The Wilson and the Elm - Coming This Fall in Bethesda

If you have traveled anywhere near Bethesda you would not have missed the 3 new towers under construction at 7272 Wisconsin Avenue in the center of Bethesda.  The three towers are part of Carr Properties’ nearly 1 million square foot project of two residential towers (the Elm) and, on its south side, one office tower (the Wilson).  Named for an adjacent street and for Alfred Wilson, who in 1890 opened a general store on the site that became a social hub, Carr hopes its creation will duplicate that success.

Carr, partnering with residential developer Insight Property Group, broke ground in August of 2018 and hopes to complete construction by late October. The three towers share a common podium that will, like Wilson's general store, become a commercial nexus with a new southern entrance to Metro's redline station and the terminus station for the Purple Line.  The Metro station, 120 feet below, was originally built to accommodate a second entrance, and will share an entrance with the Purple Line as well as connection with the Capital Crescent Trail.  The project is hard to miss at 23 stories, nearly 300 feet, well above adjacent Bethesda Row.  Bozzuto, which will manage the buildings, will begin residential leasing in August.

Streetsense / Edit Labs designed the interior of the two apartment buildings, which will be connected by a skybridge with views of the National Cathedral.  According to the developers, the height will permit views as far as Dulles Airport and National Harbor on a good day.  The ground floor will offer up retail space, the only confirmed tenant for which is Tatte Bakery.  Above, several office tenants have inked leases, including Fox 5 and UBS Financial Services. Accommodating the red line Metro entrance, expected to open in 2022, provided developers with additional height and density than would have been otherwise permitted. Lastly, the development team points out the suite of technology to fight airborne viruses, including 100% use of outside air, "a rarity" in the DC office market, but an issue that will no doubt be a central talking point in future office marketing.

Project:  The Wilson and the Elm

Address:  7272 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD

Developer: Carr Properties 

Architect:  Shalom Baranes

Landscape Architect: OVS

Interior Design:  Streetsense / Edit Lab

Construction:  Clark Construction

Use: 348,000 s.f. of office (1 tower) and residential (2 towers) with 456 units

Expected Completion:  Late 2020 for office and residential portions of the project.

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Washington D.C. commercial real estate news

Long Branch Community Revitalization Plan Unveiled

Montgomery County planners unveiled an ambitious, wide-ranging community revitalization plan for the east Silver Spring community of Long Branch earlier this week, the first step in a long-term reinvention of the area that will peak with the opening of the Purple Line sometime later this decade.

In essence, the plan seeks to transition Long Branch from a car-centric and pedestrian-unfriendly neighborhood of strip malls, surface parking lots, and little to no public transportation, to a greener, mixed-use area connected by bike lanes, redesigned sidewalks, and two Purple Line Stations. One of the biggest challenges facing the area are the poorly-functioning intersections at Piney Branch Road and Flower Avenue, and Piney Branch Road and University Boulevard (see above).  This inefficiency is compounded by narrow or nonexistent sidewalks in much of the area.  The plan aims to correct this by widening and reconfiguring the above intersections, as well as installing medians, and dramatically widening sidewalks and adding bike lanes throughout Long Branch.

Of course, accessibility should improve while traffic should (theoretically) decrease when the Purple Line opens in a few years.  Long Branch will incorporate not one but two Purple Line light rail stations (see above and below), which will bring considerable changes to local transportation patterns.  The stations, at University Blvd. and Piney Branch Road, and at Arliss Street and Piney Branch Road, should reduce congestion along Piney branch and University, the main traffic arteries; combined with the proposed street improvements, this could have a serious calming effect on the neighborhood.

On the green front, planners also propose street trees throughout the area, wide-ranging park improvements, and the creation of two entirely new parks on the very west end (see below).

