The Mitre Corporation wants to tear up its eight-year-old expansion blueprint for its Tysons campus and replace much of the planned office space with housing, according to a rezoning application filed with Fairfax County on July 2.
The McLean-headquartered defense and cybersecurity contractor proposed consolidating five previously approved office buildings into two high-rise towers while adding up to 890 apartments across three residential buildings on the 22.5-acre campus at 7525 Colshire Drive, about a tenth of a mile from the McLean Metro station's southern entrance.
The shift comes a year after Mitre laid off 442 employees, mostly at its Tysons headquarters, due to the Trump administration's cancellation of thousands of federal contracts.
What's changing
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Mitre's original master plan in February of 2018, greenlighting an expansion from 1.34 million square feet to 2.15 million square feet of office space in five new buildings.
Under the revised proposal, that unbuilt office space would be compressed into two structures on the north side of the property: a 24-story, 375-foot tower (Mitre 5) and a 16-story, 230-foot building (Mitre 6). Three existing office buildings would remain, but Mitre 1, the building farthest from the Metro, would be demolished and replaced by one of the three planned residential buildings, each up to eight stories tall.
Total development would actually grow to roughly 2.6 million square feet, but with density concentrated closer to transit.
Why now
In its filing, Mitre cited "changes in federal government contracting" and "COVID-induced changes to how the modern workforce utilizes office space" as reasons for the overhaul. The application did not directly acknowledge the 2025 layoffs.
The company said in its statement of justification that it had reevaluated its long-term master plan to better align real estate strategies with its mission and future workforce needs "while at the same time supporting the County's goal to provide additional housing in transit-rich areas like Tysons."
The proposal lands in a tight housing market. Northern Virginia's inventory sat at just 1.93 months of supply in May, less than half the national average of 4.5 months, according to the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors.
What residents would get
The plan calls for 2.98 acres of park space, including an urban park delivered with the first residential building. That park would feature a wood deck, playground, dog park, open lawns, a water feature and bench seating.
The residential buildings would include workforce housing units as required by the Tysons Comprehensive Plan.
What happens next
Construction would be phased. Phase 1 is a residential building on a parking lot at the campus's southeastern corner at Dartford Drive and Commons South Street. Phase 2 is the Mitre 5 office tower. Phases 3 and 4 cover the remaining two residential buildings and Mitre 6. Mitre said the timeline "will depend on market conditions and MITRE's corporate requirements."
