Wegmans opened at Halley Rise in 2023, and from the street not much has happened since. The parking lots stayed parking lots. Part of the reason is that the original developer sold, and this month the new owner filed a plan for everything that comes next.

WS Development, a Massachusetts company, paid $42.7 million in July 2025 for the undeveloped parcels and the existing office buildings at Halley Rise. Their revised application keeps the approved 4.1 million square feet intact and moves the pieces around: more housing pushed toward the Reston Town Center Metro station, a large share of the office space shifted south, two office towers on Block D, a 1,504 space garage placed entirely underground, 841 residential units across Blocks G and H, a hotel of up to 200 rooms, and roughly five acres of open space anchored by a green with a performance stage and a food and beverage pavilion.

We go through it block by block, including which existing things disappear to make room.

Before that, Kathy and Graham dig into the July numbers for Reston, and they run opposite to what people expect from a slow market. Detached homes are going under contract in 9 days at a median of $1.1 million. Townhouses take 13 days at $709,000. Condos take 26 days at $391,000 and Reston condo inventory has climbed to three months of supply, a level this area has not seen in years. Rising condo fees and a homebuyer whose average age is now 40 are both part of the explanation.

Also in this episode: a penthouse at the JW Marriott Residences at Reston Station sold for $10.9 million, breaking the Virginia record that the same building set in April, and Kathy finished the Public Art Reston scavenger hunt.

Get the weekly Reston Insider newsletter for local news, development updates, and events across Reston and Herndon:

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LINKS REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE

Our previous episode on Reston Crossing, the neighboring development:

https://youtu.be/tlwRKlZ17_I

Halley Rise revised plan coverage from FFXnow:

https://www.ffxnow.com/2026/08/12/halley-rise-developer-proposes-tweaks-to-office-park-plans-for-reston-neighborhood/

Reston penthouse sets the Virginia condo sales record:

https://www.ffxnow.com/2026/08/06/reston-penthouse-breaks-virginias-record-for-a-condo-sale-price-with-10-9m-deal/

Public Art Reston 2026 Scavenger Hunt, cards due August 23:

https://publicartreston.org/scavenger_hunt_2026/

Halley Rise official site:

https://halleyrise.com/

Dulles has been running mobile lounges since 1962. They were supposed to be temporary. Sixty-four years later, a $22.5 billion plan finally retires them, along with most of the rest of the airport, and the ripple effects land squarely on Reston, Herndon, and the Dulles Corridor.

Graham and Kathy break down the Dulles transformation plan: more than five million square feet of new or renovated space, the replacement of Concourses C and D, Concourse E opening later this year with fourteen new United gates, an extended AeroTrain, a new central walking tunnel, a much larger customs facility, and a proposed parking garage of roughly 32,000 spaces. The Saarinen terminal facade survives. The two-year timeline that got announced does not survive contact with the construction schedule, and we explain why most of this work does not start until 2027.

We also get into the underlying master plan math: Dulles moving from about 27 million annual passengers today to roughly 45 million by 2045, using the existing runways, with gate counts climbing from 130 toward 154 by 2040. Then the local question. What does doubling an airport do to Route 28 and Innovation Station, to the Herndon-Monroe corridor north of the toll road, and to Reston, which has already been absorbing a decade of this pressure?

Before that, Fairfax County Public Schools is rolling out new student ID cards for the 2026-27 year. Every student wears one through the school day. Bus riders tap on and tap off. The cards carry a photo, name, school, a QR code, and the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. We talk about the friction it adds, the independence it takes away, and the case for it that changed how we were thinking about it.

Plus, the Cardboard Boat Regatta returns to Lake Anne Plaza on Saturday August 8, and you told us which Reston and Herndon intersections you hate most.

Get the weekly Reston and Herndon newsletter, with every event large and small, the news of the week, and what is actually being built near you:
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Reston is a planned community, so it is easy to assume the street names were invented along with everything else in 1964. Most of them were. A surprising number were not.

In this episode we work through the road names locals ask about most. Temporary Road, which was never supposed to be permanent and stayed anyway. Wiehle Avenue, named for a Philadelphia doctor who retired at 41, bought 3,228 acres, and tried to build a live-work town on this exact land seventy years before Bob Simon did. Sunset Hills Road, which takes its name from the Bowman family farm rather than from any hill or sunset. Lawyers Road, which is exactly what it sounds like: the route attorneys rode to reach the old Fairfax County Courthouse near present-day Tysons. Jester Court, which got its name through a chain of logic involving four lots, the fourth month, and April Fools Day. And the cluster of equestrian names across South Reston, which traces back to the fox hunt the Bowman family founded on Sunset Hills Farm in 1928.

