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

Southwest Safeway: Hello, Goodbye

While neighbors bide their time, waiting for a new Southwest Safeway to open at Waterfront Station, the old Safeway will likely stick around a little longer; at least its corpse will. Developers have now applied for a raze permit for 401 M Street, SW, beginning the process to demolish the old building. The store closed its doors for good April 6th and the new Safeway will show its wares to new neighbors with a "sneak peak" on the 15th and grand opening on April 16th.

According to Craig Muckle, Spokesperson for Safeway, the team does not expect demolition to begin until sometime this summer, though an adjoining wall between the old and new stores will come down prior to the new store's opening.

Safeway's newest store at the Southwest Waterfront Station will bring relief to residents who have long complained of the lack of necessities, such as bread and milk, that were routine.

Waterfront Station will also include new space for a CVS and Bank of America, as well as an additional 85,000 square feet for restaurants and “neighborhood service-related” retail. The project is a joint venture between Forest City Washington, Vornado/Charles E. Smith and Bresler and Reiner, Inc., and will add more than 2.5m square feet of new development on the site.

Washington, DC real estate development news

Tenleytown Safeway Indefinite Postponement

It looks like all the fuss over the Tenleytown Safeway at 4203 Davenport Street is far from over. Last night the DC Zoning Commission approved a request from the Safeway project team to indefinitely postpone the review of the submitted plan, which was scheduled for this Thursday. The team submitted their request indicating they needed more time go back and address some issues brought forth by the Office of Planning and the community. The indefinite nature of the postponement suggests the Safeway team has been nudged into submission by the neighborhood over the past few months; in August a Safeway spokesperson had anticipated plans would be finalized by this past September.

The existing Safeway store is 35,000 s.f. and, according to the plans initially submitted to the Office of Planning, the new store, designed by Torti Gallas, would grow to 58,000 s.f. and include neighborhood retail like a coffee shop, dry cleaners and florist. The project would provide 176 off-street parking spaces, some of which will be on the ground level below the elevated grocery story and some in a surface parking lot. The roof would have 1400 s.f. of green roof elements, the remainder would be a "cool roof," which means a mere 2.6% of the roof is currently designed to be green. Though Craig Muckle, a spokesperson for Safeway, said the building would have other green features and would aim for LEED Silver at minimum.

In October, the Office of Planning expressed concerns about various elements of the plan and requested additional environmental benefits such as an expanded green roof and increased permeability in the surface parking lot. The OP report also cited issues with elements of the site design and building placement. The current plans seeks exemptions including a reduced number of parking spaces, providing 176 when 185 are required, and zoning changes, as several of the included lots are currently zoned for residential uses. Among the more significant requests from Planning was that the applicant better address why the project, given its location, should get zoning exemptions since, unlike many similar projects, the plan does not include any residential density. OP seems to suggest the project has neither demonstrated a need for the requested flexibility nor demonstrated the additional benefits to the community to justify a change in the zoning evaluation from a matter of right to PUD. To paraphrase, what's in it for "us"? A question neighbors have been more than willing to ask.

Neighbors object to a variety of elements about the plan. Certain voices clamor for dense mixed-use development that includes residential space and retail independent of the grocer. Others in the neighborhood prefer the short and squat nature of buildings in the surrounding area and would prefer to see changes come as matter of right development, leaving out the chance of future denser development. Then there are the standard worries about noise, traffic, and lack of community benefits. The community has some reconciling to do and Safeway now has plenty of time to get that feedback.

According to Muckle, the group "had been doing outreach and a number of issues arose" the team requested "more time to explore the issues without the pressure of a pending hearing prohibiting them from examining as fully as needed." Why the indefinite proposal then, why not six months? Muckle said Safeway did not want to be "pigeonholed" by a timeline. In Safeway's request for postponement, the team indicated that they will work with the community and Office of Planning to come to a consensus of sorts at which point the team and Commission will schedule a new hearing.

Washington, DC real estate and development news

New Tenleytown and Georgetown Safeways

Take that, Whole Foods. Thursday was a big night for Safeway in northwest DC, with the group announcing that the Georgetown store would seek LEED certification, meanwhile the plan for the Tenleytown location continues its review by the ANC.

The Georgetown "social" Safeway, at 1855 Wisconsin Ave, NW, is expected to complete this May the replacement for the store demolished in April of 2009. Safeway will submit their Torti Gallas-designed building for review by the U.S. Green Building Council, expecting LEED certification for the final product.

