We gave up a convenient US Post Office for this?! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, here is the site of the former Arlington Road post office in downtown Bethesda.
There's no tower crane yet, but there is a lot of mud, junk and... possibly the least profitable Pepsi vending machine location in America.
This is the Pepsi Generation in MoCo: developers and politicians laughing all the way to the bank, while taxpayers are walking all the way to the poorly chosen new post office site.
The post office closure decision joins New Coke, the new MySpace and the Microsoft Zune in the "What were they thinking?" file.
USPS real estate guy at public meeting: "Uh, we need surface parking, and loading docks, and room to turn 18-wheelers around."
You just described the facility you just tore down! This is sheer lunacy.
In Clarendon, they incorporated a new condo (The Phoenix) into a site with a large post office.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why MoCo didn't do something like that here?
The developer actually offered USPS space, but they declined to take it. But that should have been non-negotiable for approval of this deal by the MoCo Planning Board and County Council. What happened?
DeleteUh, I don't think the county can require a developer to include a specific tenant (especially one that doesn't want to be there.) That's the law. So that's probably what happened.
ReplyDeleteUh, this was a zoning change, which meant the planning board and county council held all the cards. This wasn't J.R. Ewing buying an oil field in the Wild West. You're talking about closing every post office in a town with a large senior population, and a theoretically "walkable" downtown.
DeleteIt happened in this case that most of the moving parts were in public, government hands. Therefore, the responsibility was on those hands.
The idea that the county council's hands are guided by an Ayn Rand/frontier spirit in all its actions is truly comical. Let's hope they apply their Mitt Romney/Adam Smith rollicking "the market is self-regulating" principles to the other 99.9% of their work, like attracting jobs to MoCo. Fairfax and Loudoun counties are killing us in that department.
The Clarendon Post Office/Phoenix Condo project was award winning.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad we couldn't get a win-win like that here in Bethesda.
We need to be more innovative in projects!
Yeah, I thought the council and planning staff were telling us we had to be "just like Clarendon." Not in this respect, apparently. "Innovative project in Montgomery County" is the textbook definition of an oxymoron, as most honest businesspeople will tell you in candid settings.
DeleteThose images from the condos in Arlington are really nice! Are these building already done?
ReplyDeleteis there going to build a condo ?
ReplyDeletewhat is going on here ?
Real Estate Miami | Miami Condos
I'm excited to see the end product of this project. I'm sure it's as good and amazing as these apartments for rent Atlanta.
ReplyDeleteI am quite excited for this project. I will surely like to take one room for myself from this apartment.
ReplyDeleteBusiness office space | Office for rent