JBG/Ross Gains Momentum at 4900 Fairmont Avenue

The new mixed-use project at 4900 Fairmont Avenue in Bethesda looks to have a clear path to approval, with the site plan going to the Maryland Parks and Planning Commission next week, with an eye towards pulling permits in Q3 2012, and breaking ground in Q1 2013. Located across from Veteran's Park, the forthcoming tower represents a major step in the ongoing revitalization of the Woodmont Triangle area.

Representatives from lead developer JBG revealed many details about the mixed-use (but mostly residential) building at a community meeting on Thursday night. The seventeen story building, designed by the Preston Partnership, is projected to have 236 dwellings (rentals, with 15% MPDU), 6500 s.f. of retail space, and 3.5 levels of underground parking.

The design for the new building incorporates a large flat panel/bay window on each face, bookended by glass towers on the corners. According to Mark Lange, principal at Preston, the central panels are meant to “inspire recollections of more traditional Bethesda buildings,” and if you squint, they do resemble the boxier designs of a bygone era. The ground floor retail faces mostly east, onto Norfolk, and a 4300 s.f. roof area will include a pool, changing rooms, and views down Wisconsin towards the District. Of course, this is the second plan for the site. The original site plan was very similar to the present plan, but impeded access to the adjacent county parking garage, creating a narrow, potentially unsafe passageway from the street to the garage. When JBG became a venture partner with Ross/CIM, they took a fresh look at the plans and shifted the building's footprint east, creating a wide “paseo” along the west side of the building that would double as a path to the parking garage and as community space. Only one problem – there was no garage entrance there. Luckily, after meeting with county officials at the site, developers were able to convince them to allow a renovation.

The Woodmont Triangle area was once, in attorney Bob Dalrymple's words, “ground zero not long ago,” but much of the energy has moved southwards in the past several years. A recent zoning plan amendment was the city's first attempt at revitalizing the area, and just across Fairmont is Bainbridge Bethesda (formerly the Monty), also a 17-story building, and the first project using the new standards of the zone. (Excavation on the Bainbridge site is just about halfway done, so expect to see cranes soon.) The amendment encourages new, denser development (read: residential), though even with the new zoning standards, 4900 had to purchase density rights from four nearby buildings.

But not everyone was happy with the project as laid out at the meeting. Representatives of a property across Fairmont protested that the shifting of the front entrance from Fairmont to Norfolk would “create dead space and turn Fairmont from a retail street into a service street.” After observing the new building would reduce the amount of retail space from around twenty thousand square feet to less than seven thousand, they went on to note the new design could worsen an already dicey traffic situation. These representatives claimed the placement of 4900's loading dock directly across from Bainbridge's loading dock would virtually guarantee daytime gridlock, citing deliveries and trash removal, and also noted that even a 5% vacancy rate could translate to as many as 300 moves a year, further slowing traffic.

Another local, who lives at the nearby 14-story Triangle Towers, was concerned that the taller 174-foot-tall 4900 Fairmont building would cast a shadow over Triangle's rooftop pool. (Though it wasn't available at the meeting, Dalrymple assured him they'd done a complete shade study.) The local also noted the new building could block radio and satellite dish reception in Triangle. (Some at the meeting laughed; the local replied it was no trivial matter to people who live there.) The citizen went on to say he was only there to give the developers something to think about, not to stop the project, which is just as well. Along with Stonebridge's oft-delayed-but-still-inevitable Lot 31 project and their development of the former Trillium site, and the Bainbridge Bethesda (nee the Monty), the redevelopment of Woodmont Triangle is looking unstoppable.

(One final note - because of the way the new building is designed, it will have a Norfolk Avenue address. Goodbye to 4900 Fairmont.)

Bethesda, Maryland real estate development news

Today in Pictures - Views at Clarendon

The Views at Clarendon is now complete after two years of construction and 5 years of lawsuits. The building was a collaboration between Arlington County, which lent money to the project, the First Baptist Church of Clarendon as the landowner, and the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH). The project began construction in October of 2009, tacking on a high-rise of 46 market-rate and 70 subsidized units to the existing church. Now ready for rentals, the residential portion has been christened Vpoint Apartments, with the first tenant scheduled to move in tomorrow. According to a spokesman for the community, 45 of the apartments have already been preleased.










Arlington, VA real estate development news. Photos by Rey Lopez.

Safeway Tries Again With Revamped Tenleytown Design

Officials from Safeway, Torti Gallas and Clark Realty Capital unveiled more renderings of its planned Tenleytown site last night - with once again, decidedly mixed community reviews.

