RELIC NIGHTCLUB BUILDING TO BE AUCTIONED OFF

FORECLOSURE FINAL BLOW TO

SHUTTERED BETHESDA 

NIGHTSPOT

Another Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row Exclusive

The saga of the beleagured Relic nightclub will reach an end on Thursday, August 9, at high noon.  At that moment, the small building that houses the club and office space at 4936 Fairmont Avenue will be auctioned off to the highest bidder, on the sidewalk out front.

Apparently, Montgomery County's seizure of the club's liquor license - which forced its indefinite closure - sent the building into foreclosure when the property owner defaulted on the mortgage, according to Craig Haughton and Nina Basu, who have been named substitute trustees of the property.

The 15,000 square foot property continues to house several offices, as you can tell by scanning the lobby directory.

Thinking of placing a bid?  You'll need $100,000 cash or certified funds if you win.

The property has potential for either a long-term investor, or a large developer.  Someone wanting to run a nightclub or restaurant - and who has the capital and patience to wait 5 years for the rebirth of dilapidated and deserted Fairmont Avenue - will be rewarded with a prime spot in the new Old Bethesda.

Developers might be interested in the property, if they can buy adjoining plots to allow for a larger, mixed use development.

Whatever the future of this building, this block of Fairmont is dead, dead, dead right now, and not a street people like to venture down after dark.  Of course, that's because pro-developer tax and planning policies by the county have indirectly forced out many of the street's tenants.  Although Relic has been the source of many complaints, the tearing-up of its liquor license certainly came at a most convenient time.  The shark fins are circling most of the mom-and-pop shops on the most promising avenues across Old Town Bethesda.

So far, nearby residents have been displeased by the project proposed at Fairmont's corner with Norfolk.  A primary complaint is the developer's plan to have an "inactive" street level (i.e. no restaurants or shops to activate the area after business hours).  I share their concerns.  This block is one of the darkest and loneliest at night in town, and the entrance to the street should not be essentially a Berlin Wall.

As I've said many times, with little room to develop downcounty, it is imperative that the Planning Board ensures the most added value from each and every project it approves.  And the maximum height and density within walking distance from Metro in downtown Bethesda.

Otherwise, many of those projects will suffer the same fate as 4936 Fairmont Avenue, in the not-so-distant future.