Monday, May 15, 2017

The Blue House, Random Harvest spaces for lease in downtown Bethesda

The ground floor spaces in the Woodmont Crescent building that are currently home to The Blue House and Random Harvest are available for lease. Streetsense is the real estate firm marketing the two spaces, which are right next to Starbucks at the corner of Norfolk and Woodmont Avenues in downtown Bethesda.

There's a huge opportunity there to ultimately do a public-private deal like Lot 31, if the Woodmont Crescent building lot could be assembled with the Montgomery County garage next door, for a major development right near the Metro station. The site is literally surrounded by high-rises already, and an underground garage could provide parking for both the public and Marriott (by which time it should be known exactly how many spaces Marriott will need).

The Blue House and Random Harvest remain open for business.

88 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it just the ground level or is the office space above it included? If it was just the ground level wouldn't that prevent any high rise development?

Anonymous said...

Or maybe the landlord is just looking for two new tenants. In the absence of Starbucks and Black's, that site is too small to be viable, and the County has already promised the parking lot to Marriott.

Anonymous said...

Not a minute too soon for Blue House to go under. For a good laugh, read their awful Yelp reviews: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-blue-house-bethesda

After reading about their anti-children attitude, I've boycotted the place.

Anonymous said...

I also believe our local news organization resides above those two shops.

Robert Dyer said...

If Black's owns their building, it's no different than Tastee and Woodmont Grill. Their building is worth only a fraction by itself of what it would be worth assembling the adjoining properties.

The Marriott parking would easily be replaced in a large garage under the new development. Once the leases are up in the Woodmont Crescent building, this is going to happen at some point, let's not kid ourselves. Not exactly an architectural gem, folks.

I still don't see the Marriott parking as a done deal, anyway. It's going to hurt nearby businesses. Anybody who thinks the average person wants to park on Auburn Avenue, wait for a bus, and do that all over again just to patronize a business near Marriott is nuts.

The County should force Marriott to provide the parking on their massive site.

Anonymous said...

Why would people need to park on Auburn? There are more garages in that area:
Woodmont & Rugby
St. Elmo & Norfolk
Wisconsin & Chetlenham
As well as next to the Metro Station.

Woodmont Triangle does not need more parking garages. Not to mention the Marriott garage would be open to the public on weekends when they would be more heavily used anyway.

Anonymous said...

Robert must not get up to Woodmont Triangle much. Had no idea Bethesda Fine Arts festival was this weekend until I walked through it.

Robert Dyer said...

9:12: None of those are convenient. At all. Think like a consumer, not a Councilman. "Well, I declare...just have those bums park at the edge of town, and wait for a bus." Good god. This is what happens when you have a county run by imbeciles who don't know how business works.

Robert Dyer said...

9:17: Yeah, I guess that's why I broke the story about Dog Haus coming to the Woodmont Triangle, and so many others. Think, McFly, think.

JT said...

I forget about the cheltenham garage. Who parked there? Why can't Marriot park there?

Anonymous said...

The furthest of those garages is 3 blocks? how is that not convenient?? Its a 5 minute stroll through the area people are most likely to be patronizing anyway.

Many of the patrons of that area are likely to be Woodmont Triangle residents who live there for the convenience of stepping outside to the local businesses rather than driving in from Westbard.....

Anonymous said...

Robert, how does business work? You seem to have all the answers and none of the experience...

Anonymous said...

JT - crossing Woodmont is probably preferable than having their employees/guests cross Wisconsin.

Anonymous said...

So much censorship on this site. Dyer is just like the bully he compares himself to at 9:21. We all know how that ended for Biff....

Anonymous said...

I don't know anyone who lives, works, shops or dines in the Woodmont Triangle who considers DelRay Avenue to be "the edge of town".

Anonymous said...

Why are they seeking new tenants if they are planning on tearing down the place?

Anonymous said...

They aren't planning on tearing it down that was just Robert's dream since it the home of Bethesda Beat.

Anonymous said...

We're already overparked.

Anonymous said...

Why is dyer still claiming Tastee is selling. Its not true.

Anonymous said...

does anyone know of any other bethesda news sites that are a little more professional with their reporting? I imagine this blog is only going to go further downhill once we get closer to election season and Dyer inevitably loses when he runs for council....

Anonymous said...

unfortunately the only other bethesda news site seems to be Bethesda Beat. WashPo seems a bit more focused on NoVa although when they do get up to Bethesda the content is generally good and well thought out. I think they just had a good article last week on Bethesda's growth and clash of old and new.

Anonymous said...

Dyer's business reports:

Biz closes in bethesda
"Blame the Council!!!!! MORIBUND! "
Biz opens in Bethesda
"Biz miraculously overcomes Hans nighttime economy and survives. I'm sure the council will destroy it any min now"

The guy just loves to find any and every way to blame things on the County council like all they do is sit and scheme. I'm sure none of them are even aware of Dyer much less consider him a contender in November.

