One new detail is that the office and residential towers, on Wisconsin Avenue and Elm Street respectively, will sit atop a shared podium that will hold building entrances, retail and restaurant space and parking facilities for both. That parking arrangement is critical to the sketch plan amendment.
In that amendment, the developer is asking for a height increase from 250' to 290', on the legal basis that the 40' tall, four-level above-grade parking garage permits the height of such garages to be added to the maximum height of the project itself. Zoning Text Amendment 16-08, passed by the County Council, allows this height increase in exchange for the proposed garage, because the layout of the site does not allow for 4 levels of below-grade parking. The cross-section renderings do show three levels of below-grade parking, in addition to the 4 above-grade decks.
New details about the architecture of the project have been revealed. For the Wisconsin Avenue office tower, a five-story retail and parking base will sit beneath a "series of glass boxes" that alternate going up, so to allow for terraces. Behind that segment will be a more-traditionally massed part of the office tower, which will be closer to 290' (that full 290' height appears to be placed even further back, in the residential tower). The alternating front portion will not be as tall, in an attempt to address criticism from residents of Chevy Chase.
While primarily massed along Elm Street, the residential building will front on the Wisconsin Avenue plaza. A skybridge will connect its two towers, which will share a 4-to-6 story base. Interestingly, Carr is employing a number of "townhouse-like" residential units along the structured parking in that base, a trend first seen in the Flats 8300 development further up Wisconsin.
View from sidewalk at Barnes and Noble on Woodmont Avenue |
Carr has also received conditional approval from the Historic Preservation Commission to relocate the historic Community Paint and Hardware building from the Apex site to Public Parking Lot 41 on Middleton Lane. The developer has said the temporary removal of the building is necessary in order to construct the large below-grade space for a movie theater tenant. Carr is negotiating with Regal Cinemas, which has the contractual right to have first consideration for the new theater space. For those interested, Carr continues to commit to having easy pedestrian access to the new development from the Woodmont Plaza below (where Haagen Dazs and the Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema are located).
The current numbers for the project stand as follows, if approved by the Planning Board: two 290' towers, 360800 SF of office space (Marriott is the most-rumored tenant, but the hotel giant will not publicly announce the location of its new Bethesda headquarters and hotel until next year), 14572 SF of retail and restaurant space (including the cineplex), and 480 residential units, 15% of which will be affordable MPDUs. There will be 7500 SF of public space, 5% more than is required by the County, and Carr has agreed to not include patio dining space in its calculation of that number.
While the County Council and Planning Board failed to require a replacement theater be included in the project, the developer is wise to try to get Regal or a competitor on board. With a new IMAX-quality cineplex, and the right array of dining options on the plaza level, Carr's development would be a serious competitor for the adjacent Bethesda Row development. Without the theater? Not so much.
November 2016 revised traffic study |
View into entrance of CCT bike facility under 7272 Wisconsin |
Two-level bike facility with ramp access from CCT; the facility will include parking for more than 250 bikes |
Tail tracks for Purple Line shown at Woodmont Plaza end of tunnel/station |
A central feature will be this public plaza at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Elm Street |
Overall, assuming the movie theater remains part of the new development, this is a very promising project atop two rail stations. If Marriott moves into the site, it is likely to be one of the premiere properties in the D.C. region, and a new signature building for downtown Bethesda.
10 comments:
Any thought on how they would accommodate the 700,000 SF Marriott office program and the hotel? Perhaps combined wth other neighboring sites?
6:14: Yeah, I've heard that idea of splitting off some of the offices if necessary. They do have 7200 Wisconsin right there, and the JBG office tower coming soon around the corner next to Dean and DeLuca. I suppose they could also convert some of the residential portion to office with an amendment later, as well, if they landed Marriott. I don't know if the 7 levels of parking suggests Marriott is coming there, or if they would have had that many regardless.
I figure with Marriott, these are people with a tremendous amount of experience at this and they probably know exactly how to configure things depending which site they choose.
