Montgomery County Development News

[Htay9500]

Originally Posted by bamboo stick

No, that space is a hotel project that's on hold. This project is going to be built ON TOP of the Texaco.

Thats going to be replaced?! It looks good, the project, I wonder what will be next for Bethesda.

[Dank City]

New Plan for Mid-Pike Plaza:


This includes 5 buildings over 200ft including one 280ft tall building. Here is a link to a pdf outlining the entire proposal: http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/co...esentation.pdf

[sovman]

That looks fantastic.

[rockin'.baltimorean]

talk about massive!

[sovman]

Something I really like is the dedicated transit ROW they've got in the middle of rockville pike. That'd be really great, I hope the county goes for something like that.

[Infoman]

MoCo really likes having multiple skylines, and so do I....

[hpal3]

Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sovman]

With all of the high density projects going up there, white flint is going to turn into quite an interesting downtown

[adelphi_sky]

Good luck in filling all those condos and apartments during a glut of single family homes available. What's going to bring all of those people to Rockville? IS the new Rockville Town Center and Bethesda Row 100% leased already? That's a lot of dense residences in an area that already has a lot of dense residences.

[sovman]

Well, about half of it is office space, and it's directly across the street from the metro, so it's quite an attractive area to live if you don't like being stuck in a car all day. Though, I do wonder if they've fully saturated the market already, because they're building so many new apartments and condos in that area...

*edit* I just found this link on the Gazette website. Apparently Rockville Town Square's apartments and condos are "nearly" full. Dunno about Bethesda Row though.

[Dank City]

This is on a site adjacent to the Twinbrook Station Town Center that JBG is currently building and right next to a 7 story office building under construction by Uniwest. The new FDA Pharmacopoeia is also on the next block...


FDA Office Gets Residential Revamp in Rockville

The developers of AvalonBay Communities Inc. are nearing the end of two years plus of planning for the redevelopment of the US Food and Drug Administration offices at 12720 Twinbrook Parkway in Rockville. The 32-year-old, 50, 235 square foot "office/flex industrial building" currently on site will soon be razed to make way for the Avalon at Twinbrook Station – a new, SK&I-designed residential complex that will add 240 units to the rental market.

"We've been presenting this plan to the neighborhood for the past two years and, essentially, now we’re [entering] the formal approval process. The City of Rockville was going through an entire…master plan recreation for Twinbrook neighborhood,” said John Cox, a Senior Vice President at Avalon Bay, of the project’s origins. “When they created the new Twinbrook neighborhood plan, [the City] endorsed our use on the site.”

With the backing of both the local community and city planners, the development team will deliver more than two hundred apartments – ranging in size from 450 square foot studios to 1200 square foot two-bedroom "lofts" – with 12.5% set aside for affordable housing. The bulk of Twinbrook Station will top out at four-stories, but also include a portion that steps down to a three-story “townhome façade along the majority of Halpine Road.” It’s a design scheme that has allowed the developers to conceal the project’s parking garage by surrounding it with residential units on three sides – with the exception being a portion abutting the future site of 7-story office building currently in development by Uniwest Commercial Realty.

AvalonBay will soon be submitting their final site plan to the Rockville City Council for approval and is planning for construction to get underway late next summer. “I don’t believe there is a scheduled hearing date yet, but, obviously, we’ve had numerous meetings with [City Council] staff and public committees,” said Cox. “We’re thinking [we’ll start in] probably the third quarter of 2010.

[Htay9500]

Refresh my memory of where mid-pike is?

[sovman]

Mid-Pike Plaza is the shopping center at the corner of Montrose and 355... it's got a Toys R Us, AC Moore, and a Linens N Things. It's also got a gigantic parking lot...

[Htay9500]

Originally Posted by sovman

Mid-Pike Plaza is the shopping center at the corner of Montrose and 355... it's got a Toys R Us, AC Moore, and a Linens N Things. It's also got a gigantic parking lot...

Yay now I remember! I hope the construction around that intersection is complete sometime soon.

[sovman]

I think it's probably gonna be another year or so before they finish

[Dank City]

JBG Seeks Approval for Bethesda Row Development Tonight

The JBG Companies will make a return appearance before the Montgomery County Planning Board tonight to seek Preliminary Project Plan approval for both phases of their Woodmont East mixed-used development in the Bethesda Central Business District. Located at the northeast side of Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues and wedged directly on one of the last vacant parcel adjoining the Bethesda Row development, the project had previously been approved for 78,300 square feet of office space, 40,350 square feet of retail, a 225 room hotel, and 250 multi-family residential units in two towers.

In the first news to come of the project since it was first announced in 2007, JBG has apparently scrapped plans for the hotel and is seeking consent for a re-jiggered development scheme with a whopping 208,579 square feet of office space, a diminutive 9,000 square feet of retail, and 250 residential units that will, in the words of the Planning Board, continue “the successful theme of mixed retail, restaurant and office uses along ‘Bethesda Row.’” The building once intended to house the hotel will instead be utilized as an office tower and the Thymes Square restaurant next door to the site at 4735 Bethesda Avenue will be razed to make way for the development.
Planning Board staff has already granted pre-approval to all three of portions of the plan. The scenario was much the same – staff approval included – when JBG presented their plan to the Board in November 2007, shortly after leasing the property from Bethesda Row developer Federal Realty Trust. In surprise move, the Board wound up denying their application, following complaints from the community about detrimental affects to the Capital Crescent Trail system and encroachment upon the neighboring movie theater. Federal Realty Trust also tried but failed to get approval for a nearly identical project at the site just weeks before that fateful turn of events.

JBG representatives would not comment on the development until after the scheduled April 30th hearing.

[Htay9500]

I'm pretty sure this will go planned as thought, thus parking in Bethesda will be a bitch to visitors...

[Infoman]

[bamboo stick]

Originally Posted by Htay9500

I'm pretty sure this will go planned as thought, thus parking in Bethesda will be a bitch to visitors...

Parking is easy. There are plenty of garages to replace the (very ugly) surface parking, and this development will have its own parking.

[hpal3]

damn sticky!!