Reston Town Center Restaurants: Business Is Improving After Parking Change

RESTON, VA — It's been nearly two months since Reston Town Center manager Boston Properties announced major changes to paid parking at RTC, and most restaurants polled by Patch this week indicated that business appears to be improving -- but they had some significant caveats.

Boston Properties announced May 31 that it would make parking free on weekday evenings and offer a free hour during weekdays for visitors, apparently bending to the fierce backlash from the Reston community after the developer implemented paid parking at RTC in January. Merchants said they lost a lot of business -- some claimed sales were down as much as 50-60 percent -- due to paid parking.

Now, restaurants tell Patch that they've seen an uptick in business since then.

"We've definitely seen the nights increase," said a manager at Mon Ami Gabi. "I believe it's because of a reduction in paid parking hours."

A manager at Uncle Julio's also noted that things had been "picking up a bit" in the last couple of weeks, but acknowledged it could be due to the summer months.

At Busara, a manager said that while the restaurant has seen a definite improvement in bookings at night, the lunch hour continues to suffer. "People don't want to download the app," he said.

A manager at PassionFish said business was up, but it was "difficult to say" what the cause is because of other possible external factors, like the nearby Hyatt being fully booked up. Another restaurant that did not wish to be identified indicated bookings were up, and two restaurants -- Clyde's and M&S Grill -- declined to answer the question.

Not everyone feels that things have improved, however. Mohammad Abdullah, the owner of Midtown Kabob, said the change in hours haven't really helped, and the only solution is to return to entirely free parking.

Image: Patch staff