Friends of Woodmont Triangle said...

12:00 PM Robert deletes offensive comments. I don't see anything wrong with that.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Dyer, that the redevelopment of the site is inevitable, but the adjacent garage probably isn't going anywhere any time soon.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I concur.

JT said...

It always amazes me that people forget about the tens of thousands of houses in the neighborhoods around Bethesda. I'm not taking the bus to dinner, and I'm not walking five blocks in the rain. All this deal does is put more money into valet parking companies and marriotts pockets, and makes me go to rockville for dinner.

Anonymous said...

There are regular debates in comment threads here with folks who agree and disagree with Dyer.
He's not deleting comments that disagree with him.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Dyer is deleting comments. As someone who has watched my comments become erased within 5 minutes of posting, I can say it is there one minute and gone the next. It won't even be offensive either, he will just delete it because it agrees with someone who is winning in an argument with him. It is hard to find evidence of him doing this as they only occasionally say "This post was removed by the blog administrator". I understand why he removes offensive posts, but if you don't believe me, leave a link in the comments sometime supporting a view point different than his and *poof* it will disappear.

Anonymous said...

4:37pm Stop telling lies. No one reading Dyer's site and can claim he deletes anyone who disagrees with him.

Anonymous said...

Dyer "silently" deletes all the time. Haven't you seen cases where he refers to the timestamp of a post in a reply, but the referenced post is no longer there?

Skippy said...

6:57pm Relax a bit. Dyer sought to further serve the community in public office. He's very active in the community. All great stuff.

Anonymous said...

7:44 PM is sponsored content.

Anonymous said...

Robert Dyer is an illegal dead Mexican from the Cemetery Precinct.

Anna Van Horn said...

Oh, I can confirm he does indeed delete posts. :)

Anonymous said...

6:49 AM
I'm not voting for incumbent councilmembers because of their insane development policies (i.e. Westbard), not listening to residents and for endangering citizens (911 not working, lack of school safety, sanctuary policies, etc.)

You're saying you wouldn't vote for Dyer because he deleted your comment.

Makes sense! Good luck with that.

Anonymous said...

I lost faith in Dyer long ago. He's not about people. He is about himself and I reckon he has major chip on his shoulder. I'm sure this will be deleted. Meh

Anonymous said...

8:03 AM Dyer is very active in the community. It's not about him.

Anna Van Horn said...

I read this earlier today somewhere:

"will not take any internal criticism, no matter how politely it is
given. He does not want advice, cannot be corrected, and is too insecure to see
any constructive feedback as anything other than an attack."

Anyone agree?

Gotcha! It was talking about the President. ;)

Friends of Woodmont Triangle said...

8:40 AM You might want to actually meet Dyer and actually get to know the person before making broad generalizations because he deleted some dumb comment. There are plenty of forums to get to know candidates during election season.

Dyer is always helping raise issues residents have here. He's kind of an unofficial mayor of bethesda.

Anna Van Horn said...

Friends,
I appreciate your view, but after the things he's blindly accused me of and the physical harm he's giddily threatened me with, I just can't.
Thanks and warm regards.

Friends of Woodmont Triangle said...

And the defamation campaign against Dyer continues with more ad hominem attacks like 8:58am...

Anonymous said...

Doesn't make it untrue.

Anonymous said...

I concur

Anonymous said...

Love your blog! I walked in to Blue House and expressed my saddness but was told it was only the upstairs space that was for lease. I checked streetsense and that appears to be true. Robert do you know someone on the inside of Streetsense who knows these local businesses are being forced out?

Anonymous said...

Same here! I went in and told them I was sad to see them go but they said they aren't leaving?

Anonymous said...

12:13 PM Any relation to Keith?

Anna Van Horn said...

12:17PM - Nope. Sadly, I don't have his height or skills either.

Anonymous said...

1:13 PM See you at the debates! Looking forward to you coming out of the shadows to ask a question.

However, we're all ahead of ourselves. Dyer isn't even running for anything at the moment.

Anonymous said...

Where do you get your information? Or did you write this as a "story" outlining all the options that could happen on this property - creating a rumor mill to rouse up your readers? As the readers should understand what they are reading is your opinion but not based on facts.

Robert Dyer said...

8:58: I've made a screen capture of your defamatory and false comment for law enforcement, and for a potential defamation lawsuit once your true identity is exposed by law enforcement.

11:13: You can see it on the Streetsense web site. Both spaces are available for lease.

1:49: It's based entirely on the listing by Streetsense, which is marketing both spaces for lease. Nice try:

http://brokerage.streetsense.com/property/woodmont-crescent/#site-plan

Anonymous said...

It's always funny to read Dyer talking about himself in the third person. LOL

Anonymous said...

