We've seen the
devastating effects of the Montgomery County Council's decision to not require the eventual redeveloper of 7272 Wisconsin Avenue to provide a replacement cineplex for the
now-demolished Regal Cinemas Bethesda 10 as 2018 ended. The shuttering of American Tap Room Sunday topped off a disastrous year that saw longtime restaurants
Lebanese Taverna,
Redwood and
Jimmy John's close due to the loss of theater-generated foot traffic. A Towson study showed that a mainstream cineplex like Regal brought an additional 20,000 people to downtown Bethesda - - 20,000 people who have now taken their dinner-and-a-movie business elsewhere.
But let's get an update on the progress at the actual construction site of the Carr Properties project. It includes office tower The Wilson, residential tower The Elm, ground floor retail and restaurants, and a Purple Line light rail station underneath the whole project.
43 comments:
I hope you had a designated driver last night, Bobbie.
Seems like the increased foot traffic from the Purple Line station and the new south entrance to the Metro station will more than offset any loss from the cinema.
7:02: I didn't have any alcohol last night. It's the MoCo cartel elected officials who keep getting arrested for drunk driving - and then get the offense mysteriously deleted from their criminal records. Something else for Bert Macklin to check out.
7:09: No, that traffic won't be much more than is currently traveling through the Bethesda Metro station daily. Commuters are not the same target as couples or groups who are specifically headed to a place for a night out.
Why do you keep referring to a fictitious person?
Why do you think that only "commuters" use the Metro?
"I didn't have any alcohol last night."
Your comment at 1:43 AM on the American Tap Room article suggests otherwise.
"It's the MoCo cartel elected officials who keep getting arrested for drunk driving - and then get the offense mysteriously deleted from their criminal records."
Paranoia, the destroia.
Every business that closed in Bethesda was due to the loss of the theater. Now that's just hilarious folks. Not the economy, not the rent, not the fact that restaurants weren't good, not due to global warming. No, the only reason is that a movie theater closed.
7:23 AM EXACTLY! That's as good as the dotard saying Pres. Obama's current house has a ten foot wall around it. WTF are these two drinking or snorting?
"We've seen the devastating effects of the Montgomery County Council's decision to not require the eventual redeveloper of 7272 Wisconsin Avenue to provide a replacement cineplex for the now-demolished Regal Cinemas Bethesda 10 as 2018 ended."
"But let's get an update on the progress at the actual construction site of the Carr Properties project..."
From reading this, you might think that "the eventual redeveloper" and "Carr Properties" are two different entities.
Dyer's trying to combine "MoCo Cartel" argle-bargle and sponsored content in the same article always gives weird results such as this.
You really think that 10,000 new office employees in four new office high rises currently under construction and one new midrise biotech tower, 500 new luxury hotel rooms and about 5000 new multi family housing units that will be built in the next few years will not have a massive positive impact on retail, restaurants, cafes and nightlife activity in the CBD?
With the new Purple Line, everyone that lives in Chevy Chase Lake and downtown Silver Spring will be less than an 8 minute ride to Bethesda.
The ease of use and conscience of the Metro is crucial to the success of Bethesda. At least 40% of the employees at Marriott HQ are expected to use the Metro, bike, walk or other use mass transit options to get to and from work. Other office towers might be similar. Most of the folks staying at the new hotels will certainly use the Metro. Enhanced connection with the Purple Line means that many folks will choose to use it to access the Metro to travel north or south. If even only 20% of the new multi family residents use Metro then 1000 more folks will pass though the Bethesda Metro Station every day.
2018 Metro ridership is still a bit down but on an average weekeday, about 9500 people currently use the Bethesda station, either arriving or departing. With all this new development activity, many predict that about 5000 MORE people will use the Bethesda Metro Station everyday, an increase of over 50%. This will likely make it one of the most heavily used stations outside of the downtown DC core. Much more than any station in NoVa, other than Crystal City and Pentagon City (due to predicted Amazon HQ2 increases).
All this activity passing through the epicenter of Bethesda will have a massive positive impact on retail, restaurants, during week days, week nights, weekend days and of course, your beloved nightime economy.
Bethesda is currently the 19th most heavily used Metro Station. The predicting increases described above would place it in 9th position, just behind DuPont Circle. Given that Crystal City and Pentagaon City will likely also grow, it is very likely Bethesda it will be in 11th place with about 15,000 riders each day. By the way, Tyson’s Corner is also growing rapidly, with many new projects in the works, but currently has only about 2,800 riders per day.
