A Two-Story Addition to Silver Spring CBD

8227 Fenton Street LLC is turning a surface parking lot into a new - albeit small - mixed-use development to Silver Spring. Located in "the Fenton Village revitalization area of the Silver Spring CBD," the site will soon house a new 9,226 square foot building, featuring ground floor retail and second story office space. The project will host three identically-sized retail outlets, per the developer's intent "to provide a building design with the greatest flexibility for future retail uses."

Gabe and Kathy Fontana, the husband and wife team behind the Fontana Real Estate Group, are behind the LLC that will build on their parcel - currently an informal parking a lot in the Easley's Subdivision of Fenton Village - within an area described by county authorities as "a mix of multi-cultural shops, neighborhood-serving retail, business services, small office buildings, and auto-related businesses.” Fenton Village proper happens to currently serve as buffer between downtown Silver Spring and the greater suburban development beyond – a situation which had some members of the Montgomery Planning Board (MPB) questioning the place of two-story shopping center within the redevelopment zone.

But because the way to a county planner's heart is to hand out "green" public areas, the MPB was assuaged by the developer’s offer to include 700 square feet of green space on site and the building’s intended use as local retail. From their viewpoint, it was hard to deny that anything would be more beneficial to the community than another big ol’ Silver Spring vacant lot. Additionally, with hundreds of residential units planned for the immediate area from developments (such as SilverPlace, Studio Plaza, 814 Thayer and Moda Vista), the intent is to add a dash of consumer retail to an area clogged with large office towers.

8227 Fenton is being designed by MV+A Associates. Therrien Waddell will serve as general contractor. Construction is expected to begin in April 2009.

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