8:58 says her real name is Anna Van Horn

Anonymous said...

3:45 - Dyer has been making that silly threat to dozens of his readers for at least four years from now. No one takes him seriously.

Anonymous said...

All this supposed evidence Dyer has been collecting against readers/trolls, county council members, etc., why doesn't he actually submit them to law enforcement if he believes his points to be true and correct?

Robert Dyer said...

7:34: Because they are useless until I have an ISP or real name and address to forward to police and the FBI.

2:40: There is no "Anna Van Horn" in Bethesda on Facebook or Google. Fake name being used by our resident troll.

Everyone can see that we're dealing with a paid troll here. It's literally all day and all night. Posting and posting. Only someone being paid, or a raving lunatic, would have the time to post this many troll comments on one website, day after day.

Each threat or instance of harrassment/stalking carries a two-year sentence in federal prison, so I hope you're getting paid a lot for your "work."

Anonymous said...

"Because they are useless until I have an ISP or real name and address to forward to police and the FBI."

If the threat is real, aren't the police able to find that kind of information?

Anonymous said...

If the police found it credible they could easily get the ISP info.

Anonymous said...

So if you troll in the guise of a blog post, that's ok.

Robert Dyer said...

5:46: How? I was told they can't unless there is a way to see the ISPs, which there isn't on my blog platform.

5:48: When did I troll?

Anna Van Horn said...

I'm not allowed to answer to your incorrect assessment of me?
Well, that doesn't seem fair.

I'm married. Anna Van Horn is my name at birth, that's why it's on my birth certificate.

I'd offered you my name and address via email.
I'd offered to meet you for coffee in a public place.

I also have copies of all your posts to me.

Anonymous said...

"they can't unless there is a way to see the ISPs, which there isn't on my blog platform."

That's the price you pay for being such a cheapskate.

Anonymous said...

ISPs? You state this twice. Getting the ISP is easy, as long as you have the IP address. (A WHOIS on the IP address would give you the ISP.)

You are technically illiterate, and demonstrate this repeatedly. This one off the things that scares me about your future candidacy for the Council. You need to modify the template code you use to fix the timestamp on this blog; something you are incapable of doing. You can record IP addresses in a Blogger supported Blog, if you just paste in some javascript.

Your criticism of the 911 outage was not only rife with factual errors, but for technical reasons illiterate. Your taken offense at the delay in replacement of non-internet-connected workstations running Windows 2000 is incredibly stupid.

As someone with computer expertise, the notion of you on the County Council trying to influence matters is horrifying.

Anonymous said...

What's really strange about the timestamp issue, is that both of Robert Dyer's other blogs show the correct time in their timestamps.

The funny thing about Dyer's blog is that many of the features that kept his blog from being considered a "news site" are only on the web version, not on the mobile version - e.g. complete photo galleries of all articles showing on the home page. I don't know why Dyer doesn't update the web version to correct this.

Also, comments on the mobile version are threaded whereas they are not on the web version. Which makes conversations even more disjointed than they already are.

Anonymous said...

To be fair to Robert, modifying the timestamp on the template used by him -- Awesome Inc. theme -- is a little harder than some other templates where you can do this by setting the timezone in the Blogger Admin dashboard. But for anyone with the extensive experience claimed by Robert in IT matters, it should have been a trivial task to do.

To be frank with Robert, you could record IPs fairly easily, by using several visitor counter applications (not all, but some.) This is one of the ways in which the attribute "unique" is given to a visitor site visit by some internet site analytics.

But the simple fact of the matter is that Robert is a classic bully -- threatening "body slams" and nose punches while these written threats attempt to hide the fact that he is the least imposing male of nearly all-time that could make you fear physical harm.

This male is in his late 40s, and the frequent use of the supposed insult "impotent" by this childless fellow is revealing. As is,in the last 12 months, the new insult that a critic is a "dumpster-diving hobo".

I have joined the "Anybody But Dyer -- ABD Campaign


Anonymous said...

ABD!!! Bravo. You said it so well!

Anonymous said...

2:03 PM Van Horn is the love and bacon anonymous guy? Now, I'm even more creeped out.
Another parody account like Poppy I assume.

Anonymous said...

Very well said. I don't like the current council members and am glad for term limits, but for the next election I'm with ABD

Anonymous said...

So Dyer unintentionally confirmed that he has no way of counting the visitors to his blog.

Anonymous said...

@3:62 PM -- Yes, all the previous Dyer and fans BS about "private" web analytics that would contradict known public website analytics goes right out the window.

Anonymous said...

Only Dyer has the analytics for his sites. Estimates are just that-- estimates.

Anonymous said...

You're a True Believer to the end, 8:14. If Dyer actually has those numbers, why has he never posted them?

Anonymous said...

3:52

Yes, Robert unintentionally admitted he really has no idea, because he does not know how to actually check his analytics.