We also start with an 1879 map of the area so you can see what was here before any of it: the rail line that became the W&OD, Hunter Mill, Lawyers Road already in place, and no Reston at all.

Before the history, we cover the week. Kathy and Graham got into Clarity's soft opening at Reston Town Center ahead of Friday's public opening and give a full review of the crispy burrata, the pork belly, the halibut, and the short rib. We walk through the Public Art Reston Scavenger Hunt, the Fairfax County Carnival and Fair coming to Frying Pan Farm Park July 30 through August 2, and the Ken Thompson Reston Century ride on August 23.

One thread we did not expect to be so timely: the Robert Wiehle House on Old Reston Avenue took a tree through the roof in the July 5 storm. It is one of only three structures left from the Town of Wiehle, and its future is genuinely uncertain right now.

Get the weekly Reston Insider newsletter for local openings, events, and neighborhood news:
https://kathyandgraham.greaterrestonliving.com/?modal=signup

Links referenced in this episode

Public Art Reston Scavenger Hunt:
https://publicartreston.org/scavenger_hunt_2026/

Fairfax County Carnival and Fair at Frying Pan Farm Park:
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/frying-pan-park/fairfax-fair

Ken Thompson Reston Century:
https://restonbikeclub.org/RestonCentury

Clarity:
https://clarityvienna.com

Reston Museum:
https://www.restonmuseum.org

Reporting on the Wiehle House storm damage:
https://www.ffxnow.com/2026/07/23/owner-seeks-help-to-save-restons-historic-wiehle-house-after-storm-damage/

Fairfax County has a proposed map for the new Skyview High School, and if you live in Reston or Herndon, your street may be part of it. After months of scenarios and community meetings, the superintendent's preliminary recommendation is out. Graham and Kathy Tracey walk through who is recommended to move, when it would take effect, and the steps still ahead before anything is locked in.

In this episode they break down the recommendation using the FCPS boundary explorer tool: Fox Mill Estates recommended to shift from South Lakes, along with areas currently zoned to Chantilly and Westfield. The proposal draws roughly 1,062 students from Westfield, 384 from South Lakes, and 333 from Chantilly, putting the new school around 89 percent capacity for the 2027-28 school year. They also get into the real-world traffic question of buses crossing Fairfax County Parkway and Centerville Road near Rachel Carson Middle School, and they note that this is a preliminary recommendation with a public hearing on July 13 and a School Board vote on July 16, so it can still change.

Before the main story, plenty of local ground to cover: the straight-line storm that knocked down trees across Reston and damaged their own home, the Town of Herndon's July speed enforcement and safety awareness push, the return of the Cardboard Boat Regatta at Lake Anne Plaza on August 8th, and a wave of restaurant news along Elden Street, including Flame hibachi at Herndon Centre, Panda Express in the old Burger King, and Andy's Pizza taking over the MOD Pizza spot at Plaza America.

Get our weekly newsletter for everything happening in Reston and Herndon:
https://kathyandgraham.greaterrestonliving.com/?modal=signup

Links referenced in this episode:

Skyview High School and Western Pyramids boundary info: https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/maps/boundary-adjustments-information/skyview-high-school-and-western-pyramids-boundary
FCPS Boundary Explorer Tool: http://www.fcpswesternboundary.org
Reston Museum (Cardboard Boat Regatta, August 8th): https://www.restonmuseum.org

Reston Town Center is about to grow in a direction it never has before. Just north of the core, a 48-acre plan called RTC North would reshape the land around the Reston Regional Library, the North County Government Center, and the Inova emergency room into a new district with housing, public facilities, and open space.

In this episode, Graham and Kathy walk through the full RTC North proposal block by block: up to 1.6 million square feet of mixed-use development, as many as 1,000 residential units along Fountain Drive, a rebuilt regional library, a new Embry Rucker Community Shelter, a relocated North County Human Services building, a future elementary school across from Trader Joe's, a recreation center, and an athletic field. At the center sits roughly 10 acres of open space anchored by a 3.5-acre central green built for concerts, events, and everyday gathering.

