A plan to replace a largely empty office building on Sunrise Valley Drive with 98 townhouses has been delayed because of missing sidewalk connections.
The Fairfax County Planning Commission voted unanimously on June 24 to postpone a decision on the rezoning application from Arlington-based Felice Development Group, which wants to convert the five-story Coppermine Commons III building at 13851 Sunrise Valley Drive into a mix of 40 conventional townhouses and 58 stacked townhouses.
The commission rescheduled the vote for Wednesday.
The holdup comes after county Department of Transportation reviewers found that the site's planned sidewalks aren't all linked and lack Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant curb ramps at pedestrian crossings. County staff called it "an easy fix", but said it was better to resolve before the application moves forward rather than during later site plan review.
"Our preference is to go to the board with a clean recommendation," Planning Commission Chair Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner said at the June 24 hearing.
A building that couldn't fill up
The project would demolish a five-story office building constructed in 2001 that has struggled to attract tenants for years. Previous owner Cannon Hill Capital Partners bought the three-building Coppermine Commons complex in 2016 and sank $10 million into renovations which were completed in 2019.
The investment didn't work. A commercial listing from broker Avison Young, active as of late June 2026, shows all five floors available for lease.
Cannon Hill sold the 4.7-acre parcel to an entity tied to Felice Development Group founder and president Rick Felice for $12.5 million in December 2024, according to Fairfax County property records. Land-use attorney David Gill, of Wire Gill LLP, wrote in the rezoning application that the previous owner "spent over a decade unsuccessfully marketing the building and was unable to retain a financially viable number of leases."
The site sits in the McNair area south of Herndon, along the western Dulles Toll Road corridor, where several office buildings carried high vacancies as of mid-2024, according to Fairfax County Economic Development Authority data.
What residents would get
Under the proposal, 12 of the 98 units (12.5%) would be set aside as affordable housing for households earning 60% or less of the area median income. Fairfax County's 2025 AMI for a family of four is $163,900. That affordable commitment allows the developer a slightly higher density of 21.39 units per acre, above the zoning district's standard 20.
About 35% of the property would remain open space, including a 0.3-acre park with seating, a playground, and a bocce court. The development would include 282 parking spaces. Felice Development is also proposing a $687,976 contribution to Fairfax County Public Schools to offset costs from an estimated 46 new students.
A similar conversion already won approval nearby: a townhouse project on the site of a vacant PNC Bank building at 13490 Coppermine Road cleared the Board of Supervisors in June 2024.
What's next
If the Planning Commission approves the rezoning on Wednesday, the application advances to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for a final vote.
