One Loudoun's New Block Took Two Years to Fill. Here's What That Means for This Fall.

"Since then, a freestanding restaurant building has gone up, furniture and fixtures moved in, staff hired and trained, and service started." That's how The Burn described Bartaco's soft opening at One Loudoun on September 24, 2026. "Since then" refers to September 2024, when the same outlet first reported the restaurant was coming.

For anyone at Belmont Country Club who heads east on Route 7 for dinner or errands, that two-year stretch is the most useful thing to know about the new section of Exchange Street. It tells you how to read every sign still up on the block. It also tells you which parts of this fall and holiday season you can plan around now.

From Announcement to Opening Day

Bartaco now shares the new Exchange Street block with Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, Tatte Bakery & Cafe, Alo, and Arhaus. According to The Burn, site work began in October 2024. By June 2025 new retail buildings were going up quickly along an extension of the street. Each tenant followed roughly the same arc:

The rollout order is part of the story. The block opened from the shopping side first. Furniture and activewear came in spring, coffee and ice cream in June, and a full dinner restaurant at the end of September. Bartaco is Loudoun County's first, and during its opening week it served dinner only. Staff expected to add lunch as soon as the following week.

Several of these are firsts for the county. Van Leeuwen is the chain's first Loudoun store and its third in Virginia, with vegan flavors and take-home tubs. ALO is the brand's first Loudoun location and is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tatte runs as an all-day restaurant with patio seating, and its grand opening started at 7 a.m.

From a design point of view, Arhaus is the store on the block worth a deliberate visit. The showroom covers nearly 20,000 square feet on two floors and includes a covered outdoor furniture showroom. That means you can sit on patio pieces under a real roof instead of judging them from a catalog photo.

What "Coming Soon" Means on This Block

One Loudoun's homepage currently lists six names under "Coming Soon": Livewell Animal Hospital, Monkee's, Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, Madewell, and Williams Sonoma. Given the timeline above, those six fall into a few groups.

• Opening this week. Monkee's of Loudoun holds its grand opening Thursday, October 15 through Sunday, October 18, at 20366 Exchange Street. It's the first name on the list to move from sign to storefront.
• Signed in spring 2025, still waiting. The Burn reported in April 2025 that Williams-Sonoma would take a space of nearly 5,800 square feet on the new block. Pottery Barn was set for its own freestanding building of 13,260 square feet. Both brands already run outlet stores at Leesburg Premium Outlets. The One Loudoun locations are planned as full-line stores carrying current merchandise. Eighteen months later, both are still marked "Coming Soon."
• Listed, no published date. Madewell, Anthropologie, and Livewell Animal Hospital appear on the Coming Soon board. None of the sources reviewed for this post gave an opening date for any of them.
• Reported only. L.L. Bean and Free People Movement are "exploring" stores at One Loudoun, according to The Burn on September 25. Neither brand nor center management had confirmed. One source said the landlord would prepare a space of roughly 16,000 square feet for L.L. Bean, and Free People would take about 3,700. Vuori is in the same position. A September 17 report put it in a space of about 4,800 square feet between Van Leeuwen and Tatte, but no finalized deal was confirmed.

If the block's own track record holds, a name that is only rumored this fall is unlikely to have an open storefront this year.

The Spaces That Opened Up

Some of the change comes from departures. The Container Store, Loudoun's only location, announced in July that it was closing. Employees told The Burn the last day would be Saturday, August 22, and the chain gave no reason. By late September, The Burn was describing the store as having closed earlier in the summer. One Loudoun's shop directory still lists the store, so that page lags behind the actual storefront.

The rumored L.L. Bean space connects to that closure. The Burn speculated, based on size alone, that L.L. Bean might be considering the former Container Store space. That's an educated guess, not an announcement.

On October 10, The Burn reported that Hot Pot Legend, in the corner unit at the Russell Branch Parkway entrance, appears to have closed for good. The report calls the closure apparent, not confirmed.

Dates You Can Plan Around This October

Store openings depend on leases and build-outs. One Loudoun's event calendar depends on neither, which makes it the most reliable part of the center this month. Here's what is posted on One Loudoun's events page for the rest of October:

1. Fridays, October 16, 23, and 30. The final three Moonlight Market nights, part of The Maker's Valley Friday Market. The series started August 14 and runs through October 30.
2. October 15 through 18. The Monkee's of Loudoun grand-opening events on Exchange Street.
3. Saturday, October 24, noon to 3 p.m. The Halloween Bark Bash, which One Loudoun calls its signature pet event. Miri's Haven Senior Dog Rescue is this year's Kite Cares partner.
4. Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1. Asia in a Bite Food Fest at 44578 Atwater Drive. The event's own page lists these dates in its schedule, but the page title references October 17 and 18. Check the page again the week of the festival.

Combining a couple of these makes for an easy evening. A Moonlight Market Friday sits close to Bartaco's dinner service and the Van Leeuwen counter, all on the same walk.

The Holiday Season Hasn't Been Announced

As of October 10, One Loudoun's posted events stop at the November 1 food festival. No 2026 tree lighting, holiday market, or skating schedule had been posted. The most recent tree-lighting page is for 2025. That event ran Saturday, December 6, from 5 to 7 p.m., with Santa photos, ornament-making, ice carving, letters to Santa, and train rides. Last year's date gives a rough idea of timing, but it doesn't confirm this year's.

The winter ice rink needs the same caution. The center's plans called for a seasonal rink on the lawn in front of Bartaco, as The Burn reported in April 2025. Bartaco's building is now finished and serving. No operating dates for the rink have been published. Like everything else on this block, it was announced long before any opening date appeared.

The next major project is also on a multi-year schedule. A 169-room, seven-story Tempo by Hilton with ground-floor retail is under construction as part of this phase, with opening expected in 2027. When it opens, the hotel lobby will add foot traffic to Exchange Street that no store sign can, including visitors with no other reason to be in Ashburn.

Watching a block like this fill in, Jennifer pays attention to the details that don't show up in an announcement: how a freestanding restaurant sits on its lot, what a covered showroom says about how people actually use patio furniture, and which signs turn into storefronts. If you'd like to talk through what is changing along Route 7 near Belmont Country Club, or what a new Arhaus or Pottery Barn showroom could mean for your own rooms, Green Ivy Properties would be glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.