Under the working name of 8711 Georgia Avenue Parking Lot LLC, the name passed down from original owner Zalco Realty Incorporated onto Guardian Realty Investors after the site was sold in 2007, Zalco intended to create a 13-story class A office building with a slice of retail two blocks from the Metro. Without a working tenant and with demand for residential rentals at an all time high as a result of the housing crunch, developers have now switched to residential.
"The owner [Guardian] tried to find someone to occupy the office spaces before it was built, but in this economy, it is difficult to find a tenant," said Yun Kim, senior designer for WDG Architecture, the design firm for the project. "Converting the proposed building from an office space to residential makes more sense in this economic climate."
The April 21st hearing is to review the change in use, said Robert Kronenberg, spokesperson for the Montgomery County Planning Board. "The building footprint will stay approximately the same. The amount of retail on the ground floor with remain the same. The difference is just in the changeover from office to residential." The change of plans would delay the North Bethesda based developer from a late 2011 early 2012 start.
A development in Silver Spring on a similar timetable is Silver Spring Park, formerly Moda Vista Residences, the Fenton Group LLC development in the former Fenton Street Market space that will make way for a 59,870 s.f., 60-foot-tall Fairfield Inn & Suites hotel with 110 rooms, a 28,170 s.f. office building, and a 58-unit apartment building. Groundbreaking for Silver Spring Park is projected for spring of 2011.
Silver Spring, Maryland Real Estate Development News
12 comments:
Excellent. This section of GA Ave. is primarily offices so an infusion of residential/retail will be great.
I'm not worried about the timeline being pushed back a bit either - there are so many residential units that have broken ground in Silver Spring recently that spreading them out a little is probably for the best.
Disagree with Anonymous. The Georgian, which is across the street, with 900+ units has had occupancy trouble. In the few past years, the Georgian's changed management companies a few times.
No, The Georgian isn't across the street and their occupancy troubles are because it's terribly run (ever since Borger Management), very old yet markets itself as "luxury" and charges a massive premium for being further up GA Ave. than any other apartment, including this one. No one in their right mind would rent there, but this building would have none of those flaws, unless it's priced way too high, of course.
Isn't *right* across the street, I should have said. Too bad The Georgian's blog went byebye - talk about a dysfunctional building.
Finally, an urban, fashionably "cool" building to live in. Will be great to have apartments in this seemingly "dreary" part of Silver Spring. I can't wait! GO GO GO
Its bad enough that Silver Spring does not have a strong densit of multiple office buildings and now for some dumb selfsh reason they are transitioning from building a Office building into another Residential building that will more than likely charge an arm and leg for monthly rentals. Somrthing needs to be done about the anti-Business hicks that are trying to keep Major Businesses from locating in Downtown Silver Spring. Right now there are several Office Projects going up in Arlington-Alexandria so why in the freaking hell are they giving Silver Spring a hard time with building multiple office buildings.....
whoa whoa whoa, calm down. There are still plenty of lots and plenty of slated office buildings in downtown Silver Spring. I agree that I want to see more office buildings, but it'll happen soon enough once the housing crush subsides. The immediate block around this lot is all office, so a little infusion of post-5pm action will be nice.
"Its bad enough that Silver Spring does not have a strong densit of multiple office buildings"
WHAAAAAT? The strength of Silver Spring is that it's a mix of office, retail, and residential that keeps the streets animated at all times of the day. Why would you want a whole chunk of Silver Spring to be dead after 5pm and on weekends??? The one thing worse than Silver Spring turning into Bethesda would be Silver Spring turning into DC.
Or Crylstal City. Or Tyson's Corner.
Anonymous said...
WHAAAAAT? The strength of Silver Spring is that it's a mix of office, retail, and residential that keeps the streets animated at all times of the day. Why would you want a whole chunk of Silver Spring to be dead after 5pm and on weekends???
RE:
Why would you want Downtown Silver Spring SATURATED with High Price Apartments/Condos with the Majority of the tax residents working in Business Rich Virginia and Government Center of Downtown DC????????
Why are you pushing for Silver Spring to be an Expensive Apartment/Condo Bedroom Community with low Business Growth that would make Arlington-Alexandria look like Lower Manhattan?????
Anonymous said...
The one thing worse than Silver Spring turning into Bethesda would be Silver Spring turning into DC.
RE:
Basically you want Silver Spring to look like boring/sleepy old towne Takoma Park with zero High Paying Job Growth and saturated with Expensive apartments/condos that will very likely be mostly vacant which will be a freaking nightmare scarier than your BS about Silver Spring turning into DC or Bethesda....
Anonymous said...
Or Crylstal City. Or Tyson's Corner.
RE:
Crystal City is a Very Very Very short walking distance from Potomac Yard, Pentagon City, Pentagon Row...
Where the hell is a Best Buy, Don Pueblo's, Nordstroms, IHOP, Target, etc. in Downtown Silver Spring or within a very short walking distance from Downtown Silver Spring?
Tysons Corner are in Plans of building more Office, Residential, Upscale Retail, Hotels, and 4 Major Subway Stations....
Why the hell is the purple line a useless trolley that is nowhere near as dependable as a high speed subway???
Silver Spring is already building apartments/condos in the south end of downtown why the hell is there a problem with building multple Office Buildings and Hotels to match the number of Residential Apartments/Condos that now Over Saturate Downtown Silver Spring?????
Being anti-Business for Silver Spring is equivalent to admitting Hatred for Silver Spring to compete with Northern Virginia and DC for Job Growth....
Wow, you need to take some meds, angry dude.
"Why would you want Downtown Silver Spring SATURATED with High Price Apartments/Condos with the Majority of the tax residents working in Business Rich Virginia and Government Center of Downtown DC????????"
I never said anything like that. I said the mixing of office buildings next to apartments and retail is what makes DTSS great. How does that make me anti business or pro high rents? Are you illiterate or insane? Serious, stop freaking out and stop worshiping NoVa for its Target.
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