By the way, I also recently read that Bethesda is the most perfectly “balanced” station in the system in that almost exactly the same number of people arrive in the morning compared to the number that leave in the morning. This is also true in the evening. This is considered a very healthy sign by transit planners in that it is both a desireable place to live, and commute FROM, but also a well connected and vital destination to commute TO.
Here is a link to the article about balance in GGW and why it is considered an important metric to measure the health of a city.
https://ggwash.org/view/29468/which-metro-stations-are-the-most-balanced
8:12: It's obviously not a good measure of the health, because downtown Bethesda is dead at night after 9 PM, Montgomery is dead last in the region by every economic measure from job creation to new business growth, we're getting whipped by Tysons and Northern VA, haven't gotten a major corporate HQ is two decades, violent crime is up, and the County government has a structural deficit as far out as the forecast goes.
In other words, we are clearly headed in the wrong direction. More empty office buildings and stack-and-pack apartments just keep us going in that wrong direction. We need jobs, corporate HQs, serious fixes to existing highways, and completion of our master plan highways.
7:41: The developer changed from the start to the end of the process.
7:39: Pictures don't lie:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/12/30/trump-proposes-slightly-larger-obama-mansion-wall-u-s/
Me Dyer - do you know how much more business the Bethesda row movie theatre has picked up since the other was closed? Surely it has to be something
It's odd that Dyer makes absolutely no mention of the closure of Barnes & Noble, whether as a catalyst for the decline of that block, or as another victim of the closure of Eastham's, er, the Regal Cinema.
n trying to make the case for a high concrete border wall, Trump exaggerates about the Obama house in Washington, D.C. It is an 8,200 square foot Tudor-style home in the Kalorama residential area, but it is not a “compound.” The Obamas added security fencing to an enlarged retaining wall in front for the needs of the Secret Service but there is not a ten-foot wall around the house; the front steps are open to the sidewalk. Chain link fencing, but no wall, was added to the back. While Trump says the border wall would be a “slightly larger version” of the alleged Obama wall, he has previously described his proposed wall as 1,000 miles long, made of precast concrete slabs, rising 35 to 40 feet in the air.
Washington Post Fact Checker
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/31/trump-claims-theres-foot-wall-around-obamas-dc-home-neighbors-say-theres-not/?utm_term=.86cd9f4e4b35
Indeed.
8:12 AM
I thought we we talking about the Bethesda CBD and not Montgomery County as a whole...
Not sure what you mean by empty office buildings, at least in Bethesda. The 4747 Bethesda building is 81% leased and won't even be completed for 6 months.
Not sure what you mean by stack and pack apartments. Nearly all of the 5000 or so multi-family high-rise apartments and condos under construction, fully approved or in the pipeline are luxury apartments constructed out of cast-in-place concrete and not wood framing. Most feature nine foot high ceilings, wood floors, large windows, premium appliances, rooftop swimming pools, panoramic views and LEED Certification.
Maybe Bethesda does not need late night clubs to be successful. I for one much preferred to view Academy Award nominated films at the Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema, than to watch insipid comic book inspired movies at the former Regal Cinema. I can easily go to the AMC in Chevy Chase or the ArcLight at Montgomery Mall to view an occasional "block buster" movie. If a second urban cinema would be built as part of a mixed use project in Bethesda, do the construction extreme cost in such an urban setting, it would likely be more like the very expensive iPic at Pike & Rose. Not sure I want to spend $17 to see Batman vs Godzilla.
Now I would agree that other parts of MoCo are not quite as rosy, but as I recall your blog is intended to focus on Bethesda, specifically: " News, restaurants, nightlife, events and openings, real estate, crime reports and more - the way only a lifelong Bethesda resident like Robert Dyer can bring it to you. Everything you want and need to know about Bethesda, plus special investigative reports you won't find anywhere else. The must-read blog for breaking Bethesda news, when you want to be the first to know"
Happy New Year, everyone!
"In 1962 - United States Navy SEALs were created (United States Navy's Sea, Air, Land Teams) as the U.S. Navy's principal special operations force "
@ 4:08 PM: Hen Quarter is now down to just one location, in Old Town Alexandria. And that one used to be an Austin Grill as well.
The recently-closed Pandora Seafood House and Bar in Rockville Town Square is also a former Austin Grill. Although Pandora was a single restaurant not affiliated with Thompson Hospitality.
9:14: Considering they don't show the mass audience blockbusters, I doubt many mainstream moviegoers have switched to Landmark Bethesda Row.
11:09: You are in the minority of moviegoers - the masses do enjoy those comic book movies, as the box office shows. Your point about going to Friendship Heights or the mall only makes my point - downtown Bethesda is now losing all of that revenue to other areas.
