Friday, October 27, 2006

Monument Halves its Chase Condo Project in Bethesda


Monument Realty has "temporarily" stopped sales on half of its condo conversion project in Bethesda. The Chase, which sits across from the Bethesda Metro station, began sales in May of its two 7-story buildings - a North tower (122 units) and a South tower (255 units) at Woodmont and Edgemoor Rds, both former apartment buildings currently under renovation. While the sales office reports that 87 of the units have sold, slow sales in the North tower have caused Monument to freeze sales of that portion. Monument says that this is just a temporary shift to "focus the project" on the better-selling portion and that they are not abandoning sales, but buyers under contract in the North tower are reportedly being encouraged to switch to the South side, and settlements are being scheduled in the South tower only. Monument has already cancelled two conversion projects this year – the Prime in Arlington and the Park Center of Alexandria – but has plenty of work left with its Watergate hotel conversion, a 3.5 acre parcel across from the new stadium that will develop into an 800,000 s.f. mixed-use project when ground is broken early next year, as well as three other condo projects that are still selling. Condos at the Chase are offering a balconies, garage parking, a fitness center, concierge services, 2 pools and 2 tennis courts, priced from the high $200k's for a studio, the mid $300's for a one bedroom and from the high $500's for a two bedroom.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Most of the units already sold were those offered to people who previously rented in the Chase and had the first option to buy. After taking this number of people out of the total, not many people have purchased. The location is great, but the layouts are awkward and small for the price. If they lowered the prices, sales would eventually pick up. Obviously, nowhere, even Bethesda, is immune from the downturn.

Anonymous said...

Some purchasers who paid deposits on units have been released from their contracts due to the changes in the project at the Chase.

Anonymous said...

One of the two buildings at the Chase was cancelled. A friend of mine was released from the contract. Monument Realty apparently sold less than 10% of the units in 6 months. Not a promising place to live.

Post a Comment

Commercial ads will be deleted, so don't even think about it.

 

DCmud - The Urban Real Estate Digest of Washington DC Copyright © 2008 Black Brown Pop Template by Ipiet's Blogger Template