Bethesda's Smashing Summer

Lattes, IPads, Peg Perego strollers - downtown Bethesda on a wild night. But Bethesda's tranquil, manicured status is about to come to an end. By late summer, developers will take over the downtown, digging holes, tearing up streets, and reshaping the downtown streetscape now dominated by moms in heels. Relax, its only temporary. But by July, a pair of local developers say they plan to dig out the two metered parking lots in the center of Bethesda and close Woodmont Avenue for almost two years as they construct a giant underground parking garage, erect two new buildings that will extend Bethesda Row, and reconfigure the Woodmont Ave - Bethesda Ave intersection.

Stonebridge Associates and PN Hoffman, real estate developers selected by the county to joint-venture the project, have approved plans for an 88 unit condominium on the east side of Woodmont and a 170-unit residence (sale or rentals not determined) on the west side of the rebuilt street, a public-private underground parking garage 5 stories deep with 300 private spaces and 1100 public ones, and 40,000 s.f. of retail that will grace Bethesda and Woodmont Avenues, extending Bethesda Row south by a full block, built for small scale retailers. The buildings were designed by Bethesda's SK&I Architectural Design Group,

But all that infrastructure can only come with construction, and lots of it. And while developers are breaking eggs for the $150m development, they will also take the opportunity to remedy the distorted "X" of the intersection, shortening crosswalks and drawing together corners, giving Woodmont a more graceful, traffic-calming arch. Developers intend to close Woodmont south of Bethesda Avenue for up to 20 months, build the garage underneath, then deed the street back to the city.

The first building will be the Darcy, an 88-unit condominium (pictured, top), with 60 market rate condos and 28 home buyers getting subsidized views overlooking Bethesda Row; marketing and sales by PN Hoffman is expected to start "very shortly" says Stonebridge founding principal Doug Firstenberg. Retail will wrap around the building's first floor.

Next at bat is the more complicated west side of Woodmont, with 170 or so units still in the design phase and carrying the brunt of street-grade storefronts. Retail will be mostly parceled into smallish shops that roughly match Bethesda's current shopping district, with an anchor tenant as large as 9,000 s.f., large but significantly smaller than the Barnes & Noble across the street.

Stonebridge-Hoffman also has an agreement with the county to rebuild the adjacent section of the Capital Crescent bike trail, better integrating the path into downtown and fixing its dead end into Bethesda Avenue, where developers will widen and landscape the path with pavers. "Now there will be a place to stop" says Stonebridge's Firstenberg. "You will have a beautiful hardscape telling you you're in the middle of this urban area." Firstenberg also has plans for a bike drop-off on Woodmont once the residences are complete, now that bikers are loosing their unloading point, with a connection behind the building to the trail.

But developers will bury the most controversial portion, the project's 1400-space garage, for which the county approved $89m in 2008, a decision many saw as unwise, unnecessary, and wasteful. The complex land agreement with the county, which owns the land, requires developers to pay the county in a plan Firstenberg calls "tantamount to an air rights deal." The county will pay the Stonebridge team for its costs to build the public parking, up to $89m. "We're certainly hoping to spend less" says Firstenberg, who notes falling construction costs. "The construction world has changed." Project architect Federico Olivera Sala of SK&I notes that the team is "trying to reduce" the overall number of parking spaces.

But transit and smart growth organizations, while applauding the overall development as urban in-fill and transit-oriented, have called parking a boondoggle that puts cars before public transit, with a Metro stop two blocks away and the Purple Line coming soon across the street. "Montgomery County could lease parking from nearby office spaces. We need more flexible strategies...I think looking at pricing is the only way to effectively manage parking, there's plenty of parking within a couple of blocks. Given everyone's budget crisis, spending $80,000 per space hardly seems like a strategic investment," says Cheryl Cort of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which opposed the spending. Firstenberg disagrees. "There is clearly a parking shortage in Bethesda... Bethesda is one of the county's prime economic engines. Other developers have large projects coming up in the area, those are all major plans. There's a parking shortage today, much less when all the development takes place."

