Downtown Bethesda Project Heads Back to Planning Board

A hotel is back on the boards for Woodmont East, the long-planned JBG Companies development on Bethesda Row, if the Montgomery County Planning Board accepts the latest amendments to allow redevelopment of an additional site -- Artery Plaza -- that is an existing 11-story office building at 7200 Wisconsin Ave.

New plans include a hotel with as many as 230 rooms along with additional retail and office space, to be considered by the planning board during the April 12 hearing. JBG nixed plans for a hotel in 2009 because of market trends, instead designating the area as office space.

The County already approved the Project Plan and Preliminary Plan in 2008, and approved an amendment to those plans in 2009.  JBG now proposes another amendment to allow additional development of an adjacent site. Total real estate development including new and existing space now could include the hotel, 81,165 s.f. of retail space, 755,739 s.f. of office space, and 210 residential units (with 12.5 percent MPDUs), according to the revised staff report prepared for the hearing. The additional property brings the site to 5.82 acres with 4.85 acres available for developing the more than 1.2 million square foot project.

2009 rendering of Woodmont East

Matthew Blocher, Senior Vice President at JBG, said the company is unable to discuss the project until after the hearing.

But according to the staff report, proposed construction will take place in three phases with some office and retail space created in all three phases. Residential units will be built in the first phase. The hotel will follow in the second phase. The third phase entails redeveloping the Artery building with two upper floors of office space and ground-floor retail.

Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRT), owners of half the Woodmont site, partnered with JBG for the development project designed by Shalom Baranes Architects.

The planning board is no stranger to Woodmont East proposals. The board first heard plans for the site in 2007, at which time it denied the application for further consideration of the project’s impact on Capital Crescent Trail. The developers agreed to reroute the path along Bethesda Avenue.

Other concerns included the impact on buildings already onsite. The new staff report states only a stand-alone restaurant and an office building fronting on Bethesda Avenue will be removed, while the Landmark theater will remain. Already approved plans call for third-phase construction of residential space to replace an existing parking deck.

Staff-recommended conditions on approval of the new amendments still include specific measures to keep the trail open during construction, provide an alternate route and install signs to guide trail users. Other conditions in the report require a green roof, LEED Rating Certification with an effort to achieve LEED Silver, and traffic mitigation measures. This will take place directly across the street from redevelopment of the parking lot into condos and apartments.

Bethesda, Maryland, real estate development news

Planning Board OKs JBG's New Woodmont East Plans

JBG Companies on Thursday received unanimous support from the Montgomery County Planning Board for its amended Woodmont East plans that more than double the lot size and revive a previously eliminated hotel.

JBG already planned to build in the same block at 7200 Woodmont Avenue, located between Elm Street and Bethesda Avenue. Shalom Baranes Associates designed the project with landscape design by Oehme van Sweden Landscape Architects.

Plans for the new section involve constructing two additional floors of office space on the existing Artery Building, adding retail space along the ground level, and building a new 182,950 s.f. hotel.

The hotel (center) and office/retail space along Bethesda Avenue

Amended plans also add 168,950 s.f. of office space, 25,088 s.f. of retail space and eliminate 22,974 s.f. of space for the 210 residential units.

Incorporation of the Capital Crescent Trail (mostly the alternate route along Bethesda Avenue) continued to raise concerns for the Board. Some feared that the increased foot traffic along Bethesda Avenue could create safety and logistical problems for trail users. But they ultimately were satisfied with the plan to use landscaping, curbs, outdoor dining areas and pavement changes to separate the sidewalk from the trail.

Trail construction hinges on the future Purple Line, Lot 31, and third-phase construction. All parties agreed that if the trail benchmarks are reached after construction of the second phase and before the third phase starts, the company can choose to either build the trail or pay the county to do it.

The Board did not raise any significant concerns with the rest of the plan. If fully constructed, Woodmont East would provide a link extending the revamped downtown area.

JBG's Holly Hull said the development is "extending and celebrating Bethesda Row."

Woodmont East will focus on the pedestrian experiences, presenters said. Following the lead of Bethesda Row, the sidewalks will be next to retail spaces. Outdoor dining will be pushed way from the buildings to keep the sidewalks clear. Artistic benches scattered throughout the property offer a place to "lounge." And building setbacks will give the appearance of low building heights.

Robert Sponseller, principal at Shalom Baranes Associates, said they strayed from the standard approach in designing this project. "We have designed from the public space up."

When completed, Woodmont East will have more than 1 million square feet of new and repurposed office, retail, residential and hotel space. Construction could start as early as 2013.

