Friday, June 22, 2018

JP Morgan Chase Bank leases space at JBG Smith's 4749 Bethesda Ave. retail building

After Dean & DeLuca quietly backed out of their lease at JBG Smith's new two-story retail building at 4749 Bethesda Avenue, the question has been, who will take over the distinctive structure. JP Morgan Bank has now leased 2853 SF at the building for a new Bethesda branch.

JP Morgan Chase announced in April that it planned to enter our region's banking market in a big way, with 70 branches expected to open in the D.C. area. A month later, it purchased the Bowen Building in the District, as its new regional headquarters. The seller of the Bowen Building was...JBG Smith.

Bethesda was on the list of branch locations in April, but now we know where it will be. 4749 Bethesda is part of the larger 4747 Bethesda Avenue office tower development now under construction adjacent to the unique train station-inspired retail building.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh good, that's perfect for Bethesda row. It specializes in choosing merchants with un-needed products and services, that won't attract consumers. Does anyone actually still go to bank branches?

Anonymous said...

Hell yeah a bank in Bethesda. More free coffee and lollipops!

Anonymous said...

I don’t recall any reporting here about D&D backing out of their lease.

Roald said...

Boom!

Anna said...

You rely on the idea that readers are as stupid as you for success - good luck!




...Robert Dyer 6/1/18

Tim said...

To the anonymous troll, every article is another opportunity to air his resentments against Robert Dyer. No one cares!

Anonymous said...

You cared.

Anonymous said...

The floor plate of 4749 Bethesda is about 13,500 SF, so 2,800 SF is only a small portion of the building, maybe only one or two of the bays. I hope they can find a market or restaurants to occupy the remaining ground level area, especially since the building will eventually front on the new urban park. Banks do not offer much reinforcement of the active streetscape. I bet the upper level of this building will be folded into JBG Smith’s office space as a large corporate conference center behind those dramatic nine arched windows. Those must be at least 15’ high and nicely overlook Bethesda Row.

Anonymous said...

This won't activate the small bit of open space there at all. Will be dead at night after the bank closes. What are these people thinking?

There's no cohesive plan coming together for the downtown in terms of entertainment/nightlife. Bethesda UP, the Council and other stakeholders should be working on this.

More banks will certainly appease those who want "quiet" in the downtown.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see they're only taking up a fraction of the space. Hopefully the rest is leased by someone far more interesting.

Robert Dyer said...

5:46: I'm the one who broke the story many months before it was quietly made official. You have a poor memory.

Anonymous said...

@6:23PM: Banks kill an active urban landscape.

Anonymous said...

Dean & Delucca are deadbeats. FRP should be thrilled they backed out of the lease.

Anonymous said...

Dyer @ 2:00 why do you keep deleting my request for a link to the story you wrote breaking D&D’s cancellation plans? Is it because you didn’t actually break the story — you just want us to think you did?

Anonymous said...

http://robertdyer.blogspot.com/search/label/Dean%20%26%20DeLuca

No coverage after November 2017. No mention of the cancellation.

Anonymous said...

Agree with 6:32. The bank won't be taking the entire space. The lease was originally reported back in April in the Business Journal.

Robert Dyer said...

7:00: Wrong. I Googled several variations of the news before I published my story, and there was no result showing this on the Business Journal. They reported about the D.C. transaction.

6:59: I broke the story, dumbass.