Wednesday, May 28, 2014

SANDY SPRING BANK LEASES SPACE AT 7550 WISCONSIN AVENUE

A 140-year-old local financial institution will be the second tenant in the vacant, Class A office building at 7550 Wisconsin Avenue, in downtown Bethesda. Sandy Spring Bank has leased second floor office space in the Akridge-owned property, and is constructing a financial center for its trust, private banking, commercial banking and mortgage divisions. HITT Contracting is working on the project.

In addition, Sandy Spring will open a bank branch on the building's first floor. That bank should open in the late 3rd or early 4th quarter of 2014, according to a Sandy Spring spokesperson.

7550 Wisconsin has been struggling to attract tenants since its completion over a year ago, recently aiming for smaller tenants by dividing the fourth floor into sections. The building is not alone in Montgomery County; the overall office market is weak countywide, with no major corporations showing any interest in moving here. Given that situation, we are fortunate to have smaller-but-successful banks like Sandy Spring and Bethesda's EagleBank, to put some stimulus into the local economy. Another local company, L-Soft, became the first tenant about 3 weeks ago, capitalizing on the county's lease incentives for smaller spaces.
The new lobby of 7550 Wisconsin

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

All the additional office space in Bethesda being built may face the same fate of few tenants. Large offices for big companies are fast going into history. Most organizations are headed towards smaller offices, open concepts and work-at-home some days. Are they building buddy whips?

Jason Yang said...

Is Sandy Spring Bank keeping their branch at Miller Avenue? Is this a possible sign of a new building at that spot?

All these banks are good and all for many reasons but killing night time vibrancy with these dead blocks in the evening.

Anonymous said...

The floorplans may change (cubicles are out, open spaces are in), but don't tell me large offices for major corporations are going away.

Capital One just got approval for a new headquarters in Tysons that will be the tallest office building in the DC metro area. They've run out of space in their current Tysons HQ!

And Capital One has good jobs. Why do MoCo residents have to drive out of the county each morning to DC and VA for work?

Anonymous said...

"Why do MoCo residents have to drive out of the county each morning to DC and VA for work?"

MoCo has more jobs than it has workforce. Sure, plenty of MoCo residents have a job outside the county, but that's the same for every other jurisdiction as well (obviously). Definitionally, we have more people coming into MoCo to work than leaving it to go work.

Robert Dyer said...

11:39 Are there any data to support the idea that more people come into MoCo to work each day than go out, that I can review?

Anonymous said...

MD labor dept (and US census bureau) provides workforce figures as well as private, nonfarm payroll facts (which don't include govt jobs) for the county. The county and state have facts on govt employers to supplement the private numbers. I don't know of a resource that outlines the number of farmers in MD - oh well.

Overall, the number of jobs found in MoCo exceeds the workforce size. The county even releases figures on how many of its residents travel out of the county to work (which seems like a silly exercise, though it's actually pertinent here). I don't know if other jurisdictions provide the same info.

Steve D. said...

I think the more pertinent stat is what percentage of middle or upper income residents work in the county? That would tell us how well the county is attracting high skill/pay jobs.

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