildings from the mid-1980s, known as the Van Buren Office Park, on 9.41 acres at Herndon Parkway and Exchange Place, about 0.3 miles from the station by the town’s measure.
The approved plan, ZMA #24-01, allows:
- A seven-story building with 400 apartments and a 529-space garage
- 62 stacked townhouses for sale, which the town’s listing calls stacked condos
- Two publicly accessible parks on Herndon Parkway, one with a playground, a sports court and a shade pavilion, the other a gateway to a future linear park
- Two new public streets, including a road parallel to Herndon Parkway with a cycle track and six-foot sidewalks
Town staff estimated the project would raise the site’s annual town tax revenue from about $28,400 to about $505,500, according to the staff report. The Planning Commission recommended approval 5 to 0 with one abstention on April 27, and the Town Council approved the rezoning 6 to 0 on June 23. Construction could start in 2027, according to FFXnow.
Fairbrook’s 2020 approval allows up to 900 apartments, though the town lists 1,080
Fairbrook is a 28-acre mixed-use plan filed by Fairbrook Business Parks Associates. The Town Council approved it as a special exception on November 17, 2020, by a 7 to 0 vote, for up to 900 apartments, up to 600,000 square feet of office and at least 5,000 square feet of retail. The town’s current listing gives 1,080 apartments, 800,000 square feet of office and 10,000 square feet of retail, and we found no amendment to the approval in the town’s records. The town lists Fairbrook as inactive.
None of the newly approved buildings include affordable apartments
The Town Council adopted an interim affordable housing policy on March 24, 2026. It gives priority to proposals that include affordable units, follows Fairfax County’s standards and directs town staff to explore an agreement for the county’s housing authority to manage affordable units in the town, according to the council’s resolution. The policy runs until the town adopts its next comprehensive plan, Herndon 2050.
The 575 Herndon Parkway staff report notes that the project includes no rent-regulated units. 250 Exchange Place includes none either, and Mayor Keven LeBlanc said the interim policy did not apply because the case was too far along when the council adopted it, according to FFXnow.
Homes in the Metro core reach 85 percent of the 2012 plan, while office reaches 18 percent
| Project | Area | Status | Homes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Nell, 555 Herndon Parkway | Metro core | Under construction | 399 |
| 575 Herndon Parkway | Metro core | Approved April 28, 2026 | 525 |
| Parkview, 593 Herndon Parkway | Metro core | Approved 2022, inactive | 675 |
| 535 Herndon Parkway | Metro core | Draft, in review | 400 |
| 250 Exchange Place | Transit-Related Growth | Approved June 23, 2026 | 462 |
| Fairbrook | Near the station | Approved 2020, inactive | Up to 900 |
The four projects inside the Metro core add up to 1,999 homes, or 85 percent of the 2,357 the 2012 plan estimated. Three of them, holding 1,599 homes, have approvals or are under construction. The same four projects include about 606,000 square feet of office, counting The Nell’s future tower and Parkview’s approved tower, or about 18 percent of the 3.45 million square feet the plan expected.
Across the toll road from the station in unincorporated Fairfax County, the Parkline at Woodland Park plan would replace three office buildings with 429 to 584 homes, mostly townhouses and stacked townhouses, and goes to the Board of Supervisors on October 27.
Buyers near the station should expect construction and new rental supply starting in 2027
The Nell’s 399 apartments are due in 2027, and 575 Herndon Parkway and 250 Exchange Place could add 987 more homes once construction starts. For owners of townhouses and condominiums along Herndon Parkway and in the neighborhoods north of it, the next few years bring construction traffic, new rental supply a short walk from the station, and the first stretch of the Metro promenade, the shared-use path and the publicly accessible parks.
If you are weighing a home near the Herndon station and want to know which projects sit closest to a particular street, reach out to us. We follow the town’s filings and can walk you through what is approved nearby.
Watch the 535 hearing dates, the 575 site plan and the Herndon 2050 Metro area plan
- 535 Herndon Parkway: Planning Commission and Town Council hearings, once the town schedules them
- 575 Herndon Parkway: a site plan filing and a construction start
- The Nell: first move-ins, expected in early 2027
- 250 Exchange Place: a possible 2027 construction start
- Herndon 2050: the town’s early action plan for the Metro area, part of the comprehensive plan rewrite
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