Parking shortage or not, in 3 years Bethesdans will have another garage, an extended Bethesda Row, and calm, freshly paved streets for quiet meandering. Which should be just about the time that JBG digs up the opposite intersection to build a 200,000 s.f. office tower and 250-unit residential tower, and most likely the start of construction for Bethesda's Purple Line station in 2014 right next door. Looks like Bethesda is about to get busy.

Bethesda, Maryland Real Estate Development News

Ribbon Cutting, Taste Testing Tonight, Harris Teeter Officially Open Tomorrow

NoMa finally gets its first grocery store with the impending inauguration of the 50,000 s.f. Harris Teeter store at 1201 First Street, NE, which officially opens its doors tomorrow. Its been two years since StonebridgeCarras announced Harris Teeter would occupy their anchor spot in Constitution Square, and tomorrow brings that promise to fruition. But why wait until tomorrow, when you can get free wine and a sneak peek tonight. Following a ribbon cutting this afternoon, as a sign of appreciation for the neighborhood support, the store will hold a "Taste of Teeter" from 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm, during which the general public may sample wines and products from the store. At eight, with several sampler glasses of red sloshed back and a solid buzz going, attendees will then be set free to do their grocery shopping until the store closes at midnight (Disclaimer: DCMud does not advocate boozing and buying).

The retail scene in NoMa has quickly become more and more crowded over the last several months. With Potbelly Sandwich Works, Georgetown Valet, and TD Bank all opening their doors this past fall, and Roti Mediterranean Grill, CVS, and 7-11 set to cut ribbons in the new year, there are a plethora of new places for The Flats 130 residents to spend their money. And more development is on the way. The first phase of Constitution Square, the 1.6 million SF of mixed-use space located at First and M Streets, has been so successful that just last month developers announced their plans to break ground in May on Phase II, set to feature 345,000 s.f. of office space and an additional 203 residential units. With 21 projects completed since 2001, two currently under construction, and 31 in the pipeline, the NoMa development torch is still burning strong.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Stonebridge to Start Phase 2 in NoMa

Real estate developer StonebridgeCarras and financier Walton Street Capital are betting on NoMa again, announcing they will start the next speculative phase of Constitution Square in May. Stonebridge is just now completing Two Constitution Square, which it also built without a tenant, a bet that paid off big when it sold the property in May for $305m to Northwestern Mutual, and now Sarah Krouse reports in the Washington Business Journal that the Bethesda-based developer will attempt an encore with another speculative phase. Principal Doug Firstenberg tells DCMud that next May his company will break ground simultaneously on a 200-unit apartment building and 345,000 s.f. of office space and, rounding out a good week, that Harris Teeter will open at Constitution Square on December 8th and that Equinox founder and chef Todd Grey will now open a sit down restaurant in the newly completed phase 1.

Firstenberg, who pre-leased 100% of Phase 1 to GSA and DOJ before trading the building, said Phase 2 will be "targeted to go after some of these large GSA bids that are out there." Stonebridge will again use SK&I Architects to design the residential space and HOK Architecture for the commercial portion. The residences are expected to be available by late 2012, the office space should be ready for the first tenants in early 2013. The third and final phase of the 7-acre site, still in conception, will add 470,000 s.f of office space.

Firstenberg says the restaurant, to open in March along with the hotel, will be "NoMa's first upscale, sit down restaurant," good news for residents at the Flats 130 where 60 of 440 units have leased since its opening October 1st, and where significant retail leases have already been signed. Stonebridge is expected to flip the office building once lease-up is complete. "We're not long term owners in the project" said Firstenberg.

Washington DC real estate development news

DC Redesigns Empty Printing Plant Near Ballpark

The District has finally come up with a plan for a long-vacant building in southeast DC that once served as the printing plant for the Washington Star, turning a physical and fiscal black-eye into what District officials say will be "a bold move" to improve the neighborhood. The District government began leasing the property in 2007, a controversial arrangement when the city failed to use the building. DC purchased the property outright last year for $85.2m in the hopes of converting its liability into productive space and has now partnered with development giant StonebridgeCarras. The five-story building at 225 Virginia Avenue remains the largest empty building near the Nationals Stadium.


