A public meeting on the project will be held on Thursday, March 29, 2018, at 7:00 PM at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center at 4805 Edgemoor Lane.
There will be two intriguing things to watch with this project.
First, the old project plan called for a 81500 SF Class A office building, with 10500 SF of ground floor retail. That's way less than 200,000. Is it possible they have managed to accomplish the ideal situation of assembling with one or more adjacent properties (they already own the Bethesda Medical Building next door), or will it simply have more floors than the original design? The Monocle building next door on Battery Lane remains on the market for $6,000,000. However, the length of the leases remaining in that tiny office building are not public knowledge.
Second, can they get a major corporate tenant to anchor a trophy office building in moribund Montgomery County? This will be a good test to see if there is already a halo effect from Marriott moving downtown.
I love how this blog insists on pushing its “moribund” trope literally in the midst of hundreds of thousands of square feet of new investment and development. Keep trying, Old Sport.
ReplyDelete5:35: There's much more to economic development than real estate development. Except in moribund Montgomery County, of course.
DeleteDude who's never had a job, lived in his parents' house his whole life, can't even make a decent meal for himself calling others "moribund". LOL
ReplyDelete'or will it simply have more floors than the original design?'
ReplyDeleteThe new sector plan lets them build to 145' now, so yes it will have around 12 floors.
'Second, can they get a major corporate tenant to anchor a trophy office building in moribund Montgomery County?'
It won't be a trophy building, and can you please stop with this moribund silliness. It's disingenuous and ruins otherwise good reporting. Montgomery County has added 16,000 over the last five years. Fairfax County added 12,000. There have been a ton of economic development announcements in Montgomery County recently, but for whatever reason you never report on them.
'This will be a good test to see if there is already a halo effect from Marriott moving downtown.'
There is, but I think it's mostly driving the residential side of things. The current office boom is a product of Marriott, the re-surging economy, the absence of major ground-up office development in two decades, the low Class A vacancy rate, and the age of the existing inventory. Also, it's strong evidence that the local economy is in fact not moribund.
8:07: Montgomery County most certainly did not add more private sector jobs than Fairfax County in the last 5 years. Are you using that fake formula the County Council did, that counts each job 3 times?
DeleteThere is a ton of vacant office space around the county. The County has converted some of it to residential in an attempt to artificially lower the vacancy rate.
If we're not moribund, why is Hans Riemer's own former chief of staff calling the County economy "stagnant?" And can you name a single major corporation that relocated its HQ to MoCo in the last 2 decades?
There hasn't been a single significant economic development announcement in MoCo in the last two decades, much less recently.
Why don’t we put this to bed with a source.
DeleteI now come to this “blog” just to read the comments. Keep them coming.
ReplyDeleteWhen Robert Dyer says moribund about business in bethesda, it proves that he doesn't really work within bethesda and he's just observing. he doesn't have a job or work in the offices to understand how hot it is there in terms of business. What a joke!
ReplyDelete9:03: LOL! What is hot business in downtown Bethesda recently?
DeleteHaters gonna hate...
ReplyDeleteUpdates on the disastrous Westbard plan always increases troll activity (from the developer PR firms and the usual county employees).
ReplyDeleteBig, big, big
ReplyDeleteIf you don’t like what is said and you complain about it then either stop reading it or start your own blog.
ReplyDelete"There's much more to economic development than real estate development. Except in moribund Montgomery County, of course."
ReplyDeleteLike what? Farming?
Poor Dyer - he can't get any Bethesda businesses to advertise on his blog.
ReplyDelete'Montgomery County most certainly did not add more private sector jobs than Fairfax County in the last 5 years. Are you using that fake formula the County Council did, that counts each job 3 times?'
ReplyDeleteThe BLS in fact. According to the most recent QCEW in September Fairfax County's job growth over the previous 5 years was 1.0% job growth while Montgomery County's was 1.7%. I'll take actual data over misguided conjecture any day.
'There is a ton of vacant office space around the county. The County has converted some of it to residential in an attempt to artificially lower the vacancy rate.'
There is even more vacant space and a higher vacancy rate in Northern Virginia. Is their economy moribund as well? Good job winning that argument.
'If we're not moribund, why is Hans Riemer's own former chief of staff calling the County economy "stagnant?" And can you name a single major corporation that relocated its HQ to MoCo in the last 2 decades?'
No offense, but who exactly is Han's Riemer's 'former chief of staff' and what exactly makes him an expert on the economy? No thanks, I'd rather trust federal and state unemployment/income statistics, bond ratings agencies, financial institutions, economists, investors, and local institutions like CRA at GMU to tell me what's moribund or not.
Corporate relocation are few and far in between, and as you know major corporations cost a lot of money to attract. In just the past 12 months Montgomery County was named a top 20 finalist for HQ2, and attracted both WTOP and WTTG from the District.
Could the county do better in the realm of economic development? Certainly. Is the county's economy moribund? Not at all.
Thanks 8:29. I'm a fact-based person too and much appreciate your analysis.
ReplyDelete@ 8:29 - Unless I missed another story, I think you mean WDCA, WTTG's sister station, not WTOP?
ReplyDelete