This blogger visits Long Branch semi-regularly - there's no better one-stop community for thrift shopping, authentic vietnamese sandwiches, and 99-cent VHS rental emporiums - and I can attest to the almost aggressively indifferent urban design (or lack thereof) in the area.  It's taken the mediocrity of the suburban strip mall aesthetic and added comically inefficient traffic management and a palpable indifference to pedestrians and cyclists.  One is often forced to make right turns off the main traffic arteries, which means braking to a crawl on a zooming four-lane road; when you add in jaywalkers and cyclists forced to ride in the gutter, it's a recipe for disaster.  This plan won't turn Long Branch into NoMa, or even downtown Silver Spring, but it will, if carried out, produce a safer, greener, more functional community.

Silver Spring, Maryland real estate development news

Falkland Chase Apartments, Chasing a Plan for Silver Spring

One of Silver Spring's largest and most ambitious real estate projects is ramping up for development next year. Though the urban planning vision is not yet complete, developers of Falkland Chase hope to submit a site plan to Montgomery County early this summer for a project that would greatly expand the densified downtown section of Silver Spring, adding high rises, 1250 apartments, a supermarket and retail to East-West highway one block from the Silver Spring Metro.

Michael Eastwood of Home Properties says the development team has not yet signed an anchor tenant but intends to serve up a final site plan to the county "by June or July." The county approved the preliminary plan last November, and Home has been working on tweaking the design that will develop the North Parcel, turning 182 garden apartments into 1250 new apartments in 4 new buildings along the Metro track and soon to be Purple Line. The new residential towers will rise up to 14 stories along the tracks and 6-8 stories along East-West highway, denser but "more sensitive to the neighboring community."

With financing for the property still not locked down, Home Properties has been seeking a full service grocer to help tether a financing partner, courting Harris Teeter since 2005, but still without an agreement. "We are trying to chase them down" says Eastwood, who notes that his team also has the capability of going it alone in a pinch. "We're a REIT so we could do it on our own and will be building in phases."

The northern boundary faces the Metro tracks and is the "locally preferred alternative" for the Purple Line. The property features a 40 foot right of way that could serve as a light rail pass-through (the site is only one block from the station so there will be no stop incorporated), as well as a bike path right of way. Design of the project is still preliminary, and while Nelson Byrd Woltz has been selected as the landscape architect for the project, actual design has not yet been achieved.
Home Properties acquired the land in 2003 and began planning for a quick turnaround, submitting to the county in 2006. Plans were "cued up and ready to go" says Eastwood, but market fundamentals sabotaged early plans. Locals then began a campaign to declare the property - inaugurated in 1937 by Eleanor Roosevelt when the New Deal was expanding, as now, the size of government and the area's population - as historic, an ultimately successful bid that changed the scope of the plans. With many of the apartments protected, Home Properties then doubled down on the northern section switched the architect from Grimm + Parker to Shalom Baranes, increasing the number of units while connecting them better to the street. "It really took from fall of 2007 to spring of 2009 to get the two south parcels on the charts for historic preservation, and get the north to come off the locational atlas" said Eastwood. The residential towers originally conceived would have encircled a private courtyard, the new design adds a street through the center, with street-oriented buildings. "Its a more urban design than what we had originally."

Eastwood says the projects will "definitely be" rental units. Retail - about 10,000 s.f. in addition to the supermarket - will front East-West, aided by a new traffic signal.

Silver Spring, Maryland real estate development news

Donohoe Companies to Develop Near New Silver Spring Library, Purple Line Rail Site

Whether the acre adjacent to the Silver Spring Library at the corner of Bonifant and Fenton Streets will become condos or apartments, retail or restaurants, it's too early to tell. Here's what we do know: Donohoe Companies and Montgomery Housing Partnership (MHP) have been given the go to develop a mixed-purpose, mixed-income project.

The location is key, since the site abuts a future purple line station, scheduled to break ground in 2013. The sixteen mile light rail line will run between Bethesda and New Carrollton. The county issued an RFQ last February, and estimated that the site could hold 120 units of housing, but required that 60% of the housing on the site be subsidized.

VOA Associates have been chosen as architects for the project, which, according to a designer in the Washington office, could begin sometime in 2011. As these things go, we're guessing rail construction time lines will shape development; sometime in 2011 seems soon.