Plans to replace the backwards-facing Safeway store at 42nd and Davenport, which has cheekily shown its veteran rump to Wisconsin Avenue passersby for the better part of thirty years, have been in place since August 2009. But opposition from the Office of Planning and the neighborhood ANC over an above-ground parking garage forced Safeway to suspend the project in January 2010.

Now Safeway, and its architects have returned with a newer, scaled down version, with the 56,000 square-foot store being folded in to a five-story complex with 184 apartments, 14 town homes and more than 140 spaces 0f underground parking for customers. There will also be dedicated parking for residents.

Still, a few in the Northwest DC community that is well known for its opposition to development on Wisconsin Avenue, worried about adding such high-density housing and traffic to a the single-family neighborhood, fear additional traffic and delivery trucks on nearby narrow residential streets such as Ellicott and Davenport.

"There is a great deal of concern on the density of the units," said Tenleytown residents Adam Rubinson, who attended Safeway's Jan. 18 unveiling at St. Mary Armenian Apostolic Church. "The concern is pretty much unanimous," he said in an interview.

Rubinson wants to see a "stepped-back" design along Davenport so as not to overwhelm its neighbors across the street. Safeway and Torti Gallas say they have done just that with a design that will top the trees in the neighborhood but not block sunlight during morning and evening hours.

Rubinson wants to see the height of the project, currently 79 feet, lowered to no more than 55 feet, with one story below grade, similar to that of the brand-spanking new Whole Foods along Willard Avenue in Chevy Chase, less than a mile away. "There are plenty of developers who are willing to do just that," he asserted.

Improving the look and size of the store is key for Safeway in a suddenly uber-competitive market like Washington D.C. Unionized middle-market grocery chains such as Safeway and Giant, even with their single-digit profit margins, once ruled the roost in D.C., where shoppers had little choice but to tolerate dirty stores, bare shelves, long lines and surly staff.

Now amid an influx of higher-end choices such as Whole Foods and Harris Teeter, the Safeways of the world must upgrade their legacy stores to keep pace with a changing market. "Everyone who sells food is a competitor," says Safeway spokesman Craig Muckle. Often they are stuck in between high-end but non-union grocery chains like Whole Foods and Wegmans that can charge a premium for their quality and variety, and low-cost producers like Wal-Mart, with the volume and a non-union workforce to wring additional profits out of food shoppers.

The 35,000 square foot Tenleytown Safeway, which first opened in 1957 and was remodeled in 1981, is no exception, facing competition from the aforementioned, newly-constructed Whole Foods in Chevy Chase, an existing Whole Foods in Tenleytown and a remodeled Giant Food along Western Ave. in Chevy Chase.

Muckle says if all goes well, the project could break ground in 2014. Safeway had hoped to start on the new Tenleytown Safeway once retail construction adjacent the Georgetown "Social" Safeway was completed, but now will have to wait. Torti Gallas is also the architect on that project as well. The 200-plus United Food and Commercial Workers members who work at the store will be "farmed out" to other stores during the reconstruction, according to UFCW Local 400 Secretary Mark Federici.

The debate over the size of the store and its accompanying town home and apartment developments threatens to devolve into the protracted tug-of-war that surrounded the redevelopment of the Newark Street Giant.

That store, just a mile further south on Wisconsin Ave, saw organized neighborhood resistance for the better part of a decade before the Bozzuto Group got the OK to start construction on a new 56,000 square foot facility this spring. Rubison says he hopes the Tenleytown Safeway development process doesn't go down that path.

"I think if Safeway can make some reasonable compromises, the chances of that happening are close to zero," said Rubinson. "But if they take a hard line, especially on the overall massing of the building and the number of units, and residential parking, I could see this getting mired in delays."

Safeway plans another question-and-answer session on Feb. 2 in the lobby of the Tenleytown Safeway between 6:30pm and 8:30pm.

Washington D.C. real estate development news.

Just Stepped Out

By Beth Herman

When a recent story on staircases from around the world piqued the interest and curiosity of readers, DCMud decided to explore what the District’s own native sons and daughters of architecture and design could offer to the mix, with results that ran the gamut from edgy to resourceful to sublime.

Using materials such as painted steel with Douglas fir, or maple, chestnut and etched glass, area architects have climbed up and stepped out way ahead of the pack, melding the practical with the magical, taking the concept of a necessary staircase to a whole new level.

Cabin (John) in the sky

For Principal Bob Wilkoff of Archaeon, Inc. Architects, the expanse of the firm’s office building in Cabin John, Md. was limited due to a tight lot. A structure designed to preserve and accommodate an existing 60-foot tall Sycamore tree and restrictive front yard setback demanded a spiral stair, but as it was an office with considerable traffic, the architect made the staircase 7-feet, 6-inches in diameter for comfort. Shop painted steel construction with helix handrails provides contrast to the grid of 49 18-by-18-inch windows. Treads are ribbed industrial rubber flooring.

