Comstock Withdraws From Herndon Downtown Redevelopment Project

HERNDON, VA — Comstock Herndon Venture, LC, an entity representing Reston Station developer Comstock Holdings, notified the Town of Herndon that it had decided not to move forward with their agreement to begin construction on the long-delayed downtown development project.

“After significant discussions with Herndon and after good-faith diligent efforts, Comstock has concluded that, without limitation and among other issues with regard to the Project, the Project Costs and commercially reasonable financing are materially greater than anticipated and result in the Project being economically unfeasible, the legal structure for the Project has become overly complicated, and the Conditions Subsequent cannot be satisfied by the Outside Satisfaction Date,” said Comstock Holdings’ CEO Christopher Clemente in the Dec. 6 letter to the Herndon town manager.

The letter was meant to serve as a notice that Comstock was not moving forward and did not have any further obligations to be met under the terms of the comprehensive agreement.

The town and Comstock originally signed a comprehensive agreement in 2017 to redevelop the downtown area, but the pandemic and rising construction costs prompted the developer in April 2022 to exercise its right to pause the start date of the project by two years.

“The decision to deliver this Notice Not to Proceed was very difficult for Comstock after years of planning and efforts, but unfortunately the current market has not yet rebounded sufficiently to move forward,” Clemente said in the letter.

On Tuesday night, the town sent out a release notifying residents of Comstock’s decision.

“Although this agreement did not work out as planned, we continue to believe in the significant redevelopment potential of Herndon’s downtown,” Town Manager Chris Martino said. “We appreciate the patience of the Herndon community throughout this process.”

The town and Comstock originally signed a comprehensive agreement in 2017 to redevelop the downtown area, but the pandemic and rising construction costs prompted the developer in April 2022 to exercise its right to pause the start date of the project by two years.

Then last April, Comstock and the town agreed to push the project start date back to Aug. 15, 2024 to give them time to restructure their contractual agreement to reflect the realities of 2024.
According to the terms of the agreement, Comstock had an outside satisfaction date of Dec. 10, 2024 to notify the town of its intention to move forward or not.

If the project moved forward as planned, it would have drastically reshaped the downtown area with a number of improvements, including 273 luxury residences; more than 17,000-square-feet of boutique; restaurant and retail space; cafe space, an arts center with indoor and outdoor spaces; an arts plaza and walkways; 330 town parking spaces; 396 residential/retail spaces; and three public plazas with outdoor seating and dedicated art.