| Downtown
Project Comes Into Focus |
| Diamond Properties this week presented a revised plan to
build a 170-room hotel and 14,500 square feet of retail space
in downtown Herndon, and the new proposal looks much more
impressive than the initial design submitted to the town a
few weeks ago. |
| Having a hotel in downtown Herndon would a great first step
in attracting more people to the downtown, and hotel guests
are usually people who will go to local restaurants and shops.
And the addition of more retail will bring more reasons for
residents from the surrounding area to have more reason to
visit the downtown area regularly. |
| But what impressed me most about the revised proposal were
the architectural changes Diamond Properties made after consulting
with the Historical Preservation Review Board. The first schematics
showed a five-story, prison-like structure that shot straight
up 50 feet from the sidewalk. |
| The plans presented this week fall more in line with what
a new development in the historic downtown should be: a gabled
roofline, different building materials that create the look
of a row of townhouses, and scaling back the height of the
structure from certain angles to soften the view as people
approach the downtown area. |
| The development will also include a parking garage in the
center of the block, and that garage is to be open for general
public use, which stands to benefit all businesses in the
downtown area. |
| It was particularly good to hear overwhelming support for
the development from members of the Downtown Business Alliance,
who said at the meeting that such a project would be a great
addition to the town. |
| The project has yet to come before public review by the
Planning Commission and the Town Council, but by working with
the downtown merchants and the Town of Herndon, this development
could be a great asset to the town. |
