New Apartment and Safeway for Downtown Wheaton Gets Going Today

Fall brings more change to downtown Wheaton, as today marks the start of construction of The Exchange at Wheaton, 486 apartments in a 17-story building and 60,000-s.f. anchor-tenant Safeway on Georgia Avenue. Groundbreaking, by Foulger-Pratt, will occur at 10 am today on Patriot Realty's "Wheaton Safeway" redevelopment that will create a transit-oriented development directly across from the Wheaton Metro. Designed by Baltimore-based architecture firm Hord Coplan Macht, the new building has the appearance of three individual towers of concrete and glass connected at the center. 

Safeway shoppers will use an underground parking garage, and apartment residents have three levels of parking above the store. A cutback in the massing in between each tower allows for a fifth-floor courtyard above the residential parking garage. The new Safeway will open for business in 2013, and will be followed by several other retailers at the location: a Starbucks, SunTrust, and a Bergman’s Drycleaners. Developers originally intended to break ground early this spring, which puts the project only modestly behind schedule, not a bad achievement, all things considered. 

Maryland real estate development news

Montgomery County Planning Board Gives Wheaton Safeway Go-Ahead

Create a landscaped terrace and art installment, or fork over nearly a million dollars to County Planners: thanks to a Montgomery County Planning Board ruling last Thursday, developers at Patriot Realty will do both. Last spring a "favorable" staff report concerning Patriot's mixed-use "Wheaton Safeway" redevelopment proposal across from the Wheaton Metro questioned whether their efforts to satisfy the "20 percent public amenity requirement" was satisfactory. Apparently not quite, as the Planning Board gave developers the green light to move forward with the plans for the 50,000 s.f. Safeway and 17-story apartment complex, but required that Patriot contribute $961,161 to a public amenity fund in addition to its proposed public terrace. But pay to play seems

de rigueur, as Patriot and local urbanists are just happy the large-scale, transit-oriented project is finally moving forward.

Designed by Baltimore-based architecture firm Hord Coplan Macht, the new building will shoot what appears to be 3 vertical towers skyward, dwarfing all the other buildings in Wheaton. But the towers are simply a visual ploy to avoid the appearance of a mammoth monolith of a building, as each column is connected at the center. But the break up of the massing does succeed in this capacity, as the giant structure does not at first glance appear to be a singular integrated building. Lee Driskill, a Principal with the firm and the lead architect for the project, explains that "the skin" of the building "has been organized to have these three tower elements come to the fore." The result is not a bland block, but a "tall and elegant" building.

The 195-foot building will feature a new Safeway on street level, an underground parking garage for shoppers, a 486-unit apartment complex (60 of which will be offered as "moderately priced dwelling units"), and three levels of residential parking above the store. A cutback in the massing in between each tower offers the luxury of a fifth-floor courtyard atop the parking garage. Here residents will be able to simply enjoy the view or take advantage of the pool, outdoor lounge area, fire pit and/or open lawn. In total, some 70 percent of the roof will be green, which is expected to assist the project in earning LEED Certification (upon completion of course). The approved 59,000 s.f. of ground-floor retail space will house not only the expanded Safeway, but also a Starbucks, SunTrust, and a Bergman’s Drycleaners (everything a Maryland suburbanite knows and loves all in one place).

Although the planned on-site, public-use terrace offered by developers only totals 7,615 s.f. and 9.9% of the net lot area (10.1% too little), Patriot will make amends for their shortcomings with a $961,161 "donation," which will assist in the redevelopment of 13,800 s.f. of off-site public green space. A public art installment also helped woo the Board into approving the proposal, as several bronze figures ranging from 14 inches to 28 inches tall will be arranged throughout the public terrace. Judy Sutton Moore, a Silver Spring artist, will craft the statues that are set to be welded to a stainless steel pole and "float, as it were, above the flowers, grasses, and shrubs in the planters." Planning Board members specified that the public statues must "avoid depicting art as a commercial expression of Safeway-life."

But before the meandering grocery shoppers can enjoy cute puppy statues, the public amenity funds must be released into the escrow account, demolition and building permits must be secured, and 17 stories of concrete and glass must be amassed; with Board approval at last in had, developers will look to keep things moving as construction is set to commence by early Spring of next year.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Music to Developer's Ears in North Bethesda

112 new townhouses are on the way in North Bethesda. Streetscape Partners, a two-year-old McLean-based firm, has broken ground on the 18-acre site at Strathmore Avenue and Rockville Pike called Symphony Park at Strathmore (extreme caution: link plays Classical music upon opening). The on-schedule groundbreaking puts delivery of the first homes at "late spring," according to Ron Kaplan, Co-managing Principal at Streetscape. The homes have not yet been priced, but Kaplan expects pre-sales to begin within a month.