Up the hill, the ANC continues to review a similar plan for the Tenleytown Safeway at 4203 Davenport St., but not without much heated debate. The zoning change for the Tenleytown store is set to go before the Zoning Commission on January 14th of the new year. The new design involves a two story building replacing the squat, windowless monolith that now presents its backside to Wisconsin Avenue.

Assuming PUD approval, renovation of the Tenleytown store will not start until the Georgetown Safeway is completed to avoid closing two nearby stores simultaneously.

The two buildings are Safeway's salvo in the supermarket wars; Safeway has been on a binge of renovating and rebuilding its stores to respond to increasing competition among grocers. Whole Foods will answer when it opens its next DC-area store this summer, just five blocks up the street, and Giant will open its flagship on Wisconsin Avenue in 2011, but Harris Teeter seems to have been elbowed out of the Wisconsin Avenue scrum.



Correction: In the original report DCMud indicated the Tenleytown store had received ANC approval. It was brought to our attention by the ANC this was not the case. There was a miscommunication between our staff and the source of the story. We apologize for the mistake.

Wheaton Plans Rearranged

Ask anyone involved in Montgomery County's Wheaton Redevelopment Program (WRP) and you will hear how the new Wheaton Safeway will lie at the heart of the County's pedestrian-friendly, retail-oriented vision. And it will, though the original plans to include it in the AvalonBay development are now defunct with Safeway opting to renovate the current location and add up to 18 stories of residential. More of a challenge than the developers of Avalon at Wheaton were bargaining for, the project is now on hold, much to the surprise of county officials. Just when Wheaton's development was at risk of becoming ho-hum, the county has stepped in with its own share of development melodrama rife with project delays, excess residential units and a fickle Safeway.

Having cornered the market on apartment complexes from Bethesda to McLean, the Alexandria-based AvalonBay developers set their sights on a new Wheaton community. With County approval, the $100 million, mixed-use Avalon at Wheaton community at the corner of Blueridge and Georgia Avenue, the site of the former BB&T building, was to include the newly revamped, state-of-the-art Safeway. The residential portion of the Avalon project is designed by SK&I. That was before Safeway began working with developer Patriot Realty. Now, the Wheaton Safeway, a joint venture between Patriot and Safeway, will more than double its 23,000 s.f. store while remaining at the same 11201 Georgia Avenue spot.

According to Steven A. Robins, Patriot Realty’s attorney from Bethesda- based law firm Lerch Early & Brewer, keeping the Safeway in its original location made good sense as “Safeway already owns the land.” And because the current Safeway is situated across from the Wheaton Metro at what Robins describes as “the Ground Zero so to speak [of the Wheaton Redevelopment Plan],” it will be conveniently incorporated into the new pedestrian-friendly promenades designated in the WRP's plans. The group is looking for approvals as soon as possible for their Safeway project. “We’d like to be under construction within the next 18 months,” Robins tells DCMud.

Robins explained that Patriot's newly developed Safeway will be LEED certified in accordance with Montgomery County standards, and will include 57,500 s.f. of retail, 140 underground parking spaces for Safeway customers, upwards of 500 apartment units on top of that, and additional 411 residential parking spaces. The Wheaton store will resemble DC’s 14-story City Vista Safeway at 5th & K Streets NW. The architects for the Wheaton store are Hord Coplan Macht.

So what’s to become of the Avalon at Wheaton Community without its intended anchor? And really, will there be a market for the hundreds of extra AvalonBay apartment units now that Patriot Realty is adding upwards of 18-stories of rental units across from the Metro?

When asked about their future Avalon at Wheaton plans, AvalonBay spokesman, Adam Davis replied by email explaining that the Wheaton development “is still in our pipeline,” but “has been delayed for the foreseeable future.” He added that 2011 might be a more realistic year than 2010 for construction to begin on any new Avalon at Wheaton community.

When Rob Klein, Director of Wheaton's Redevelopment, was presented with news of AvalonBay's delays, he commented that the delayed status was "new to him." According to Peter McGinnity, WRP Business Development & Intergovernmental Program Manager, as far as their staff knows, the AvalonBay project "is moving forward," and they were under the impression that AvalonBay planned to "increase the number of apartment units and include less ground floor retail" now that the Safeway was out of the picture.

Adams Morgan Safeway Facelift Revealed

With the supermarket battles having long since become a mainstay of development, not to mention indicator of neighborhood revitalization, we feel obliged to point out the existence of new grocery stores. And sometimes even old ones with a nip - tuck, as in the case of the Adams Morgan Safeway at 1747 Columbia Road. City officials will be marking the occasion too, at 2pm tomorrow (Friday), when DC Mayor Adrian Fenty cuts the ribbon on the newly minted Safeway.

