Another Reston Town Center Restaurant Closes

RESTON, VA -- Yet another Reston Town Center restaurant has closed its doors.

The website for Neyla Mediterranean Bistro indicates that the restaurant, located at 11898 Market Street, has permanently closed.

It's the latest in a series of closures at RTC. RestonNow reported Tuesday that M&S Grill had closed its doors. And last month, Applachian Spring closed, blaming the introduction of paid parking last January.

In November, Patch reported that Boston Properties executives said during their quarterly earnings call that 200,000 square feet of space at Reston Town Center would be vacated in 2018, representing about 5 percent of the 3.6 million square feet of retail space at RTC. However, BXP vice president Peter Johnston told Patch that having that amount of space vacated is normal, and RTC is doing very well.

"It's actually quite typical," Johnston said. "The prior three years, the rollover in RTC was 201,000 square feet, 188,000 square feet, and 236,000 square feet. While those numbers seem large, they only represent between 5 and 6 percent in square footage we own and manage."

However, many merchants remain angry about paid parking, which they argue is driving business away. Dozens of them formed the Reston Merchants Association last year in a bid to put legal pressure on Boston Properties, but Johnston told Patch that paid parking is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Image: Patch staff