The community is adjacent to the Strathmore Music Center and Mansion, ergo the mellifluous name. Streetscape paid $5m plus "additional consideration" for the land, donating 5 acres back to Montgomery County for public open space, to include an amphitheater and "from scratch" forest. In addition to ticket deals with Strathmore, buyers will get Hord Coplan Macht landscaping. "HCM has done an amazing job to create beautiful outdoor, European mews," says Kaplan.

The developer described the finishes as "real materials" - brick and stone and solid wood doors. The design team tried to evoke the appearance of Georgetown, and Boston's back bay, a "sophisticated" community, according to Kaplan. The project is backed by Lubert-Adler Partners, LP. The land once belonged to the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) and had been under contract with residential developer Centex; Streetscape stepped in when Centex went bust after several years of planning, leaving Streetscape with the original plans and architects, Lessard Group, which have since made revisions to the designs.

North Bethesda, Maryland real estate development news

Wheaton Considers 18-Story Metro Development

Plans are finally taking shape in Wheaton to replace the existing Safeway and add as much as 500 residential units worth of new neighbors. The Safeway, across the street from the Wheaton Metro, dropped the idea of relocating to the AvalonBay development (a project now on hold) last fall and began working with developer Patriot Realty, creating concepts that are now starting to gel. New plans call for doubling the supermarket's size, adding retail and parking, and building an 18-story residence in three towers. The newly developed, LEED-certified Safeway will displace the box building and large parking lot opposite the Metro entrance, adding retail, residences and 550 parking spaces to downtown Wheaton. Initial designs insert 140 parking spaces below grade that will service retail customers and 411 residential spaces on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors, accommodating residents. In an effort to hide the three-story garage between the retail and residences, the team plans to cover the garage in a skin that "fits in and doesn't necessarily look like a parking structure," according to Steven A. Robins, Patriot Realty’s attorney from Lerch Early & Brewer. Hord Coplan Macht is the Baltimore-based architecture firm planning the new building and designing the common spaces. 

Lee Driskill, a Principal with the firm and the lead architect for the project, says the mid-level garage will be blended almost seamlessly with the exterior of the upper floors. "The goal is to make the 3 levels of the garage meld with the design of the building. You will not see it." At least not from south or west, where most of the traffic runs. "This is still very conceptual, but its not going to be an open garage. The goal will be to make [the exterior walls] look integrated, potentially the majority of it will be glass. It will follow the design of the unit openings above" says Driskill. Ventilation will be likely achieved with screens on the less visible north and east sides. According to Driskill, the overall strategy is to break the massing along Georgia Avenue, separating the design into 3 vertical towers that are more apparent than actual, since structurally it will comprise one integrated, "tall and elegant" building. "The skin has been organized to have these three tower elements come to the fore." Though the county's Staff Report was largely favorable, controversy remains over the public space, an issue that could cost the developer $1m. Montgomery County requires a developer to either set aside 20% of the lot as public space, or contribute to a fund to purchase off-site space. In their review, county planners found little value in Patriot's planned outdoor space and "suggested" adjustments that removed it, a change that would effectively require Patriot Realty to buy into the off-site fund. At $35 per square foot, based on the assessed value of the land, that would cost Patriot $960,000. The modification irks Patriot, which blames county planners for the change, but, according to Robins, "it's just a question of how much it costs...and just figuring out how to pay for the land; whether its the land value or the cost of improvements." Its only money. The Wheaton Safeway development will face Preliminary and Project Plan Review this week where the Planning Board will consider the "favorable" staff report, said Robins. After that, "we still have to get Site Plan approval...hopefully we could begin construction early next year." The county will take up the issue at its next meeting on Thursday. Patriot previously built 8045 Condominiums, Crescent Condominiums, and the Portico apartment building, all in Silver Spring. 

