Future Uncertain for Silver Spring Transit Mixed-Use

While work bristles along on the much anticipated, $70 million Paul Sarbanes Silver Spring Transit Center in downtown Silver Spring, progress on the proposed private development at the site is doing anything but. Despite being awarded rights to pursue three towers worth of mixed-use projects – including a 469-unit apartment building, a 196-room hotel and 25,000 square feet of ground floor retail at Colesville Road and Wayne Avenue - following completion of the Transit Center, developer Foulger-Pratt is tight lipped on exactly when the once project will leap off the drawing boards and into the public realm.

“There are three towers that will be built around the Transit Center, someday…but we’re not exactly sure what the towers are going to be. At one point, it was a hotel, an office building and apartments, then hotel, office building, condos. But at this point, we know one of them will be a hotel and that’s all I can say because we don’t know yet,” said Steve Sowash, Director of Preconstruction and Estimation for Foulger Pratt. “Right now, we’re not even projecting a start date on it.”

Though Foulger-Pratt, also serving as general contractor on the Transit Center proper, were once thought to be planning to dovetail their start on the private portion of development with the projected late 2009 completion of the center, that plan appears to have fallen by the wayside. In a refrain all too familiar to area developers these days, Foulger-Pratt is laying the delay at the feet of Old Man Economy.

“[An early 2010 start] is too optimistic…[Our schedule] is contingent on the market in general.“ said Sowash. “Nothing’s even been submitted [to the Planning Board]. We responded to an RFP several years ago for three towers around the Transit Center. It was something that the County had awarded us the right to do, but, then again, it’s all market driven.”

Architects Zimmer Gunsul and Fransca remain attached to the project and Foulger will once again serve as general contractor if and when the developer gets shovels in the ground. In the meantime, the Transit Center is still on schedule to wrap up construction later this year. Montgomery County’s Division of Building Design and Construction is expected to provide an update on project during the first week of April.

Silver Spring Transit Center MOU Approved

Last week, the Montgomery County Planning Board reached a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Public Works and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) regarding the massive mixed-use development project slated for the site of the Silver Spring Metro station, clearing the way for the issuance of bids for this $75 million development. The new Paul S. Sarbanes Silver Spring Transit Center, as the project is called, broke ceremonial ground last November, and is expected to be completed in 2009.

The Silver Spring Metro station is one of the busiest transit centers in the Washington area, currently serving 27,000 Metro riders, 32,000 bus riders and 1,100 MARC train riders daily, a number that is expected to increase to 97,000 patrons per day by 2025. Under the MOU, the Planning Board agreed to exchange its 35,000-sf Metro Urban Park (located on the current site) for an 11,633-sf park at the transit plaza entrance and an 11,590-sf park just off site. In addition, the Planning Board made clear it expects the county and WMATA to build all “essential elements” for the Center (escalator canopies, shade tress, light fixtures, etc.), and for any necessary additional funding to be sought from Federal and/or state governments.

If project plans hold, the development will transform the 5.7 acres around the metro station into a new three-story transit hub, with the first two levels for buses, and the third for metro’s Kiss and Ride, taxis, and some parking. The project will also feature two residential buildings containing 469 units, a 196-room hotel, 25,000 sf of street-level retail adjacent to Colesville Road and Wayne Avenue, and a public plaza. When completed, the Center is expected to significantly enhance access to existing Metrorail, Metrobus, Ride-On, MARC rail, bus and taxi, and the Metropolitan Branch Trail, as well as the planned Purple Line. The private development is being handled by Silver Spring Metro Center Partnership/Foulger-Pratt Development, with architecture by Zimmer, Gunsul and Frasca.