Scotching plans to add on to the five-story building, the city will now renovate the interior and redesign the exterior to add "a lot glass that will allow natural sunlight to filter through the building," according to Jason Yuckenberg of the Department of Real Estate Services for the District. The revamp will also earn a LEED Silver certification, incorporate the largest green roof owned by the District government, and provide space for a public gallery to "showcase the vast art collection of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities."

The city will continue to own the land in a lease-leaseback arrangement with StonebridgeCarras. Details on how the city selected StonebridgeCarras were not immediately available, but according to Yuckenberg, the city "approached a number of people in the community about working with us on this project." StonebridgeCarras principal Doug Firstenberg tells DCMud the city's first RFP for the building went nowhere, after which the developer came up with the current lease plan financed through a private placement bond issue. Ultimately what they wanted was to own the building through creative financing" says Firstenberg.

Under a signed agreement, DC will lease the property to the developer, which will finance construction of the renovations, then lease it back to the city for $8.4m per year to be used as office space for several District agencies. The property will revert to the District at the end of the 20-year agreement. The District intends to build a data center and is seeking an occupant for the 50,000 s.f. of available space, stipulating that the data center tenant, a typically heavy energy consumer, "not adversely affect the LEED certification process" according to Yuckenberg.

The current structure, which has "virtually no windows, and is really drab and dreary," acknowledges Yuckenberg, is surrounded by ongoing improvements to the Capitol Riverfront neighborhood, including EYA's Capitol Quarter housing project and adjacent Canal Park, which is expected to break ground within the next few weeks. The street will get its own revamp when CSX scrapes off Virginia Avenue to add capacity to the train line below it. Construction is expected to begin in November; the District has already begun interior demolition to make way for construction. The development team will include architects from DC's Hickok Cole, Davis Construction as a general contractor, and Rand Construction for the interiors. Firstenberg expects full occupancy by June of 2012.

The property was originally intended to be a 1^st District Police substation and evidence warehouse for the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), which has since moved elsewhere. After two years of paying $6.5 million in annual rent (nearly $550,000 a month), the District raised the ante by purchasing the site. Washington DC officials say the move will "save District taxpayers more than $60 million over the previous arrangement."

The District recently issued a Request for Offers (RFO) to sublease the 50,000-s.f. data center, responses to which are due by July 30, 2010; the city will sponsor a site visit for the space tomorrow.

Washington DC real estate development news

NoMa's Constitution Square is Green, and Now Gold

Constitution Square, NoMa's largest mixed-use project, received a Gold ranking today from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The project was awarded an enviable Gold ranking in the LEED ND category for sustainable neighborhood development.

But don't think of waterless toilets and recycled material; the "ND" standard is a fuzzier version of the older sustainability rankings. Rather than rate only the physical building, which can only be evaluated after construction completes sometime this summer, ND instead ranks the overall sustainability of the development with respect to potential impact on the surroundings. Factors that go into the certification include street width and building height, with an emphasis on mixing uses that allow more integrated living. According to the USGBC website, the system "integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism, and green building" into one rating. Alicia Call at HOK Architecture adds that the ND ranking "its a little bit more stringent than the other rating systems...but with a focus on community development." In short, the ranking is an endorsement of Metro-oriented, mixed-use, sustainable construction.

Liz Price, President of the NoMa BID, says Constitution Square is one of the first ND-approved projects in the country, having been part of a pilot program to factor location and neighborhoods into green techniques and to "look beyond the footprint of the building." Price says the BID and DC's Office of Planning promoted NoMa to the USGBC as a candidate for the pilot, and that Constitution Square was the obvious choice within NoMa, being the largest development in the neighborhood and one DC more ambitious projects.

The project broke ground in April of 2008, a joint venture between Bethesda-based StonebridgeCarras and Walton Street Capital, which acquired the land in early 2006. The development will include a 206-room Hilton hotel, 440 apartments, and 340,000 s.f. of office space in 5 buildings, including a new Harris Teeter. SK&I Architects designed the residential space, which will begin renting this summer and will deliver by August, according to Doug Firstenberg, a Principal with StonebridgeCarras. Office tenants will begin taking delivery next month. Planners hope the buildings themselves will also qualify for LEED Gold certification, with the outside chance of a Platinum ranking. The office space in Phase I is 100% leased, with only about 4000 s.f. retail space remaining up for grabs.