Furthermore, do you have any thoughts on how a coordinated development of Woodmont Plaza could occur? I have seen some plans for a linear paved plaza adjacent to the proposed Dean and Deluca, likely used for outdoor dining, under a cantilevered canopy or trellis with lighting. Do you have any idea on a mechsnism to develop the remaining potion of the triangular plaza? I know that the new master plan calls for a urban park on this site with a large and flexible lawn area. Isn't this property privately owned by the developer of Bethesda Row?
I see the master plan calls this a sending site that would allow the owner additional density elsewhere if it was preserved and hopefully developed at a town square. Just curios on who would physically design and construct and manage such a space. It's not really (yet) a true public space like Vetrans Park fully controlled by the county and BUP.
It seems that Woodmont Plaza is a key central node in the development of the south end of town, and a link to properties owned by PJ Hoffman, Carr and JBG. I would really like to se a coordinated effort to make this a truly great urban space. Bethesda has received world wide press on the Bethesda Row project,. It would be nice to see an equally thoughtful design for this park. I am really tired of those darn hedges!
You thoughts would be appreciated! By the way, happy holiday!
6:44: I'm more optimistic than I was a decade ago about the plaza finally being turned into an attractive public space. You now have 3 developers bordering it who have current or future plans for their properties. If Carr builds a very welcoming gateway to their project behind it, that will increase the incentive to make the Woodmont Plaza a more appealing place. Federal Realty has leases expiring next to that site in 2025, so they'll likely be thinking long term about how that plaza could interface with any redevelopment of that office building into a 290' tower.
Happy holidays to you, as well!
Actually, the Bethesda Row Cinema lease ends about 11 years from now, so a bit later than 2025, but still roughly the same planning timeframe.
It seems like there was still plenty of time for them to continue operating their businesses. When is demolition expected to begin. I used to be able to walk to the Regal in five minutes, but had to drive down to the AMC in Mazza yesterday to see Star Wars. I think they probably could have continued operating for another few months without issues, unless there are regulations I'm not aware of. I'm really going to miss how convenient the Regal was.
10:39: My guess is, they're going to strip the interior of rhe building before the actual structural demolition begins, and that's why the tenants are being put out sooner. Hopefully we get a replacement theater in the same spot, because it would be much closer than the new theaters in North Bethesda.
So is it your understanding that Federal Realty owns the "private open space" referred to as Woodmont Plaza? I see on the master plan that a white strip of land that looks like a former road right of way still exists between the private open space to the west, and to the linear plaza in front of the proposed Dean and DeLuca to the east. I'm am curious why this right of way still exists, and why it wasn't vacated and split down the middle to the adjacent land owners. Perhaps utilities remain below, and the property owners are not willing to take ownership or grant easements.seems odd that this dead end, unused road still exists, and perhaps impeding the cohesive development of the Plaza.
I am excited to see how this plays out.
I agree that Marriott could negotiate leases with multiple nearby office landlords to assemble 700,000 SF of total area. As you say, theses guys do this all the time for their hotels, so not a stretch to do it for their world headquarters.
@ 3:22 PM - If that right-of-way is north-south, that is the former Reed Avenue, which was there before Woodmont Avenue was extended to that block in the late 1980s.
If you look closely at the latest set of posted plans, specifically Section C, you will see that the underground theater previsly shown on Level B1 has been deleted and replaced with underground parking. Unless I am missing something, it looks to me that the cinema has been deleted and replaced with lots more parking. Perhaps a nod to Marriotts request for much more parking.
The previous plan had a large cylindrical speed ramp in the middle of the building that accessed a more modest amount of lower level parking, and avoided the proposed cinema near Wisconsin. They now show a more conventional parked ramp, which would add much parking and cost less than the speed ramp required to get below the theatre.
Too bad if this is really what is planned. A great new state-of-the-art cinema near Bethesda Row, on par with iPic or Arclight, would really enhance the city. Looks like the planning staff missed this in their review comments, as they still indicate an underground cinema is part of the program.
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