Dulles Airport Area Apartments Will Get Under Way in May

It is situated in the Rte. 28 corridor in Loudoun County just five miles from Washington Dulles International Airport. Additional amenities are to include an exercise facility and spa, swimming pool, business and conference center and a billiards room. The apartment community is designed by architectural firm Torti Gallas & Partners. "Parc Dulles will be the region's truly first class A++ community that is unparalleled in design, luxury and location," Lerner principal Mark D. Lerner attests.

According to Lerner, the company's intention is "to capitalize on the continuing housing demand in the fastest growing county in the US." An April 2004 report from the US Census Bureau verifies that Loudoun County is, indeed, the fastest growing county in the nation, and Delta Associates' Fourth Quarter 2004 Office & Condo Report substantiates a demand for apartments in the region. Vacancy rates in Suburban Maryland are currently at a low 3.2%.

Lerner has not finalized development costs for Parc Dulles, but the aforementioned report offers some idea of what the company might shell out to complete the project. According to Delta Associates, the current average development cost for class A garden-style apartment properties in Suburban Maryland is $125,468 per-unit, including hard and soft costs, but excluding land. Land costs average out at $39,005 per-unit in the region.

So why not go condo, given the incredible demand for these properties all around the country, particularly in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area? "We are in the rental business and we think that the rental market is strong and will get stronger with the increase in population," Lerner's B. Clarke Green, Lerner director of marketing, explains to GlobeSt.com. "The trend is to convert to condominiums, and as a result, the inventory of apartments is going down, and the demand is going up." Parc Dulles is on schedule to open its doors to the first wave of occupants in the summer of 2006.