They also get into the details that matter: the Library Street extension connecting the existing town center to RTC North, proposed building heights that climb to 220 feet on the outer blocks, the design board and resident pushback over tall buildings crowding the green, and the parking questions that come with big events. The library and shelter are targeted for delivery in 2029.

Before the main story, a quick run through what's new around Reston and Herndon: a Vietnamese dinner and craft cocktail spot called Phenomenal Pho & Bar coming to Maker's Rise in Herndon, a Panda Express with a drive-thru replacing the old Burger King on Elden Street, MOTW Coffee and Pastries bringing Yemeni chai and Arabic pastries to south Reston, and a pending ABC application that hints Founding Farmers may add a distillery at Reston Station.

There is a development taking shape on the south side of the Dulles Toll Road that has barely registered with most Reston residents, and it may end up being one of the largest projects in the area.

In this episode, Graham and Kathy break down Comstock's proposal for the Commerce Metro Center, the roughly sixteen acres of aging office buildings and parking lots near Wiehle Avenue and Sunrise Valley Drive. The plan calls for a 2.4 million square foot mixed-use district along the Wiehle corridor: three new office towers, a 240-room hotel, up to 540 residential units, ground floor retail, an optional grocery store, and seven named parks and plazas. There is a signature tower designed by the firm of the late Helmut Jahn, a new Metro Plaza that links directly to the station walkway, and a proposed tunnel under Wiehle Avenue meant to connect future development and finally make this stretch walkable.

Graham and Kathy also put the project in context with the larger build-out of Reston Station, Isaac Newton Square, and the rest of the urban core, and what all of it could mean for Reston by 2035 and 2040.

Before the main story, the two catch up on local openings and news: Midnight Treats, the vegan cookie shop now on the pavilion at Reston Town Center; NH44 Indian Brewing Company, the new Indian-fusion brewery at Arrowbrook Center in Herndon; the new Reston North Park playground near Home Depot; the switch to a drone display instead of fireworks at Lake Fairfax Park for the Fourth of July; and the growing problem of high-speed e-bikes and electric dirt bikes on the W&OD Trail, including what the e-bike classes actually mean and where each one is allowed.

Reston was founded on a promise that its buildings would be worth looking at. So what happened to that idea? In this episode we dig into the Lofts II proposal at Reston Station, a 158-home project on Samuel Morse Drive, and ask why so much of Reston's new construction is arriving flat, boxy, and forgettable.

Kathy and Graham are just back from two weeks in London, where renting e-bikes to zip across the city became the highlight of the trip. That experience sent them home thinking about Reston's own bike share, which already draws strong ridership at local stations. We pull up the Capital Bike Share map and talk about what could make a popular system even more useful: more e-bikes, and better infrastructure to ride them on.

Along the way we cover the Paris Baguette grand opening at the Fannie Mae building, the Innovations in Flight event coming to the Udvar-Hazy Center on June 13th, the A. Smith Bowman Distillery landing on Virginia's endangered historic places list, and a Washington Post tree-cover map that shows South Reston sitting around 80% canopy.

The architecture conversation closes with the heart of the episode: Lofts I residents have filed concerns about pedestrian gaps, missing green space, parking shortfalls, and stalled bike-lane striping along Reston Station Boulevard, and those concerns are now holding up approval for the next phase. We look at award-winning multifamily projects elsewhere to ask a simple question. Could Reston do better?

Old Reston Avenue has a story most people drive past without noticing. Tucked behind a wall of trees sits a 127-year-old stone manor house built in 1899, the old Bowman Manor, now used as office space and surrounded by two buildings slated for demolition. A joint development between the Armed Forces Mutual Association and EYA Townhomes would replace those buildings with 57 new townhomes, all designed in an English cottage style meant to complement the manor itself, which Fairfax County requires to remain as a historic landmark.

In this episode, Graham and Kathy walk through the full set of renderings, the site plan, the four-story townhome elevations, and what the promenade and green space between units would look like. They also get into the traffic concern on Old Reston Avenue near the W&OD Trail, the timeline for the July 14th planning board hearing, and whether this project actually reflects what Reston was built to be.

Before the main story, the episode covers Davio's at Reston Station expanding into the old Plaza Bar space where Matchbox used to operate, the upcoming Tephra ICA Arts Festival marking its 35th year on May 16th and 17th, and a firsthand walk of the Rails to River Trail from Lake Fairfax to Colvin Run Mill with tips on crossing Route 7, what's at the mill, and why the hike is good for families.