The new mixed-use project at 4900 Fairmont Avenue in Bethesda looks to have a clear path to approval, with the site plan going to the
Maryland Parks and Planning Commission next week, with an eye towards pulling permits in Q3 2012, and breaking ground in Q1 2013. Located across from Veteran's Park, the forthcoming tower represents a major step in the ongoing revitalization of the Woodmont Triangle area.
Representatives from lead developer
JBG revealed many details about the mixed-use (but mostly residential) building at a community meeting on Thursday night. The seventeen story building, designed by the
Preston Partnership, is projected to have 236 dwellings (rentals, with 15% MPDU), 6500 s.f. of retail space, and 3.5 levels of underground parking.
The design for the new building incorporates a large flat panel/bay window on each face, bookended by glass towers on the corners. According to
Mark Lange, principal at Preston, the central panels are meant to “inspire recollections of more traditional Bethesda buildings,” and if you squint, they do resemble the boxier designs of a bygone era. The ground floor retail faces mostly east, onto Norfolk, and a 4300 s.f. roof area will include a pool, changing rooms, and views down Wisconsin towards the District. Of course, this is the second plan for the site. The
original site plan was very
similar to the present plan, but impeded access to the adjacent county parking garage, creating a narrow, potentially unsafe passageway from the street to the garage. When JBG became a venture partner with
Ross/
CIM, they took a fresh look at the plans and shifted the building's footprint east, creating a wide “paseo” along the west side of the building that would double as a path to the parking garage and as community space. Only one problem – there was no garage entrance there. Luckily, after meeting with county officials at the site, developers were able to convince them to allow a renovation.
The Woodmont Triangle area was once, in attorney
Bob Dalrymple's words, “ground zero not long ago,” but much of the energy has moved southwards in the past several years. A recent zoning plan amendment was the city's first attempt at revitalizing the area, and just across Fairmont is
Bainbridge Bethesda (formerly the Monty), also a 17-story building, and the first project using the new standards of the zone. (Excavation on the Bainbridge site is just about halfway done, so expect to see cranes soon.) The amendment encourages new, denser development (read: residential), though even with the new zoning standards, 4900 had to purchase density rights from four nearby buildings.
But not everyone was happy with the project as laid out at the meeting. Representatives of a property across Fairmont protested that the shifting of the front entrance from Fairmont to Norfolk would “create dead space and turn Fairmont from a retail street into a service street.” After observing the new building would reduce the amount of retail space from around twenty thousand square feet to less than seven thousand, they went on to note the new design could worsen an already dicey traffic situation. These representatives claimed the placement of 4900's loading dock directly across from Bainbridge's loading dock would virtually guarantee daytime gridlock, citing deliveries and trash removal, and also noted that even a 5% vacancy rate could translate to as many as 300 moves a year, further slowing traffic.
Another local, who lives at the nearby 14-story
Triangle Towers, was concerned that the taller 174-foot-tall 4900 Fairmont
building would cast a shadow over Triangle's rooftop pool. (Though it wasn't available at the meeting, Dalrymple assured him they'd done a complete shade study.) The local also noted the new building could block radio and satellite dish reception in Triangle. (Some at the meeting laughed; the local replied it was no trivial matter to people who live there.) The citizen went on to say he was only there to give the developers something to think about, not to stop the project, which is just as well. Along with Stonebridge's oft-delayed-but-still-inevitable
Lot 31 project and their development of the former
Trillium site, and the Bainbridge Bethesda (nee the Monty), the redevelopment of Woodmont Triangle is looking unstoppable.
(One final note - because of the way the new building is designed, it will have a Norfolk Avenue address. Goodbye to 4900 Fairmont.)
Bethesda, Maryland real estate development news
Trilogy apartments opened last week, and though the neighborhood's location is more contested than the Spratly Islands (either NoMa or Eckington, you pick), the first building is now open - and soon all 3 buildings and 603 apartments will be complete. Designed by the Preston Partnership and developed by Mill Creek Residential Trust, the project broke ground in March of 2011. Below are pictures of the completed portions of the building.
The first of the three buildings - Cirq, Linq, and Esqe - is now open, with the other two opening within the next few months. Designed by developer Mill Creek Residential Trust to appeal to nearly any taste and architectural preference, each of the three buildings sports several motifs, a "highly differentiated architectural style," say its developers, that will span the centuries, architecturally speaking, with "traditional and contemporary" in Cirq, "warehouse, contemporary and art deco" in Linq, and finishing with the "highly contemporary" Esqe when it completes in March.
The project broke ground in March of 2011, but has been in the works far longer, at least since the team of CSX (as owner) and Fairfield Residential (as developer) plotted a 2006 groundbreaking for the residences. The torch then passed to Trammell Crow Residential, and finally to the current team, who can finally spike the ball at tomorrow's ceremony. Mill Creek is also working on an even larger project at the Dunn Loring Metro station.
Washington Property Company breaks ground on the Solaire, a 232-unit residential building at 10194 Georgia Avenue, next week. Located on the former site of the First Baptist Church, WPC acquired the 1.65-acre parcel in 2005 and, as part of the deal, relocated the church to Olney, adding to the long list of projects approved in a quickly developing Wheaton town center.
Tysons-based Insight Property Group has started construction on a 67-unit "luxury apartment" building in Arlington near the Courthouse Metro station. While this will be the first completed development for the Insight team, it claims to have more than 1000 units "in the development pipeline."
The planned Walmart at 801 New Jersey Ave. NW will break ground by spring, according to a spokesman on behalf of developer JBG Companies, one of six stores the world's largest retailer will bring to the District of Columbia.
Walmart, in response, launched a Web site to help convince skeptical residents and activists that its presence would be a boon to improving access to groceries in poorer neighborhoods as well as provide jobs to DC residents, at least 1,200 spread out amid the six stores, and also 400 construction jobs. Walmart says that Washingtonians spent $40 million at its stores outside the District in 2010. Walmart also noted that the stores would contribute $10 million a year in tax revenue to the District. "The District is anxious to see something happen," Maier said. "It's not all 100 percent approved but its pretty close," he said.
Walmart now has expanded its plans in the District to six stores, all of which it says will be open before the end of 2012. Besides New Jersey Ave, there will be two in Ward 4 with one at Georgia Ave and Missouri Ave. (rendering at right), where some site prep work is happening as well. 
responsible for the design, and R.D. Jones & Associates will do interior work.
partments at 8021 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, a nine-story complex that will offer 210 units and two levels of underground parking. The complex will be comprised of two older buildings already on the property and a new one that broke ground on the 1.88 acre site last week.
"We're trying to put quality housing stock back into the city by offering a nice place to live," he said. "We want to get these buildings back on the tax roll for the city." Banks expects for a grand opening date of October or November of 2012.
," "re-oxygenating fitness center," and in-house pet salon for sundry four-leggers. The Gazette reported that Archstone had contested Woodfield Investments' application for a nearby apartment building as a competitor for HUD funds, an appeal that was dismissed by the city, and which ended amicably with both projects approved by the city and both granted HUD funds; Archstone received an $89.9 million FHA insured Section 221(d)4 loan through CWCapital.
