Wednesday, March 01, 2017

The Claiborne condos won't break ground in Bethesda until mid-2018 (Photos)

2016 rendering of
The Claiborne
Don't expect construction of The Claiborne condos to begin anytime soon. The 110' tall building at 4820 Auburn Avenue isn't expected to break ground until Summer or Fall 2018, representatives for the project said at a public meeting last night in Bethesda. You can expect that the current building on the site - the ruins of Steamers - will begin coming down in the next few months, however.
2016 rendering
Newest rendering
from last night; note
colored lights on right side of
upper floors removed

New rendering; first
time showing this
side of the building
The architect for The Claiborne also designed the Bainbridge Bethesda apartment tower on St. Elmo Avenue. Last night, he emphasized the openness of the ground floor, as well as the contrasting solid and lighter elements of the building's corners. Several new renderings were shown, and are pictured here.
Aerial view of The Claiborne's
roof deck
New aerial rendering
An artist attending the meeting said she painted the lobster mural on the side of Steamers, and would like to be part of the new project. Whether that will happen is unclear.
Lobster mural
The Claiborne will have 58 condos and 2800 SF of retail space. Parking appears to have increased slightly as of last night, from 45 spaces to 48. Developer Novo expects to file its Preliminary Plan with Montgomery County next week, and a Planning Board hearing is anticipated this fall.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope the retail space is sizable and creates a good restaurant/bar space. The whole Woodmont area is hopping and this block shouldn't be left out.

Robert Dyer said...

It's been described in the past as being about the size of a Starbucks.

Anonymous said...

It would be impossible to break ground this year. They haven't even submitted a preliminary plan or site plan, which take at least 90 days for approval. Then it would take at least a year to get financing and pull permits. Groundbreaking probably won't be until fall 2018.

Wrol said...

It would be great to have more ground floor retail in this part of Woodmont Triangle. The Gallery deli spot is often empty. There are all these garages and loading docks that are uninviting. The Triangle rear garage is just parking and their nasty open loading dock. The Palisades commercial spaces have such boring facades you may not even notice they are there.

Can't wait for Donohoe to knock down the paint store and put something up there too.