By: Frank Dillow 

NVAR Centennial Series

Photo source: GMU Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship

 

Recognized as one of the handful of entrepreneurs who transformed Northern Virginia real estate from dairy farms into Virginia’s “cash cow,” John “Til” Hazel was born 90 years ago – less than 10 years after the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors® (NVAR) was established.

“You seldom run across people like him; he set the vision of Northern Virginia,” Frank Murphy, retired real estate developer and husband of longtime NVAR member Teri Murphy of Gardner Homes, explained.

Working as a youth on the family dairy farm near McLean, Hazel recalled “Tysons Corner was two dairy farms, a stone quarry and a beer joint,” while speaking at a Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce Honors Luncheon in 2018, where he was presented the Chamber’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Shortly before Hazel left Virginia to attend college and law school at Harvard, he observed the area starting to change as Fairfax County’s first postwar low cost housing development started building hundreds of houses at Pimmit Hills, near Hazel’s farm. 

“I remember looking over there, and they probably had 50 or 75 houses all being framed at once. It was like a really big deal,” Hazel told Joel Garreau, whose profile on Hazel appeared in the Washington Post Magazine in 1991.

“He could see things 20 to 30 years out and have the patience to work on them until they became a reality.” -Henry Renaud

GIs returning from World War II needed housing and could buy single-family homes on quarter-acre lots in Pimmit Hills for $7,950 with a $500 down payment and 25 to 30 years to pay off the mortgage at $65 per month.

New roads also needed to be built as many of Virginia’s homebuyers had to commute into Washington, D.C. to work. In 1956, Hazel returned to Virginia with a law degree and joined an Arlington law firm where he was assigned to represent the state highway department in acquiring land for the construction of the Capital Beltway.

Honing his skills as an expert in land use planning, zoning, land acquisition and eminent domain, Hazel quickly become the “go-to guy” for developers wanting to open up land for commercial and residential development throughout Northern Virginia.

As the Beltway neared completion in 1961, Hazel represented developers in rezoning 100 acres of cow pastures for commercial development at the newly constructed intersection of Chain Bridge Road, Leesburg Pike and the Beltway – known as Tysons Corner. New office buildings constructed on the site were quickly filled by tenants wanting to be near the recently opened CIA headquarters located near McLean.

Soon after, Hazel again assisted developers in additional zoning changes for nearby land to allow construction of one of the first super-regional enclosed shopping malls in the country, the Tysons Corner Center, which opened in 1968.

Fairfax County was still in its “slow growth” era, as Hazel aggressively sought zoning changes or revisions to the county’s comprehensive plan to turn grazing land into quarter-acre lots, suing the county when they balked. He rarely lost a case.

Hazel also joined with local developer Milton Peterson to form a real estate development firm. They would create some of the largest commercial and residential developments in Fairfax County, including Burke Centre, Franklin Farm, Ashburn Farm, Fairfax Station, Fair Lakes, and the Dulles Town Center. By 1987 Hazel and Peterson had built more than 20,000 new homes, in addition to nearly 10 million square feet of commercial property in Northern Virginia.

At the same time, Hazel continued expanding his law firm, while becoming a leader in improving education opportunities in Northern Virginia. 

In 1958, a two-year branch campus of the University of Virginia opened with 17 students in an abandoned eight-room elementary school building at Bailey’s Crossroads. Joining its Board of Visitors in 1966, Hazel helped transform it into today’s George Mason University (GMU), educating more than 25,000 students a year. As a board member, he helped to create the George Mason Foundation to support and finance future university projects, serving as a trustee until 1997. 

Particularly determined to establish a law school at GMU, Hazel worked to acquire a floundering law school in Arlington County and personally presented its successful case for accreditation to the American Bar Association. Now highly regarded as the Antonin Scalia Law School, it has been housed since 2005, along with the Graduate School of Real Estate Development, in the John T. Hazel Hall on GMU’s branch campus near the Arlington County Courthouse.

In 1987, Hazel was awarded the first George Mason Medal by the University for his service “to the community, state and nation.”

Three years earlier, reflecting his growing influence in local development, he became the first Virginian to be elected president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade – the premier business organization representing all regional industries.

In 1990, Hazel was instrumental in purchasing the private Flint Hill School in Oakton and later helping establish the Thomas Jefferson School of Science and Technology in Alexandria – leading them both to become among the top rated schools in the nation.

Henry Renaud, founder of Renaud Consulting, a commercial real estate firm in Tysons specializing in retail properties, started his real estate career 30 years ago working in Hazel’s law firm.

“He could see things 20 to 30 years out and have the patience to work on them until they became a reality,” Renaud explained.

Hazel remains active in development and education issues, receiving numerous awards and recognition for his contributions, but now spends most of his time on his 4,000 acre working farm in Fauquier County.

As Northern Virginia Realtors® celebrate their centennial year, they may want to pause and wish Hazel a happy 90^th birthday and consider his lasting impact on Northern Virginia.  

Hazel exemplifies the profound influence and enduring legacy a real estate professional can have on a community.


Frank Dillow is a past chair of NVAR’s Realtor® Commercial Council, an NVAR instructor, and a senior commercial broker in Long & Foster‘s Commercial Division. He can be reached at francis.dillow@ longandfoster.com.

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