Turret trumps all

When expanding a 1940s Tudor structure for a family in NW D.C., Wilkoff created a 6-foot diameter steel spiral stair that descends from the second floor master bedroom suite to the first floor family room. Located behind glass French doors to mitigate sound, carpeted treads in a fully glazed turret complete the airborne design.

Soaring solarium

For Principal Amy Gardner of Gardner Mohr Architects LLC, a uniquely renovated 21-foot high 1969 solarium—part of a D.C. residence—called for a staircase redolent of light and lightness. “The idea for the stair was to make a simple sculptural zigzag shape that appears to float,” Gardner said, noting the area under the stair blends into the floor, helping it appear to do so. Maple treads and risers with polished edges, and especially a translucent etched glass and steel handrail with stainless steel glass clips, add an additional lofty quality to the design.

Stairway to heaven

When renovating a Potomac, Md. residence—essentially a retreat for its occupants—a wooden tower with meditation and massage rooms and a lower level gym were included. McInturff Architects featured a staircase that connects the home’s three levels made of painted steel and Douglas fir, with maple stair treads, backed with Galvalume sheet steel.

Halo Linea low-voltage track lighting is built into a slot in the steel structure of the stair.

Cold at the top

In purchasing and reimagining their own “profoundly mediocre” 1960s standard developer-type home in Winchester, Va., architects Chuck Swartz and Beth Reader of Reader & Swartz Architects concede their staircase is the “most curious” on which they’ve ever worked.

“You can stand on top of the refrigerator that way, which seems like a ridiculous thing to do, except there are books up there,” Swartz said.

Addressing a technical problem with brick veneer on the sides of the building that just stopped at one point, the two gable ends were skeletonized so that they were just studs. Two-by-fours running horizontally were located every four feet, with structural insulated panels on the outside of the building. “We then over-windowed it,” Swartz said.

Left with a skeleton inside on the gable ends, shelves were created off of two-by-two’s that ran horizontally so the gable ends became large libraries. The end without the staircase is served by a rolling ladder from an old telephone building, as Swartz’s father worked for the telephone company.

At the other end, a very large refrigerator was obtained as Swartz loves to cook, encased in a birch veneer red-stained plywood box. An alternating tread staircase was positioned on the side of it, allowing the occupants to walk up and climb on top of the refrigerator to access all the books.

Additionally, the staircase becomes a kind of a sculpture in and of itself, featuring alternating treads and maple shelves as they ascend, held together by red oak that’s stained black. It also acts as a graduated display for art, artifacts and family objects.

A place for us

In Frederick County, Va., another singular Reader & Swartz staircase has several things going for it, among them bleachers made out of chestnut, which is the same as the floor, and which go up to the landing. “They stop so the children in the household can play or you can display things on them,” Swartz explained.

In addition, every other tread—the treads that are not the bleachers—are little maple rafts that sit on them and look like small crates. Once you get to the landing, the part that gets you all the way to the second floor is steel and open treads of the same maple. “It’s a way to think of a staircase as a little stage or amphitheater, or a place to sit and think about whether some of the pieces of the staircase can be different than others and still meet the building code,” Swartz quipped.

Some photos courtesy of Anice Hoachlander and Ron Blunt. 

Today in Pictures - Skyland

While the District government struggles to rid Skyland of its owners and tenants in order to make way for a more contemporary shopping destination by turning it over to developer Rappaport, the outdated shopping center looks ever more dilapidated and forlorn.














Washington D.C. real estate development news

Skyland Struggles Towards Uncertain Timeline

With the specter of a Wal-Mart vs. Safeway showdown over a decade-old exclusivity covenant having receded, the District can get back to resolving the many other issues standing in the way of the Skyland redevelopment in Southeast DC, a top priority of Mayor Vincent Gray’s embattled administration. But can Skyland overcome the many hurdles it faces?

Safeway, one of the District’s top private employers (15 stores), and high-profile retail anchor Wal-Mart squared off in November over an agreement Safeway had entered into with the owners of the shopping center, Skyland LLC, to bar certain types of competitors from the property after Safeway relocated to a nearby shopping center. Each side issued bland statements but retained powerful advisors; Safeway hired Maryland lobbyist Bruce Bereano, famously an ex-fraternity brother of Mayor Gray, and Wal-Mart hired David Wilmot, a local dealmaker who co-hosted a fundraiser with Mayor Gray just last month. Fast-forward a couple of days, and the matter was suddenly settled.