The store has remained open for the past four months during construction, an attempt to bring it up to speed with the newish Harris Teeter around the corner. Safeway spokesman Craig Muckle told DCMud that although the re-do would not entail the start-over makeover given several other area Safeways, this would at least "a complete interior renovation and decorum upgrade,” he promised. “It will look like…our other upgraded Safeways, of which there are now nine or ten in the area.” We'll see if its enough to make the mayor stay and shop.

Bethesda Safeway Reinvention, Running Out of Monikers

With expansion and reconstruction well on its way at the Social Safeway in Glover Park, and several other Safeway stores in the works, Safeway, Inc. is setting its sights on demolishing and rebuilding another of its DC area locations, this time in Bethesda. The store, at the intersection of Bradley Boulevard and Arlington Road, lacks one of the monikers so commonly applied to the stores in DC (its only Yelp reviewer dubbed the location the "Superfluous Safeway"). The pitch to the MCPB? The new design will be a "civic gateway" (Civic Safeway?) to Bethesda's Central Business District (CBD). The planned structure would replace the single-story, 25,568-sf., 1950's era building with a modern, 43,097 sf. two-story building with elevated sales floor located above structured parking at and below ground level, much like its Social sibling. The architect for the project, Rounds VanDuzer Architects, plans to use a variety of materials to break up the largely unfenestrated building with pavilion-like structures, including a brick base with stone, steel, stucco and glass accents. Improved sidewalks and streetscapes will provide pedestrian access from several points on Arlington Road and at the corner of Bradley Boulevard. Though there is no direct access to the adjacent Capital Crescent Trail, the plan provides for a covered bike station with drinking fountain and air pump on premises to improve bike access - so you can bike to the grocery. Additionally, the plan includes vehicular access directly from Arlington Road and via a right-in, right-out driveway off Bradley. The storefront will feature a revolving public art exhibit, orchestrated by the Bethesda Arts and Entertainment District. Safeway will also provide financial support to the Bethesda Urban Partnership (BUP) for beautification of the Capital Crescent Trail retaining wall which runs along Arlington Ave., a response, in part, to local resident concerns. The staff recommended approval with conditions, most notably meeting requirements for stormwater management, and achieving LEED certification at minimum. Transportation conditions include adding bike lockers in the parking garage as well as showers for all those employees who commute via the poor man's metro. The plan goes before the Montgomery County Planning Board for review tomorrow, July 23rd.

Bethesda Maryland retail and commercial real estate news

Social Safeway Set for Demolition Next Month

Following last year's announcement that Georgetown's old "Social Safeway" at 1855 Wisconsin Ave, NW would disappear (temporarily) in 2009, now executives at the supermarket chain say the aging facility will meet the wrecking ball as soon as it closes up shop once and for all on April 26^th.

"Demolition will start immediately [following the store closing]," said Safeway spokesman Craig Muckle. "We plan to have it done for a March 2010 opening." In the meantime, shoppers at Safeway are stocking up on discounted food as if there were light snow in the forecast.

But fear not, valued customers. As stated above, the new and improved Social Safeway is planned to open next year with a 21^st century design - courtesy of Torti Gallas Architects - and a new floorplan that will largely abolish the current store’s massive and congestion-prone parking lot. By reclaiming part of its underutilized footprint, the from-scratch storefront will bare more resemblance to CityVista’s so-called “Sexy Safeway” rather than it’s former incarnation. Muckle tells DCmud that the new building’s design is the result of a lengthy approval process that the company underwent with locals and DC authorities.

“We had a number of visits with [the Old Georgetown Board] and [the US Commission of] Fine Arts. We went back a couple of times as there were some revisions requested along the way. But I don’t recall there being anything wildly out of line or that needed to be redrawn significantly,” he said. “We did spend a lot of time with the ANC, so I think we can say safely that the ongoing conversation really made the process much less challenging.”

In the meantime, renovation procedures take a much more low-key tactic at the "Not So Safeway" at 1747 Columbia Road, NW. That store will remain open when it goes under the knife (as early as early next month) and, although the store will forgo demolition, the end result will be much the same as in Georgetown.

“Under the current situation, [we couldn’t close the store]. We would have liked to, but if we’re not able to that, we’ll do the in-place remodel. It will be a complete interior renovation and decorum upgrade,” said Muckle. “It will look like…our other upgraded Safeways, of which there are now nine or ten in the area.”

