JLL turns Virginia office park buildings into education hub

Dive Brief:

JLL has negotiated the lease and managed the construction to convert a pair of corporate office park buildings into classrooms, offices and testing rooms for its tenant,Fairfax County Public Schools, in Herndon, Virginia.
The process included assisting with site selection, budget management and request for proposal development for design and construction, the firm said in an Oct. 31 news release.
JLL negotiated an expansion of the original 33,136-square-foot space to lease an additional 6,366 square feet, it said. It noted that reusing and expanding the existing buildings was more sustainable than ground-up construction, which made it attractive to Fairfax County.

Dive Insight:

The two buildings at the corporate park in Northern Virginia are interconnected through a breezeway. Fairfax County’s public school system is using the property to house its Adult and Community Education program and Adult and Community Education English for Speakers of Other Languages program. The buildings also accommodate the Fairfax County Adult High School, which gives adults the chance to acquire a high school diploma or obtain a passing score on the General Equivalency Diploma exam, and the Transition Support Resource Center, a program designed for short-term interventions for students who need additional help.

“Fairfax had an expiring lease for their adult education program, which was in a retail shopping center. They said they would like to consolidate some other programs, which were in these different locations. And they wanted us to be in a certain area of the county … up in the northwest corner, specifically Herndon,” explained John Gibb, managing director of tenant representation, who was part of the brokerage team that represented Fairfax County Public Schools.

Building 465, which was entirely vacant, will serve as classroom space for Fairfax County’s adult education, English language training, GED classes and interventions for students who are struggling, Gibb said. Building 455 is a separate testing center aimed at assessing preparedness for the GED exams.

Since Fairfax County is leasing all of building 465, it is paying utilities directly to the provider, which will help the county manage its operating expenses more effectively, Gibb said. Fairfax County will also provide custodial cleaning and maintenance services for both buildings to make more efficient use of its custodial workers, he added.

The project was not without challenges. Fairfax County is dealing with a budget deficit in excess of $81 million and a $43.8 million shortfall for schools, based on anticipated expenditure increases for fiscal year 2024. Gibb said JLL negotiated with the landlord, Washington D.C. real estate investment trust Penzance, to fund a significant portion of tenant improvements so that the county would not have to shoulder that cost. Retrofits have also been done on both buildings, Gibb said. Fairfax County Public Schools, when contacted, declined to provide details of these retrofits.

Fairfax County leases 45%, or 13,052 square feet, of the 29,000 rentable square feet in building 455. The classrooms in building 465 span 26,500 rentable square feet.