Walk the short distance from Potomac Green's gate to Exchange Street this month and you'll pass four businesses that didn't exist a year ago. Arhaus opened its furniture showroom this spring. Alo Yoga followed with a full storefront of activewear. Van Leeuwen brought its Brooklyn-born ice cream, the kind with flavors like honeycomb and Earl Grey. And in June, Tatté Bakery & Cafe opened its doors, pulling in crowds for coffee, tartines, and pastries on opening day.
Keep walking past Tatté's patio and you'll hit a building that's been standing since spring too. The frame is up. The signage is in. But look through the windows and you'll see what's still there: bare concrete forms, exposed utility lines, a floor that hasn't been poured. This is Bartaco, and as of this summer it was still hiring cooks and servers for a restaurant that hadn't opened yet.
That gap between what's finished and what isn't tells you something about this stretch of Ashburn that a simple list of new openings doesn't. The expansion looks done from a distance. Up close, it's still half a construction site.
Two Years, Four Storefronts, One Hole
The One Loudoun expansion that's reshaping Exchange Street was announced in October 2024, with plans for 86,000 square feet of retail, 33,000 square feet of office space, and roughly 400 new housing units. Arhaus, Alo, Van Leeuwen, and Tatté all moved from framed shell to open storefront within that window. Four tenants, one construction timeline, done in under two years.
Bartaco broke ground on the same schedule. Its exterior has been standing since at least this spring, visible from the street with its finished walls and roofline. But as recently as this summer, the interior was still described as having gravel where a floor should be, with utilities being run before any concrete could be poured. A hiring post from One Loudoun's own event feed this summer described the restaurant as still "bringing its coastal-inspired vibe, fresh flavors, and everyday escape to the neighborhood soon" and actively building its team, which is another way of saying the doors weren't open yet.
Four storefronts on one timeline, one still working through the same construction steps the others cleared months ago. That's not a criticism of anyone's build schedule. It's just the actual state of the corner, and it matters if you've been assuming the expansion wrapped up when Tatté's patio filled with customers in June.
The Plan for the Empty Lot
Part of why Bartaco has drawn more attention than a typical restaurant buildout is what's planned for the plaza in front of it. The space is designed to double as a public gathering area, hosting outdoor events in warmer months and converting into a seasonal ice rink once winter arrives. No firm date has been attached to either the restaurant opening or the rink's debut. What's confirmed is the intent: a corner of Exchange Street that currently reads as an active job site is meant to become the kind of spot where people linger, whether that's over tacos in September or skates in January.
For now, that plan is still on paper. The gravel is still gravel.
What's Actually on the Calendar Before Then
While Bartaco finishes its interior, the rest of One Loudoun's fall calendar is already running, and it's worth knowing what's on it if you're deciding how to spend the next several weekends.
- September 24: A free outdoor screening of Paddington in Peru, with popcorn from Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, on the One Loudoun events calendar.
- September 26: Keeton, a Washington, DC cover band built around 90s and alternative hits, plays the Plaza.
- Through October 30: The Moonlight Market runs Fridays, featuring local makers, bakers, and small businesses, part of a run that started in mid-August.
- October 17 to 18, and again October 31 to November 1: Asia in a Bite returns, a free outdoor food festival with roughly 40 vendors and live DJ music, closing out a run that's been going since May.
None of this depends on Bartaco. It's the season One Loudoun already has, running in parallel with the one still under construction next door.
Why the Order Matters If You Live at Potomac Green
Potomac Green is a community of 1,363 homes built around a clubhouse that runs its own full calendar, from bocce and pickleball to the quarterly resident magazine that's been in print since 2010. Nobody living there needs One Loudoun to have a social life. But the two places sit close enough that Exchange Street functions as an extension of the neighborhood's own rhythm, the place you walk to on a Friday night for the market or a Tuesday morning for coffee at Tatté.
That's exactly why the gap between what's open and what's still gravel is worth tracking rather than assuming away. If you've heard the expansion is finished because four new storefronts have opened this year, you've heard an accurate but incomplete version. The bigger draw, the one built around a plaza meant to host both summer nights and winter skating, is still working through utilities and flooring as of the most recent update. Whether that means an opening this fall, a delay into next year, or a winter rink that slips past its intended debut is genuinely unclear right now, and anyone telling you otherwise is guessing.
What's not a guess is the calendar already running. The movie night, the Friday market, the two Asia in a Bite weekends. Those are locked in, dated, and free. If you're deciding what to actually walk over for this month, that's the list. If you're wondering whether Bartaco and its rink will be part of your winter plans, the honest answer is that the corner isn't ready yet, and there's no announced date for when it will be.
That's the kind of detail that only shows up if you're paying attention to the actual construction, not just the ribbon cuttings. It's also the kind of local rhythm we track closely at Legacy Real Estate Group, because knowing what's genuinely open, what's still promised, and what's worth planning around is part of understanding a neighborhood well enough to talk about it honestly. If you're curious what else is changing around Ashburn or the wider Northern Shenandoah Valley this fall, reach out. We're always glad to talk about the place before we talk about anything else.