Washington DC retail and commercial property news

Waterfront Station 1 Tops Out in Southwest

Waterfront Station officially topped out today, and while that alone may be cause for celebration, backers must be more pleased that the office building is entirely leased. Once completed, the Southwest Washington, DC development - a joint venture between Forest City Washington, Vornado/Charles E. Smith and Bresler and Reiner, Inc. - will add 2.5 million square feet of office, residential and retail space to the former site of the Waterfront Mall at 4th and M Streets, SW.

District authorities, in particular, have reason to commemorate the project's construction milestone. City agencies, including the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Office of Planning, District Department of Transportation and Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, have already leased the entire 628,000 square feet of phase one’s Shalom Baranes-designed dual office buildings and are currently scheduled to move in once construction ends in March of 2010. The towers, which abut the Waterfront/SEU Metro station, will also include new space for the present Safeway, CVS and Bank of America locations on site, as well as an additional 85,000 square feet for restaurants and “neighborhood service-related” retail. Both buildings are aiming for a LEED silver certification. Clark Construction is currently serving as general contractor on the project.

Mayor Adrian Fenty, on hand to officiate the proceedings, also took time to wax nostalgic about his history with the project. “I’ve been the mayor for twenty-six months and ten days and I can tell you that this has been a priority of our administration for that entire time," he said. "I was on the City Council before that and I followed, as an interested appropriator, all of the discussions around Waterside Mall."

Meanwhile, Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells and Councilmember-at-Large Kwame Brown applauded the project for revitalizing a long-neglected Southwest site and proceeding as planned, despite the current state of the real estate market.

“I believe the financing [for this project] was closed on the day the Dow dropped 700 points [on September 29th, 2008]. This team saw it through,” said Wells. “You may see other cranes that have stopped working, other places that they stopped digging, but these guys are work because of this great development team.”

In between accolades, not much mention was a made of the development’s projected phase two component, which is intended to include nearly 1,000 residential units, along with more retail and office space, to fill Waterfront Station’s eventual 2.5 million square footprint. The current timeline calls for design work on the next phase of development to begin this coming May and Deborah Ratner Salzberg, President of Forest City Washington, Inc., was optimistic that the project will a be success based on its convenient location and the inroads made so far.

“People are going to come up from this Metro, they’re going to head home, they’re going head to school, they’re going to go to work and they’re going to shop. Waterfront Station will be an active retail hub,” said Salzberg.

Washington DC real estate development news

Goodbye to the Social Safeway

In the latest salvo of the supermarket wars, Safeway is moving ahead with plans to start from scratch in Georgetown. Within the next year, the so-called "Social Safeway" at 1855 Wisconsin Avenue NW will be torn down to make way for a new "state-of the-art" facility that will better utilize the site and increase their market share as more and more of their competitors move from the suburbs to the inner city.

"Basically, what we're trying to do is to meet the standards of the District of Columbia. There's been a call for activating the streetscape more and trying to eliminate parking lots in the front of these large developments," says Safeway spokesman Craig Muckle. "Secondarily, it'll enable us to make our store larger to fit the type of amenities that we like to offer our customers."

However, there’s no rush to stock up on milk and toilet paper before the present location closes its doors. Muckle described the timeline for the new store as “in flux” and stressed that many of the details pertaining to the new development have yet to be finalized.

While Safeway has not yet revealed the developer and/or builder attached to the project, they have named Torti Gallas as their choice of architect. Some of Torti’s initial designs have already been presented to the community and are currently undergoing revisions – which will only see the light of day after local residents get first crack at them. “We don’t want to surprise the community,” says Muckle.

At present, the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has approved a raze application for what is, after all, an unsightly brick box, and the Historic Preservation Review Board has given their go-ahead to the project as well. Safeway higher-ups are presently engaged in the design review process with the US Commission of Fine Arts, the Old Georgetown Board and the ANC 2E – but remains dedicated to getting the new project in the ground as quickly as possible. According to Muckle, “This is an important project for us and we’d like to make it happen sooner rather than later.”

The new Social Safeway is just one component of the company’s redevelopment strategy for the District. After opening a new flagship store at City Vista this past September, the national supermarket chain announced a new initiative that would see them renovate all of their 17 DC locations by 2011 and add two new stores, as well – one for Petworth, and another at South Dakota Avenue and Riggs Road NE. Plans for a new Georgetown store were not specified in their announcement.