Richard Nelson, Director of Montgomery County's Department of Housing and Urban Affairs says as much. “Transit-oriented urban infill projects can be challenging," he said, "and it was essential to select a team with deep experience in transit-oriented development, multi-family housing, tight infill locations and mixed-use development.”

And don't forget about the rehabbing of the Silver Spring Library. The public has been weighing in on color (Apparently MCPL gave residents free reign to weigh in until earlier this month) materials and design for the 30 million dollar project, which is scheduled to begin in about a year and will take two years to complete.

It's likely the Donohoe project will align with the development of its potential neighbors. Let's hope three years from now when the projects are complete, residents will still like the library colors.

Silver Spring real estate development news

Silver Spring Library Design Final Forum Saturday Night

Design of the new Silver Spring Library, attracting lovers and loathers alike, is nearing its final design, and the public will have one last chance to influence the outcome when the final of numerous public design meetings takes place tomorrow at 1pm, at 8901 Colesville Rd.

Officials expect work to begin on the site in mid 2010, though library construction will not start until officials have reached agreement on final design for the building, including how to incorporate the Purple Line, station and all, into the site.

Work on the new library, at the corners of Fenton, Wayne and Bonifant Streets in downtown Silver Spring, has been underway for more than a decade, for a site that will incorporate the library and likely a residential building next door.

The 7-story building will be multi-purpose, with an art center, library, and county office building. The building is being designed by Lukmire Partnership, a locally-based leader in library design.

Silver Spring Library Nears Design Completion

The new Silver Spring Library has taken another step toward realization, with the release of initial designs born out of the county's design process. Officials expect to break ground, at least for site preparation, in the summer of 2010. Library construction has not yet been scheduled.

Work on the new library, at the corners of Fenton, Wayne and Bonifant Streets in downtown Silver Spring, has been underway since at least 1999, when Montgomery County approved an initial budget. The northern half of the site, on Wayne Avenue, will hold the library and Arts Center, the southern half will be reserved for future housing.

The 7-story building will be multi-purpose, with the first two floors designated, for now, as an art center with a combination of functions such as classes, offices and an art gallery. Floors 3, 4, and 5 will hold the library, and the 6th floor is set aside for county offices and possibly Health and Human Services office space. The top floor, stepped back, will hold meeting rooms for the library. Design specifications also call for a LEED-certified green roof and garden; plans for the 2nd-story pedestrian bridge from the parking garage to the library were scotched as being against Montgomery's urban planning guidelines.

The most interesting element may be the underside of the building, since the site is traversed by the proposed track of the Purple Line, and has been designated as one of the light rail stations, raising the main body of the library well above street level. "Anyone attending the design meetings would recognize that this is a challenging building, working with the purple coming right through" said Williams Evans, project architect for the Lukmire Partnership, which is responsible for the overall design. Lukmire specializes in such challenges, however. "Our firm is probably one of only a handful of firms that have done as many libraries as we have, 35 or 36, to date" said Evans.

Initial site planning was performed by RTKL, and interior design will be completed by the Sandra Ragan Studio. County standards require LEED Silver certification for the building, but Evans says the team is trying to achieve a Gold rating; though the Silver rating is required as a minimum to earn the county's Certificate of Occupancy. " That gets you up in the morning", Evans says of the requirement.

The final public design meeting will take place November 7, at 1pm, in the library at 8901 Colesville Rd.

Purple Line Vote Affirms Maryland "Rail on the Trail"

The metro area's arbiters of all things transit, the National Capital Transportation Planning Board (NCTPB), today voted unanimously to endorse light-rail as the preferred mode of transport for the 16-mile Purple Line project between Bethesda and New Carrollton. The light-rail option, which has already received the support of both the Montgomery and Prince George's County Executives and County Councils, along with the Coalition for Smart Growth and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, has faced a long string of criticisms from Bethesda/Chevy Chase area residents who fear that the project will render their three-mile spur of the Capital Crescent Trail system both physically and environmentally unsound.

