You can see it will be massed as a "C" shape building, and - if all goes as planned - will share an enhanced 10,865 SF public space with next-door neighbor Bainbridge Bethesda apartments. According to a letter to the Montgomery County Planning Department, the developer has already met with representatives of the Bainbridge to begin those discussions.
The sketch plan proposes up to 32 MPDUs, using a higher 15% affordable housing standard than the Montgomery County requirement of 12.5%.
While the current address of the development site is considered 4931 Fairmont Avenue, the future building's lobby will be on St. Elmo Avenue, as will its 4-level underground parking garage entrance. The tower's loading dock will be on Fairmont, however.
Construction would not begin until mid-2016 or 2017, attorney Steve Robins said in August.
Other than the sad news that Chef Tony's and Pizza Pass would have to be demolished prior to construction, most indications seem promising for this project. It will provide high density near Metro, has proposed higher than the required amounts of parking and affordable units, and could create an enhanced public gathering space. What would really make that work best would be if the St. Elmo and the Bainbridge can get some restaurants to lease in their ground floors, so that there will be activity over a greater range of hours, as opposed to a bank or shop that closes at 5 or 6 in the evening. The revitalization of that block of Fairmont Avenue seems stalled out at the present, with no tenants in the Bainbridge ground floor yet, and other future towers still under construction (7770 Norfolk) or in the works (former BP gas station at Fairmont and Old Georgetown Road).
WHEN YOU'RE HAVING BREAKFAST, JUST LOOK STRAIGHT ACROSS THE COURTYARD...
ReplyDelete...SHAKIN' MY GROOVE THANG, YEAH YEAH
NICE VIEW HURR HURR HURR
How exciting!
ReplyDeleteThose windows are going to be awful close to each other with Bainbridge. And we thought Gallery and Triangle Towers was close!
It's a shame they didn't talk to Bainbridge earlier to plan that shared public space. All that effort money artwork etc will have to come down I assume.
That public space slant still really sucks. Drinks slide off the tables at the current slope.
Hope the retail spaces are a bit better planned than Bainbridge. One of their doors opens right into a pillar! What a wasted community space that could have been more connected to the public space too. Or more retail. At least with Gallery they mentioned that first floor gym has future plans of moving upstairs and adding more ground floor retail.
Are there any more Greenhill properties on that part of the block, on which they can drop crap and undermine?
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't Greenhill take down that wall by Bainbridge? What a block killer! Ugly painting too. And what a freaking self love fest with Greenhill Way. Lol.
DeleteYeah that wall is terribly blocking the continuation of Fairmont for pedestrians! And the painting is not very pleasant.
DeleteThat whole mess with the wall, loading dock, and different level sidewalk is a disaster. This lack of continuity in woodmont Triangle really hurts the likelihood of activating this area.
Deleteheh! good luck with stabilizing the ground like what happened with Bainbridge.....
ReplyDeleteSeeing as how I'm sure this commentator and most of us don't understand the actual issues, any one with insight or knowledge able to explain what exactly happened with the Banbridge ground issues and surrounding buildings?
DeleteBainbridge destabilized the neighboring buildings which were then evacuated and have been closed off since.
ReplyDeleteThere are concerns all over the downtown about this happening again because of all of the construction activity.
The nightmare scenario would be for a Bainbridge type outfit to destabilize the foundations of a residential building, thus forcing hundreds out of their homes.
Any structural engineers able to weigh in? Seems there have been a ton of downtown bethesda projects without this problem. How come Bainbridge had to deal with the issue?
DeleteI'm actually more worried about Robert becoming increasingly unstable.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense that companies stay away from him and don't invite him.
DeleteThe excavation support system was probably underdesigned to save money. Once the structure is built that issue is no longer a concern so I'm surprised Greenhill hasn't done anything with Fresh Grill yet.
ReplyDeleteSo why isn't Robert clutching his pearls over "concrete canyons" here?
ReplyDelete11:59 Because A) This is in an urban area by Metro, and B) I'm not wearing pearls.
DeleteLOL good one
ReplyDeleteDoes 11:59AM live in Bethesda or ever visited?! Downtown Bethesda and Westbard have no similarity.
ReplyDelete