The Kensington Reston is being built on the site of a former daycare and school for young children. A local husband and wife duo built the school in the mid 1990s and have owned and operated it until Kensington Senior Living (KSL) purchased the property in 2019. Residents of Great Falls, the couple were considered staples within the community, providing families with quality and comfortable care for over 25 years.
We approached the owners in 2016 and expressed an interest in purchasing the site for an assisted living project. There were obvious similarities between the daycare and The Kensington – even though our residents are much different in age, we both care for people! Once an agreement was reached, KSL submitted an assisted living development application to Fairfax County, the local Reston Homeowners Association Design Review Board, and Reston Planning and Zoning. KSL and the local Reston groups worked together for nearly a year in an effort to design a project that would work well for all groups involved – the local neighbors, the Reston community as a whole, and finally, The Kensington. All these key community groups worked hard together and found a collaborative middle ground to build The Kensington.
We received Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approval in February 2018, purchased the property in April 2019 and began the construction work in June 2019. Though it was bittersweet for the owners, the sale of the property allowed them to focus on their other local daycare center in Aldie, Virginia.
The Kensington contracted with Forrester Construction in May 2019 to build our 75 unit assisted living and memory care community. Forrester completed The Kensington Falls Church community in 2017. They did a great job there and were great to work with, which was a major factor in selecting them to build our newest Reston community.