Wheaton Maryland commercial real estate development news

Southeast DC Hospital Set for Mixed-Use Expansion

Though currently in the midst of a $79 million renovation, the District’s sole hospital east of the Anacostia River - the United Medical Center at 1310 Southern Avenue, SE - will soon be expanding beyond the confines of its medically-oriented mandate. UMC Development, LLC, in partnership with CMC Realty, LLC, are reviewing five teams of urban planners to add between one and two million square feet of new, mixed-use development to the hospital’s 17-acre campus.

Following a Request for Qualifications issued late last year, UMC has narrowed their list of contenders to five: Hord Coplan Macht, Land Design, Inc., RTKL, Beyer Blinder Belle and Perkins Will –SMWM. Once a final selection is made in the coming the weeks, the chosen architects will work side-by-side with UMC to re-imagine the hospital’s surroundings with new medical offices, mixed-income housing, affordable senior or veteran’s housing, community space and ancillary retail. According to representatives of UMC, they’re in the early planning stages of a development scheme that will be a boon to both greater Ward 8 and the hospital itself.

“We are focusing on the immediate needs of the hospital for the campus. This is the only hospital east of the river and we need to make sure it offers the same healthcare choices that people living on the other side already have available. Additionally, we need to enhance the lives of the surrounding community, which is desperate for retail. Banks, drug stores and restaurants have already approached us about space on the UMC Campus,” said Noah Nordheimer of UMC. “You have a large hospital sitting the middle of the site that’s not going anywhere...We just need to build around it, enhance it and enhance the community.”

Formerly known as Greater Southeast Community Hospital, the facility was acquired by Specialty Hospitals of America in 2007, the parent company of CMC Realty – a move funded in part by $79 million approved by the DC City Council “to help with the purchase, buy equipment and improve infrastructure.” Additions to the hospital itself, including construction of a new MRI Center, continue at this time, but according to UMC, the parties “would like to have a shovel in the ground within 12 months” on the mixed-use component of the redevelopment initiative.

UMC will be holding private meetings with potential architects and their teams over the course of the next months. Presentations will be publicly unveiled at a community forum currently scheduled for May 6^th at the United Medical Center Auditorium.

Ripley's Coming, Believe it or Not

Today, the Montgomery County Parks and Planning Commission held a hearing to review site plans for the 1050 Ripley St. development (pictured), to flesh out any remaining technical issues. Developer Washington Property Company plans to break ground in the Fall of 2008 on the 300,000-s.f. residential building. The mixed-use redevelopment project is located in the southwest quadrant of the Silver Spring Central Business District at the intersection of Ripley Street and the proposed extension of Dixon Avenue, just west of Georgia Ave.

Washington Property received project "plan approval" from the planning board - the first of a two-step process - on May 31, 2007, setting the overall design standards. Today's "site-plan approval" began the board's process of scrutinizing the details pertaining to easements, utilities, traffic management and other civil engineering issues, and gave Washington Properties an opportunity to receive site plan comments from the board, preparing them for a glitch-free Spring '08 approval hearing.

The 17-story apartment building, designed by WDG Architecture, will have a tad more than 300 units, all for rent, with 241 one-bedroom and 64 two-bedroom units; a little more than 15% of the total space will be "affordable." Those who anguish over parking, fear not; Washington Properties is providing underground spots for residents, keeping a small 14-parking-space cushion for staff (and assumedly guests). In addition, architects have set aside nearly 3,000 s.f. of retail space which will be set-back from the street, in order to provide outdoor dining for a potential restaurant.

"The building is designed as a basic building block which is then wrapped with layers of projecting planes, highlighted by complimentary colors on all elevations of the building. The design is based on a restrained classical form with a defined base, body, and top to the building. Simple lines, minimalist qualities, and a contemporary approach to the building design are intended to be responsive to the scale and the context of the neighborhood," said Siti Abdul-Rahman, Senior Designer at WDG Architecture, which is pretty much what we would have said.

Landscape architects have also included plans for a 14,000-s.f. public park and plaza (pictured below) which will sit adjacent to the Metropolitan Bike Trail (MBT). The park, according to WDG, will be linked to the MBT and serve mainly as a stop for weak-kneed bikers, as well as provide a public gathering spot that will tie together the redevelopment projects proposed for the Ripley District, which will someday include Midtown Silver Spring and the proposed Silver Spring Transit Center. To keep it pretty, landscape architects Hord Coplan Macht have proposed artistic elements to adorn the park's landscape.

Washington Property's "luxury" apartment building is predicted for completion in the third quarter of 2010.