Bethesda-based Clark Construction is performing construction.

Washington DC real estate development news

Constitution Square Signs Retailers

NoMa's Constitution Square is filling in nicely. After securing Harris Teeter last year to occupy 50,000 s.f., StonebridgeCarras, Constitution Square's developer, announced the signing of five more retail leases today. A diverse group of tenants will occupy an additional 17,000 s.f., coming online to serve the 5,000 new employees headed for NoMa this year, as well as residents of the 750 apartments set to finish later in the year. TD Bank will be NoMa’s first full-service banking facility with a 5,200 s.f. space. Feeding hungry workers will be Potbelly's and Constitution Café. Keeping them awake will be the responsibility of Tynan Coffee & Tea, which already operates in Columbia Heights. And adding a bit of starch, Georgetown Valet drycleaners are beefing up with yet another store added to its many throughout the District. All retailers are expected to open later this year. Accordingly, Harris Teeter is poised to begin interior upfit of its SK&I Architects-designed store, making it the first grocery store in NoMa. The chain is currently seeking a general contractor to build the interior and should make a selection by the end of February. Clark Construction, the General Contractor for the entire Constitution Square project, is scheduled to finish the exterior and the core of the 50,000 s.f. space in time to turn it over to Harris Teeter for interior construction in late March or early April. According to Glen Thomson of Harris Teeter, the store at the corner of First and M Streets, NE, might open as early as November. The grocery chain signed a 20-year lease for the site with Stonebridge in 2009. The District is providing a tax incentive to assist with the cost of providing 150 parking spaces for the Harris Teeter store, as it did with the DC USA Center in Columbia Heights. The two-phase Constitution Square project kicked off in April of 2008 and will eventually include a 206-room Hilton hotel, 440 apartments, and 340,000 s.f. of office space. 

Washington, DC real estate and development news

Parking Fuels Anger in Bethesda

LOT 31, Bethesda's stalled mixed-use development, has come under fire again, this time for its $89 million, 1,100-space parking garage. The structures are part of two developments at Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues, a joint project between Montgomery County, PN Hoffman and Stonebridge Associates approved in 2007. In a joint press release this week, The Action Committee for Transit (ACT) and the Montgomery County Group of the Sierra Club blasted the five and four-story parking garages that will comprise Lot 31 as wasteful, poorly-planned targets for taxpayer money.

Designed by SK&I Architectural Design Group, the 3-year project is expected to begin construction at 4712 Bethesda Avenue across from Barnes and Nobel sometime in 2011, but has drawn fire from environmentalists since its inception.

ACT and the Sierra Club object to the what they view as an automobile-centric approach to development so close to public transit, at public expense to boot. As part of the deal to entice developers to build, the county offered to pay for much of the $89m parking garage, or $80,000 per parking space, which developers see as a misallocation of resources that could be better spent on public transit. As in previous requests, ACT and the Sierra Club argue that "the high cost of the garage means that even in the improbable event that the garage fills up, parking fees will not cover the cost of construction," and argue for a 300-space garage instead.

So, why is the cost of construction so high? During a 2008 interview with DCMud, SK&I President, Sami Kirkdil explained that the project is more complex than usual parking structures because it requires construction crews to dig five levels into rock while at the same time "basically, taking Woodmont Avenue away," by slowing the traffic patterns around the garage.

This justification does not sit well with environmental groups who believe the number of Bethesda-area drivers has been over-estimated by the County and that the construction of the planned Purple Line,which could potentially stop just down the street from the planned garage, will further dim the need for parking in downtown Bethesda.

For their part, PN Hoffman and Stonebridge promise a "public atrium" component to the project that will serve pedestrians by acting as a meeting point between existing shops along Bethesda Row and their planned mixed-use buildings, with 357,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and residential space.