"A covenant exists on one lot of the many that comprise the Skyland redevelopment site," says Nimita Shah, Project Manager in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) by way of clarification. “The District is in discussions with Safeway about the removal of the covenant and anticipates a resolution in the upcoming year. However, it is important to note that the Safeway covenant noted above will have no impact on the proposed Wal-Mart that is to be included in the redevelopment, given that its placement on the site is outside of the affected lot.”

Either no one at Safeway or Wal-Mart actually read the covenant before throwing down their respective gauntlets, or the issue was quietly resolved through backroom horsetrading (the very sort of thing that Gray denounced when he pledged to bring transparency to the mayor's office). At any rate, with this issue put to bed, does this mean that Skyland faces a clear runway to approval and groundbreaking? Far from it.

Since first seizing Skyland in 2005 by invoking eminent domain, the District has spent over $12 million on settlements. Three more tenants settled in 2011 – Hong Kong Inn, Hilltop Cleaners, and New York Fried Chicken – leaving perhaps as few as one holdout, though according to the District there are over a dozen tenants are still operating at Skyland. “Fifteen tenants remain in operation at Skyland," says Shah. “The District is in the process of working will all of the remaining tenants to coordinate their relocations over the upcoming year.”

Everyone out by the end of 2012? Count Elaine Mittleman, an attorney who represents several Skyland tenants, among the skeptics. Mittleman contends the eminent domain proceedings have been slipshod and disorganized. “Wild ineptitude,” Mittleman snaps when asked to characterize the District’s handling of Skyland. Mittleman also provided DCMud with extensive correspondence between herself and the District that seems to raise questions about who holds the titles to seized Skyland properties, as well as concerns about the eventual turnover of Skyland to private developers, one of whom is a close associate of Mayor Gray’s, and has done repairs at his home.

Serious questions also remain regarding the project itself. There’s no firm consensus on whether Skyland is in fact a viable site for redevelopment; critics have pointed to the lack of public transportation options (the nearest Metro station, Anacostia, is a mile and a half away) and an already dicey traffic situation. There are also multiple competing projects in Southeast – St. Elizabeths East, Poplar Point, and Kenilworth-Parkside, just to name a few - as well as another Walmart planned nearby, on East Capitol Street. In the face of these doubts, the conventional wisdom is that with millions and years spent and so many promises made – none more than by the present administration - the District can hardly back out now.

Or can it?

People who point to the 2005 Supreme Court ruling that empowered the city of New London to oust intransigent homeowners so they could build a Pfizer plant as proof that Skyland is all but inevitable, overlook the fact that the Pfizer plant was never actually built. The drawn-out process of settling with and vacating tenants, as well as appeals and the administrative labyrinth of state seizure of property, can often outlast the patience of prospective tenants. Before Wal-Mart agreed to anchor Skyland, a similar Target deal fell through. Who's to say Wal-Mart won't walk, if litigation drags on for another year or three? Is Mayor Gray prepared to

follow through on his threat to block Wal-Mart's four other stores in the District if they don't put one in Skyland?

Some cite the possibility that the District's resolve on Skyland is, at least in part, opportunistic. If it comes together, it will be a victory for some mayor's scorecard. But if it doesn't, that mayor (like the last three) can still curry favor with the voters of Southeast by telling them he tried. In fact, the prospect of a mayor fighting the good fight on behalf of the city's least-served quadrant, only to be stymied by other forces, is arguably a more valuable asset in a general election than a mere shopping center, however big and shiny. But the Mayor has been personally advancing the cause of Skyland to private businesses that might have a stake in the proposed development.

Elaine Mittleman disagreed with this cynical view of things – with conditions. Mittleman believes that the District sincerely wants Skyland, and wants it badly, but just got in over their heads. “The District courts rubber-stamped everything, basically, and there was never any comprehensive plan, just a back of the envelope thing,” Mittleman says. “It seems like they have just not put in the proper effort. It seems like they just magically thought it would happen.”

For their part, lead developer The Rappaport Companies, who won rights to Skyland way back in 2002, doesn’t seem the least bit perturbed by these latest developments, either stoically patient or just resigned to sticking it out for the long haul.

“The Skyland project is definitely gaining momentum, and the Mayor has made this a priority,” said Sheryl Simeck, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Rappaport. “But it is still too early in the process for us to be able to supply construction dates," (despite Mayor Gray's prediction it would break ground last year.) "The District continues to work on resolving the outstanding legal issues involving eminent domain. Development cannot start until these last few issues are resolved.” At this time, no one is prepared to say when that will be.

Washington D.C. real estate development news