TYSONS CORNER, VA-Georgelas Group has received approval from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for the first two phases of a massive redevelopment project near the future metro station stop here. Five residential towers, which will comprise the majority of the living space in the new community called Tysons Spring Hill Station, will now move forward, partner Jon Adler tells GlobeSt.com.

“We already have a buyer--Greystar--in place to begin developing the first project,” he says. “If all goes well, they should be digging dirt out of the ground on it by the end of the year.” Adler declines to discuss pricing on the 404-unit high-rise. As for the other four residential projects, he says, those will wait until the market has shown signs of absorbing the first wave of units Greystar will be delivering. “We are not just going to dump hundreds and hundreds of units on the market.”

Even if the firm did, Tysons Corner--notoriously starved for living space--would probably soak it up quickly. The five apartment buildings will be located in the Spring Hill Station project, an ambitious urban town center that has borrowed on best design practices from around the world. Situated on 31 acres, it will total nearly seven-and-a-half million square feet of mixed-use transit-oriented development.

Phases three and four will consist of the bulk of the office, hotel and retail components, along with additional residential. Adler is hesitant to put a value on the project, although clearly, he says, it will reach into the multiple billions of dollars at full build out. “There are 20 buildings all together,” he says. “Each might be developed for between $100 million to $150 million and the offices could be as much as $200 million.”

The next move for Georgelas is to win approval for the rest of the plan. The county has informed the company that this is likely to happen by mid-2012, Adler says. Tysons Spring Hill Station is the first project to go through Fairfax’s new urban building plan process, which may account for the speedy approval. In addition, the Georgelas Group is serving as the "demonstration project" for the Tysons Corner Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted last year.