Midtown Silver Spring Bides its Time

The long-delayed Midtown Silver Spring is again moving forward, at least in its planning, this time with Home Properties, following an early 2008 sale by the original developers, Kettler. Despite the change of hands, Home Properties is still pursuing the same WDG design for 1009 Ripley Street – one that aims to deliver two towers worth of residential and retail to the Silver Spring Central Business District. Don Hogue of Home Properties tells DCmud that though the project was fully approved by the Montgomery County Planning Board, they’re biding their time until they get it just right.

"We have final site plan approval, but we have to take it all the way through construction drawings," said Hogue. "One of the things that the Planning Board commented to us was that maybe we had a little bit too much parking. It was designed as a condominium [project], so we may be altering that…but we’re still in the very early stages.”

The original WDG plans for the Midtown – which Home will rebrand with a new title once the project moves forward – call for 314 apartments in dual, 19-story luxury high-rises and 5,380 square feet of retail space. Hogue projects that once construction begins it will be the second such project on the block, as the Washington Property Company is currently soliciting general contractors for their Ripley residential development across the street. As such, a start date for the Midtown currently remains up in the air.

“We hope to start the remainder of the architectural work this year. The goal would be to get the project ready to start when we think market conditions are right, but we’re not exactly sure when that’s going to be,” said Hogue. Nor does anyone else.