Trail supporters lobbed various critiques at the Purple Line prior to the vote, including claims that it would make the area unsafe for schoolchildren, lead to the deforestation of Bethesda’s last remaining green space and the system will amount to little more than a “two billion dollar trolley line.” Others reasoned that the planned location of the Purple Line’s Bethesda depot at Woodmont East is too far away from the Metro, the National Institutes of Health and the soon-to-be relocated Walter Reed Army Medical Center to have any impact on traffic in the area. Anti-light rail advocates instead proffered that the NCTPB should endorse rapid bus service from Bethesda to Silver Spring as the Purple Line’s preferred mode of transport.

“Some of my constituents in Chevy Chase will advocate…bus rapid transit on Jones Bridge Road - [an alternative that] is not supported by the residents of Jones Bridge Road,” said Montgomery County Councilmember and Purple Line Now! founder, George Leventhal. “The difficulty that we have in proposing an alternative that is preferred by both counties, and that is likely to be endorsed imminently by Governor O’Malley, is that anywhere you try to move this transitway, you encounter other problems…This alternative, which is included in our master plan and has been endorsed by both counties, is indeed the right transitway for our congested, urban, inside-the-Beltway corridor.”

Leventhal went onto to point out that his county initially acquired the Capital Crescent Trail for the express purpose of having both a “recreational hiker/biker trail” and future transit line at the same site.

“There would not be a trail today had not Montgomery County, back in 1990, acquired that right-of-way for the purpose of building what is now called the Purple Line,” he said.

Though some area organizations- most notably the Bethesda Civic Coalition's Save the Trail campaign, which collected some 18,000 signatures in support of their cause – opposed the plan, the majority of testimony submitted to the NCTPB was overwhelmingly favorable. With an estimated daily ridership of between 42,000 and 46,000, many believe that the “Rail on the Trail” will provide a crucial east-west link between Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties, resulting in an economic boom for outlying communities and a more efficient Metro system. Even frequent trail users spoke out in support of the plan, illustrating just how multifaceted the Purple Line debate had become.

“The media, unfortunately, portrays the issue of the Purple Line as black and white. You either support the Capital Crescent Trail or you support the Purple Line, but not both. That’s not the case with WABA,” said the cyclist organization's Executive Director, Eric Gilliand. “When finally constructed, the Purple Line will include a direct bike-ped link with the Silver Spring Transit Center, where it will eventually link with the Metropolitan Branch Trail coming out of DC. This is a critical bike/pedestrian transit project that must move forward.”

With NCTPB approval now in hand, the Purple Line’s next stop is with Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, who is expected to endorse the light-rail option and announce a timetable for construction by year’s end. In the meantime, NIMBYs on the other side of the Potomac can get ready for another Metro-centric debate now that plans for a proposed Silver Line, running from downtown Washington to Dulles Airport, are being openly discussed.

Golden Arches Go High-Rise in Downtown Bethesda

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School students will have one less parking lot to congregate in now that New York-based developers, the Clarett Group, have gotten the go-ahead to demolish the existing McDonald’s franchise at 4500 East West Highway and replace it with a nine-story office building.

The site – which currently houses the fast food chain, a small office building and a vast amount of surface parking – is to be re-appropriated for a new 98-foot, nine-story high-rise that will feature 13,300 square feet of ground level retail. The prominent downtown Bethesda location – just a block from the aforementioned high school and the Bethesda Metro Center – is intended to house a new restaurant and a few commercial outlets above three levels of below-grade parking. The rest of the Shalom Baranes-designed development will go towards Class A office space and a green roof.

However, to receive the approval of the Montgomery County Planning Board (MCPB), the development team was forced to acquiesce to a laundry list of county demands: the building must be completed in one construction phase, achieve a LEED silver certification, provide – at a minimum - 20% public use space.

In order to live up to the latter of those specifications, Clarett will install a 4500 square foot public plaza with “plantings, a water feature, and artwork” at the corner of East West Highway and Pearl Street. A final decision on the choice of artwork lies with the Montgomery County Art Review Panel, which is expected to announce their decision soon. According to Planning Board staff, the proposed plaza is a “direct response” to the provisions of Bethesda Sector Plan and will “serve as a gateway to downtown Bethesda.”