Bethesda, Maryland, real estate development news

Bethesda Safeway Reinvention, Running Out of Monikers

With expansion and reconstruction well on its way at the Social Safeway in Glover Park, and several other Safeway stores in the works, Safeway, Inc. is setting its sights on demolishing and rebuilding another of its DC area locations, this time in Bethesda. The store, at the intersection of Bradley Boulevard and Arlington Road, lacks one of the monikers so commonly applied to the stores in DC (its only Yelp reviewer dubbed the location the "Superfluous Safeway"). The pitch to the MCPB? The new design will be a "civic gateway" (Civic Safeway?) to Bethesda's Central Business District (CBD). The planned structure would replace the single-story, 25,568-sf., 1950's era building with a modern, 43,097 sf. two-story building with elevated sales floor located above structured parking at and below ground level, much like its Social sibling. The architect for the project, Rounds VanDuzer Architects, plans to use a variety of materials to break up the largely unfenestrated building with pavilion-like structures, including a brick base with stone, steel, stucco and glass accents. Improved sidewalks and streetscapes will provide pedestrian access from several points on Arlington Road and at the corner of Bradley Boulevard. Though there is no direct access to the adjacent Capital Crescent Trail, the plan provides for a covered bike station with drinking fountain and air pump on premises to improve bike access - so you can bike to the grocery. Additionally, the plan includes vehicular access directly from Arlington Road and via a right-in, right-out driveway off Bradley. The storefront will feature a revolving public art exhibit, orchestrated by the Bethesda Arts and Entertainment District. Safeway will also provide financial support to the Bethesda Urban Partnership (BUP) for beautification of the Capital Crescent Trail retaining wall which runs along Arlington Ave., a response, in part, to local resident concerns. The staff recommended approval with conditions, most notably meeting requirements for stormwater management, and achieving LEED certification at minimum. Transportation conditions include adding bike lockers in the parking garage as well as showers for all those employees who commute via the poor man's metro. The plan goes before the Montgomery County Planning Board for review tomorrow, July 23rd.

Bethesda Maryland retail and commercial real estate news

Purple Line Leaves Trails Black and Blue?

Much like the long-gestating InterCounty Connector (ICC), the addition of the so-called Purple Line to the Metro system has enough supporters and detractors to fuel debate far past its proposed 2015 completion. Ideally, the Purple Line would entail a light rail encircling DC - a mass transit alternate to the beltway - though in its current phase the metro addition would link the disparate Red, Green and Orange lines and run through suburban Maryland, from Bethesda to New Carrollton - a project some supporters say would be of great advantage to low-income commuters. Curiously, however, it's not the usual developer versus preservationist argument that has led to Purple Line partisanship, but an unusually divided contingent of trail users who can't agree whether the new Metro line will be a godsend or unholy mess for Montgomery County’s Capital Crescent Trail (CCT) system - an 11 mile long trail running from Georgetown almost to Silver Spring. Final plans for trail and transit have not yet been finalized, and could include either light rail or bus service, a decision yet to be made, but supporters say that a transit line would enable the incomplete trail to finally connect Silver Spring and Bethesda, pay to upgrade the path from dirt to pavement, and provide rights-of-way at intersections now less friendly to bikers. The debate was initially kicked off by the efforts of Save the Trail – a local group that’s circulated a petition claiming that the Purple Line would be the only railway in the country to run next to “a popular trail and homes” and, furthermore, that “the existing trail and all of the trees surrounding the trail…would be bulldozed and leveled.” The group claims to have assembled 15,000 signatures for their petition and has suggested alternatives to the expansion – including a new rapid transit bus system and/or an alternative Purple Line route that would run to the National Institute of Health, instead of Bethesda proper, as is currently proposed.

Yet the governor-appointed, statewide advisory panel known as the Maryland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee MBPAC) has now issued a rejoinder to the claims of negative impact on the trail, and is aligned with groups like the Washington Bicyclists Association (WABA) and Sierra Club in support of the new line. In a meeting yesterday, the 21 members of the MBPAC panel voted unanimously in favor of the project’s current New Carrollton to Bethesda route. “It is clear to us that the Purple Line will benefit the trail by creating grade-separated crossings at many intersections and extending the trail into downtown Silver Spring,” said Eric Gilliland, Executive Director of WABA, in a MBPAC-released statement regarding the matter.

But Gilliland notes that while WABA - one of the largest trail advocates in the area - is adamant in their support for the project, Save the Trail has otherwise not been involved in any other sort of trail advocacy, and that some property advocates have been against the line from the beginning. "I don't think they represent the interests of the cyclists" says Gilliland, commenting that "the Purple Line would also allow us to complete and upgrade the trail, now dirt, all the way to the Silver Spring transit center."

MBPAC further claims to have “debunked” the theory that the Purple Line will destroy the forested areas surround the trail, in concert with the Montgomery Bicycle Advocates and the CCCT. According to material supplied through links in their e-release, a minimum amount of trees will be lost due to the laying of any track and, even then, new ones will be planted to provide a buffer between track and trail. Furthermore, they argue that up to six times as many people will be using the light rail system as opposed to the trail and, even then, the increased spotlight on the CCT system will allow for expansion not only into Silver Spring, but Rock Creek Park as well.

While the Purple Line concept has already been signed off by Governor Martin O’Malley (who allocated $100 million in state funds for the project) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, and received a favorable environmental impact analysis, Montgomery County is still accepting written comments on the proposal until January 14, 2009. The State of Maryland is expected to announce further details concerning the project’s future in mid-2009.

Montgomery County real estate development news