Perhaps with all of the drivers heading to Bethesda to take advantage of the safer pedestrian environment, all that extra parking will come in handy.

Bethesda Real Estate Development News

NoMa's Largest Mixed Use Building Caps Off

All the dust being kicked up in NoMa is finally paying off, with the topping off of Constitution Square, in what will be NoMa's largest mixed-use project, a 7-acre mixed use anchor, one block from the New York Avenue metro, that will deliver by late next year. Having reached its maximum height of 13 stories (in the residential portion), the project is still about a year away from delivering the first of its capacity, which will eventually include a 206-room Hilton hotel, 440 apartments, 340,000 s.f. of office space, and a Harris Teeter to boot - NoMa's first grocery store and first residential building.

The two-phase project kicked off in April of 2008, with the groundbreaking of the first phase. The two million square feet of development is the brainchild of Bethesda-based StonebridgeCarras and Walton Street Capital. The residential and retail portion, designed by SK&I Architects, will be the first to deliver, likely in early 2010, and will be LEED certified. SK&I is also designing the common areas of the apartments and the core and shell of the Hilton. The office space, designed by HOK Architecture, will add the office space in phases one and two, and though it is still a year off it has already scored some major tenants, including the Department of Justice. The office portion aims for a Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for green design.

According to Guclu Durusoy, Project Manager of SK&I, the facade will include extensive floor to ceiling glass to lighten the massing of the building. The residences will include a fitness center, outdoor pool deck, and three courtyards. Bethesda-based Clark Construction, which is performing construction, will hold an event on September 4th to celebrate the construction milestone.

This will be the first mixed-use project to come online, according to Liz Price, Director of the NoMa BID, who cites the neighborhood as "truly walkable" given the incoming density and existing public transportation infrastructure. The 35-block area is expected to see 20m square feet of development over the next ten years.

Will Montgomery County Put the Brakes on Bethesda's Parking Garage?

On Tuesday morning, the Montgomery County Council will vote on whether to move forward with a planned $89-million, 1,150-space parking garage in downtown Bethesda. If the vote passes, developers PN Hoffman and Stonebridge Associates would be able to proceed with their mixed-use project planned for the current Bethesda Lot 31, at the intersection of Bethesda and Woodmont Avenues (across from the Barnes and Noble). But the project has some concerned organizations urging the Council to apply the brakes and postpone the vote to allow time to consider alternatives to the garage.

In a press release put out today, the Coalition for Smarter Growth and the Montgomery County Sierra Club did the math: by their calculation, each individual parking space costs close to $80,000. “It’s cheaper to just pay people $45 to park [at a nearby lot] and walk five minutes,” says Cheryl Cort, Policy Director of the Coalition. While Cort praises the overall mixed-use project, she and her organization have concerns about the cost of the garage—and whether there’s really a lack of parking in Bethesda.

To prove her point, Cort went out on a Saturday night several weeks ago during prime dinner hour (between about 9 and 10 p.m.) to investigate Bethesda’s parking availability. According to Cort, while Lot 31 fills at peak hours, Bethesda has plenty of other public parking garages with whole floors of open parking within a five-minute walk of downtown Bethesda. It’s just a matter of people knowing where to look.

The proposed mixed-use project would take the place of the two lots now owned by the county, replacing surface parking with up to 250 residential units in LEED-certified buildings designed by SK&I. Stonebridge-Hoffman would realign the interchange of Bethesda and Woodmont, and add as much as 40,000 s.f. of ground floor retail, all of which is generally supported by smart growth advocates as being transit-oriented.

But rather than add such massive garage space, the Coalition for Smarter Growth recommends that Bethesda consider making use of a “smart parking” system, similar to those used in Rockville Town Center and at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport. A digital readout at the entrance to a garage or floor of parking displays the number of available parking spaces to approaching motorists, reducing the time, traffic, and frustration used in circling for spots. As Cort puts it, “Bethesda was just a suburban outpost 30 years ago…[Now] Bethesda has grown up…The question is, how do we treat automobiles in this context?”