Robert Dyer said...

12:12: For a computer "expert," you are wrong on every point. You can't get ISPs because you can't capture IP addresses either on the Blogger platform. I don't have to change anything on the template to change the time zone, all I have to do is check a box off to change it to Eastern Time if I want.

My criticism of the 911 outage that killed 2 county residents was on-point, and verified by the official autopsies of the disaster.

The County government was not merely using "non-connected workstations" - the government was running on Windows 2000 in 2014. If they were non-connected, the councilmembers wouldn't have been whining about the platform not being compatible with their smartphones. If you are a computer genius, I assume you know that a computer cannot contact Roger Berliner's smartphone without being connected to the internet.

I understand that folks who are part of the criminal activity going on in the county indeed would find it "horrifying" if were on the Council, as it would lead to several perp walks outside of 100 Maryland Avenue.

1:56: I'm not in my "late 40s," dumbass.

3:52: I can absolutely track the number of visitors to my blog, which has the highest number of Bethesda-based readers of any local site.

Anonymous said...

"I can absolutely track the number of visitors to my blog, which has the highest number of Bethesda-based readers of any local site."

How do you track the number of Bethesda-based readers of your site if you don't have the IP addresses?

How do you track the numbers of Bethesda-based readers for other sites?

And what are these numbers?

Bill Castner said...

"For a computer "expert," you are wrong on every point. You can't get ISPs because you can't capture IP addresses either on the Blogger platform."

HaHsHaHaHa -- Google is your friend. You most certainly can. Way, way back in the dark ages you were expected to rush and check the cache of a visitor counter. No longer true. Javascript to the rescue, as well as depositories to hold the IPs recorded.

"I don't have to change anything on the template to change the time zone, all I have to do is check a box off to change it to Eastern Time if I want."

That would not change the timestamps on Comments. For that you would have to modify the template code. Good luck, but lying about this whole issue is your modus operandi.

As for the 911-issue, your representation of this as a misfeasance by the County Council is a claim not only irresponsible only your part, but as a technical analysis utter BS.


Robert Dyer said...

5:25: Are you denying that the County Council has oversight authority over the 911 system? That would indeed be "utter BS." As a result of their failure, two of their constituents died. Another 7 died in the Flower Branch explosion. A tenth constituent, only 15 years old, was murdered by MS-13 gang members the Council allows to reside in the County. The death toll is rising by the month. We need a new Council - FAST!

Anonymous said...

The girl was murdered in Virginia, Birdbrain.

Robert Dyer said...

3:11: Yes, by the gang she joined at Watkins Mill HS right here in Montgomery County, dumbass. "Thank you, Hans." - Gustavo Torres, 2017

Anna Van Horn said...

What did he delete like 20 comments?

Oh look. The ones about his age disappeared.


Censorship is the height of vanity.--- Martha Graham

Anonymous said...

If Dyer gets elected, it is going to be really hard to delete everything news article about him that does not like him.

Anonymous said...

I love you, Anna!

Anonymous said...

I'm not 6:49 but I'm certainly not voting for Dyer because I don't believe he is capable of handling himself professionally nor do I feel he is capable.

Anonymous said...

I was really sad to hear about the closing on this blog and went in and they said they aren't going anywhere?

Robert Dyer said...

12:28: If I were elected, they'll have to actually write about me, which includes quoting what I say at a Council meeting.

2:28: You mean compared to the current Council, whose members berate female County employees and former County Councilwomen during televised meetings? Please.

4:40: You already posted this before. They're not going anywhere until somebody leases their spaces. Both are shown for lease on the Streetsense website.

5:33: I'm regularly shown in photographs and on video. My age and appearance are not a secret, unlike you, who are hiding behind a computer screen with a fake name. For someone who claims not to be the troll, you seem to share his long-standing and weird interest in my age.

Anna Van Horn said...

I couldn't care less about your age.
The comments (and my interest in them) were about the use of the term "late 40's" and what ages that included. That's it.

You can believe what you want.
I have my birth certificate as proof. I've got nothing to hide.


If you regain sight after being blind most of your life, your eyes may work, but your brain will likely have no idea what to do with the new information.

Robert Dyer said...

9:27: If you think 44, 45 or 46 count as "late 40s," you would fail a grade school math exam. A fake person, with a fake name talking about a "birth certificate." It reads "Born: 2017. Location: MoCo political cartel smoke-filled back room."

Anna Van Horn said...

Stop embarrassing yourself, Robert. I'm real and so is my birth certificate.

Anything over 45 is late 40's.
Sure you CAN look at it as early, mid and late. But one doesn't HAVE to. My way is perfectly acceptable. Sheesh.

I have NEVER failed a math exam in my life. Never. Art theory, that's another story. But numbers? We're friends. ;)


France was still executing people by guillotine when Star Wars: A New Hope hit theatres.