Furthermore, the site is also to be incorporated into the Georgetown Branch Trail, a local biking path that shadows the route of the upcoming (and much debated) Purple Line. Two 5-foot wide on-street bike paths will be laid along Pearl Street in order to connect it with the popular footpath, for a total of 6885 square feet of on-site public use space. Pearl Street itself was once proposed a Purple Line stop for Bus Rapid Transit –before the MCPB instead moved in favor of a light rail system. Given the close proximity of the high school and the heavy hiker/biker traffic in the area, Planning Board staff pledged that these infrastructural improvements will keep the “emphasis on safety and pedestrian access.”

After a preliminary hearing last October, Clarett’s final project plan was approved by the MCPB on December 4th. The MTA Purple Line Project team has also ruled that the plans present no conflict with their plans for a light rail system, as have the Maryland State Highway Administration and Montgomery County Department of Transportation. Construction is expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2009. James G. Davis Construction Corp. will serve as general contractor.

Light Rail Locked for the Purple Line

In keeping with last month's staff report, the Montgomery County Planning Board endorsed light rail as the preferred mode of Purple Line transport in a 4-1 vote yesterday afternoon, decidedly nixing the prospect of a rapid bus transit alternative. The vote came at the end of two-session round of public testimony that drew nearly 50 speakers and hundreds of pieces of correspondence - many of them supporters of the embattled Capital Crescent Trail that shadows the Purple Line's proposed 16-mile route from Bethesda to New Carrollton.

Board Chairman Royce Hanson cited light rail's proclivity for speedier transport, greater passenger capacity, longer 50 to 60 year lifespan and compatibility with existing Metro and MARC systems as benefits of the selection. Despite any advantages, the new light rail will cost millions more than bus service; current projections predict that the cost of the project could rise as high as $1.6 billion.

Preliminary engineering for the Purple Line is scheduled to begin this August, although work on the line itself won’t begin before 2012, at the earliest. At present, the project’s next stop is a Montgomery County Council committee meeting on January 22^nd, which will then be followed by a full public session on January 27^th.

Maryland commercial real estate news

Purple Line Panel Says Light Rail

In a staff report released this morning, staff of the Montgomery County Planning Board collectively endorsed a Light Rail Transit (LRT) system for the passionately deliberated Purple Line. - the public transit system designed to run from Bethesda to New Carrollton, better connecting suburban Maryland to the Metro system. A contingent of Montgomery County residents had been lobbying for a bus route instead - reasoning any such rail system would be detrimental to the Capital Crescent and Georgetown Branch trail systems that shadow the Purple Line’s proposed New Carrollton-Bethesda route.

The staff decision comes after a review of a preliminary Environmental Impact Statement concerning the Purple Line and its effect on the neighboring trails. Included in the short three-page document is an outline for trail infrastructural improvements, such as a connection to Rock Creek Park, improved road crossings, retaining walls and signage, pedestrian safety measures and even the construction of a new, biker-friendly public plaza at the Line’s proposed Woodmont East terminus.

The Purple Line’s next stop is a hearing with Planning Board itself on January 8^th, where, according to today’s report, four separate votes will be cast: one reaffirming support for LRT, a second for “alignment and design options,” a third to be included in the Final Environmental Impact Statement, and a fourth concerning “further actions for the Montgomery County government.”

The Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee will then hear arguments from both sides of the matter on January 22^nd. Both panels are expected to also fall in favor of LRT – a method of transport that already counts Montgomery County Executive Isiah Legget and the Prince George’s County Council among its many supporters, as well as trail advocates Montgomery Bicycle Advocates and Coalition for the Capitol Crescent Trail, and environmentalist Sierra Club. Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has yet to publicly confirm his support for LRT, but is expected to make a definitive statement in the coming months. At present, the projected cost of implementing the Purple Line is roughly $1.2 billion.

Washington DC 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