David Hauck, Chair of the Montgomery County Sierra Club, has a suggestion for how to assess this situation. “Step back, take a breath, and think about it,” he advises, “What will Bethesda look like five years from now?” If the pedestrian-, bike-, and Metro- supporting contingent has its way, says Hauck, the proposed parking garage will be a “white elephant.”

The County would fund the initial parking structure, which is designed as below-ground public parking, hence the high cost. The rub, in part, is the financing of the deal. The county would issue a bond to cover the construction costs, part of which would be repaid by the developers as part of the purchase of the land, but that still leaves public money going to support admittedly un-green vehicular traffic.

Hauck credits the county’s commitment to taking steps toward transit-oriented development and more walkable communities, noting that Bethesda could be and has been an ideal testing ground for these changes. He cites the promise of a new south entrance to the Bethesda Metro station and the proposed Purple Line. But when it comes to funding environmentally friendly measures, “Energy efficiency and global warming get crumbs off the table,” says Hauck, “and the parking garage gets the steak.”
Update, May 7: According to a representative from the Montgomery County Council, at its work session today, the full Council tentatively approved the parking garage planned for Bethesda's Lot 31. While a few council members did raise concerns about the project, no one introduced a motion to overturn or alter granting approval. On May 22, the project is expected to receive the final go-ahead when the Council officially votes on the county government's capital budget. Any changes to the plan between now and then are unlikely.

NoMa Development Breaks Ground, Part VII

On Monday, at 10:30am, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and assorted camera-seekers will join developer StonebridgeCarras at 2nd and N Streets, NE, to break ground at for the first phase of Constitution Square. The developer will officially kick off its 1.6 million square foot project (pictured) at the ceremony, a mixed-use building that will include 440 apartments, a 200-room Hilton Hotel, a 50,000 s.f. Harris Teeter grocery store and massive office space - 589,000 in Two Constitution, and 350,000 in One Constitution. The project is the first major mixed-use project to break ground in the NoMA neighborhood.

StonebridgeCarras, with Chicago-based partner Walton Street Capital, had announced several major leases over just the past few weeks, including the Department of Justice lease of 88% of the office space of Two Constitution Square, and the 20-year lease of Harris Teeter, which hopes to open in late 2010. The project sits adjacent to the New York Ave. Metro station; the residential portion will be designed by Bethesda's SK&I Architectural Group. HOK Architecture is designing the office space; the project is being ambitiously designed to achieve a LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Harris Teeter Puts Steak in NoMa

The NoMa BID (yes, more NoMa coverage) and StonebridgeCarras announced this past weekend that Harris Teeter will occupy 50,000 s.f. of space in a 20 year lease at Constitution Square. The development, at the corner of 1st and M Streets, NE, is adjacent to the New York Avenue Metro station. Stonebridge is expected to break ground in April, with the grocer likely to open its doors in late 2010 or early 2011. HT is the first committed occupant of One Constitution Square, which will also house 440 apartments, 340,000 s.f. of office space, and an additional 30,000 s.f. of retail. Stonebridge had recently announced that DOJ would take up 88% of the leasable office space at Two Constitution Square.

The District government also partnered on the project by providing tax incentives to help finance parking for 150 cars. Bethesda's SK&I Architectural Group designed the retail and residential portion of the project.

Downtown Bethesda Condominium Pair Gets First Stamp of Approval

The Montgomery County Planning Board staff has issued its report recommending approval of a site plan to jointly develop a pair of parking lots in downtown Bethesda into mixed-use, multi-family condominiums with as many as 250 residential units in LEED certified buildings, construction of which will require a closing and realignment of Woodmont Avenue south of Bethesda Avenue. Lot 31, now sporting a metered parking lot at the crossroads of Bethesda and Woodmont Avenues - on the west side - and Lot 31A, across Woodmont Avenue to the east, are now on track for development as the southern gateway to Bethesda (depicted above, looking south), a predominantly glass and brick duo with a combined 250 units (up to 146 in the west building and 97 in the east), 40,000 s.f. of retail space and as many as 1480 underground parking spaces. Both the 3-acre and the one-third acre lots are currently owned by the county, and will be jointly developed between the county and the development team, itself a joint venture between DC-based PN Hoffman and Stonebridge Development. The County will require 12.5% of the units built as MPDUs (moderately priced dwelling units) and an additional 35 as workforce housing. The conditional approval by the Planning Board will require conformity to a list of preconditions, including traffic, structural, public space, affordable housing, and bike trail accommodations, limiting the building height to 90 feet to the east of Woodmont, though stepping down to 65 feet at street level, considerably shorter than the 143-foot Seasons apartment building to the immediate east, and to a maximum of 54 feet to the west of Woodmont. Retail will accommodate outdoor seating, extending Bethesda Row to the south, and significant concessions will be made for the Capitol Crescent Trail, including additional bike racks and a "drop-off" point on Woodmont where bikers can unload from vehicles onto a new branch of the trail on the south side of the west building, providing an additional access point to the bike trail from Woodmont, which will be shifted to the west to line up Woodmont more directly where it crosses Bethesda Avenue. PNH and Stonebridge most recently jointly developed Chase Point Condominiums in Chevy Chase DC. The staff report is not final, but signals a likelihood the full Board will approve the project. A hearing on the issue will be held September 20th. 

Bethesda Maryland real estate development news

Boomtown Bethesda – Yet More Development

Just when we thought there couldn’t possibly be another inch of space left for development in the Bethesda Row neighborhood, the real estate market again proves us wrong. Things are expected to get very busy and congested at the former parking lots at the corners of Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues, at the south end of the Bethesda Row shops, if two new projects become reality.

First up is a mixed-use project planned for the northeast corner of Bethesda and Woodmont (named Woodmont East - Phase II). Applications submitted by developer JBG show a 121,090-sf hotel, over 36,000 sf of retail, 78,300 of office space, and 250 apartment units (32 of which will be Moderately Priced Dwelling Units or MPDUs) in a five-story (or more) building. The Montgomery County Development Review Committee is expected to next pick up discussion of this project on May 7.

The second development is a joint public-private project between PN Hoffman/Stonebridge Associates and Montgomery County that will take up the southeast and southwest corners of Woodmont and Bethesda (Lots 31 and 31A). Pictured is an early rendering of the project looking south down Woodmont Avenue. Preliminary plans call for 250 hi-rise condominium units (some of which will be MPDUs) with pricing starting in the $600,000 range, plus 40,000 sf of retail. There will also be an underground parking lot to accommodate over 1,500 cars (mostly public). Woodmont Avenue is expected to be relocated and redesigned a bit, but will continue to run through this project. The development will also ensure access to the nearby Capital Crescent Trial. Groundbreaking is expected for Summer 2008, with completion in 2011.

These projects join a number of other new developments in the Bethesda Row area, including the renovated Chase (377 condo units), the Bethesda Row extension (180 rentals), 7001 Arlington Road (111 condo units), 4913-4921 Hampden Lane (60 condo units), and 4901 Hampden Lane (70 condo units).

Montgomery County Planning Board Reviews Mixed-Use Designs for Silver Spring Project

On Thursday, October 26, the Montgomery County Planning Board of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (MC-MNCPPC) heard proposals from three development teams competing to design and build a new mixed-use project on 3.24 acres at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Spring Street, at the northwestern entrance to downtown Silver Spring. The development will include the new headquarters for the Montgomery County Park and Planning Commission (MCPPC), as well as workforce housing and retail. The three development teams selected to make presentations were: (1) Silver Place Joint-Venture, LLC (Donohoe Companies, Otis Warren & Company and MCF Investment Company), which is proposing to erect three buildings on the site (one residential, one mixed-use with residential, office space, and retail, and the PPC headquarters; (2) SilverPlace, LLC (Bozutto Group, Spaulding & Slye, and Harrison Development), which would build a 358-unit residential and mixed-use building along Georgia Avenue, with a specialized grocery store, and a nine-story office headquarters for PPC; and (3) PN Hoffman / Stonebridge Associates, which would build residential and retail on this site, and a new PPC headquarters at a different lot already owned by the team. The MC-MNCPPC is expected to make a decision on a winning team in early 2007, with redevelopment of the site completed by 2010.