9:43: Did you look at the photo I linked to? The front has a ten foot wall, too. It's just got shrubbery between the 10 foot brick towers to disguise it. You just earned four Pinocchios!
LOL - the CIA, er, "Google," can't even recognize the name Pinocchios and underlines it as misspelled.
Saith Dyer @ 10:32 PM:
"Did you look at the photo I linked to? The front has a ten foot wall, too. It's just got shrubbery between the 10 foot brick towers to disguise it."
The Post article linked by @ 9:43 AM clearly shows the same gate that the Breitbart article shows. Not sure how 2'-high shrubbery equals "disguise".
"You just earned four Pinocchios! LOL - the CIA, er, 'Google,' can't even recognize the name Pinocchios and underlines it as misspelled."
Well, given that neither @ 9:43 AM or the Post article mentions "Pinocchios", that must have been something you mistyped. That word shows just fine on a Google search for me. Not sure what "the CIA" has to do, with any of this.
11:30: Very simple - the shrubbery is placed to hide the barrier behind it. In other words, there is a wall around the entire Obama compound.
Remember when Mexico was going to pay for the Wall? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Anonymous said...
Breitbart lies.
Bigly.
9:25 AM
Anonymous said...
Moon in the ESE sky. Photos taken around 3 AM. LOL
Anonymous said...
"Violent crime is up"
Nope. Homicides are down 5% for 2018 compared to 2017, and down 37% compared to 2015.
And none are gang-related. However several have been crazy white dudes killing their parents.
11:15 AM
Anna said...
Quite true, 11:15.
Just for context, yearly number of homicides in the county since 2007 are as follows:
2007 = 19
2008 = 21
2009 = 12
2010 = 17
2011 = 16
2012 = 15
2013 = 8
2014 = 19
2015 = 30
2016 = 16
2017 = 21
11:21 AM
Anonymous said...
Happy New Year to you, Anna, fellow faithful skeptical readers, and even you, Robbie, and your many sockpuppets.
Hopefully this will be the year that Robbie obtains gainful employment.
11:22 AM
Anonymous said...
Anna - Sorry, I forgot about the 21st homicide for 2017. If my memory serves, it was added retroactively.
So 2018 compared to 2017 is actually a decrease of 10%.
#ThanksHans
#ThanksMoCoCartel
Unwritten Rule #467: Any posting of correct homicide statistics for Montgomery County will be promptly deleted.
11:26 AM
Anna said...
11:26AM - hmm...we may have a problem. We already have a Rule 467 and a 467a, both referring to the Sam Eig blog. But, neither one is an unwritten rule.
So what do we do?
Keep the new 467 as unwritten? (my preference)
OR Renumber the rule in your 11:26 comment?
11:58 AM
Anonymous said...
The Matchbox that is about to open in Silver Spring used to be a Hen Quarter, before that it was an Austin Grill. All three of these brands are under the same owner, Thompson Hospitality.
The Hen Quarter in Penn Quarter just closed this week. No, I am not making that up. The Silver Spring and Penn Quarter Hen Quarters both lasted less than two years.
The Bethesda, Silver Spring and Penn Quarter restaurants all used to be Austin Grill, yet another (mostly gone) concept from Thompson. There was another Austin Grill in Glover Park, also closed. Austin Grill has only one location left in the region, in West Springfield.
And absolutely none of this has anything to do with the closure of the Regal Cinema.
4:08 PM
Anonymous said...
"Here's a pic representing the thousands of new jobs and residences coming to downtown Bethesda. That's why Jimmy John's closed," said retarded Dyer.
4:47 PM
Anonymous said...
4:47 PM - LMAO. Dyer's idiocy summed up in one sentence.
5:26 PM
Suburban News Network Comment Restoration Service boom dee yay
Suburban News Network Comment Restoration Service boom dee yay
Suburban News Network Comment Restoration Service boom dee yay
Suburban News Network Comment Restoration Service is here to stay!
Got it, the updated list:
THE RULES
Rule #2 - Common sense will be deleted.
Rule #17 - No fact-checking
Rule 22: "Never ever bother Gibbs in interrogation."
Rule #26 - No laughing.
Rule #77 - No thanking allowed. All forms of graciousness will be eliminated.
Rule #134: Comments with external links will be removed by a blog administrator.
Rule #135: Comments with links to other articles on "Suburban News Network" will be removed by a blog administrator.
Rule #267(Unwritten): Robert Dyer never engages in conversation with "the Serial Shiller".
Rule #275: Comments noting that the business model of Uber is to pretend that its function is anything other than a taxi service, will be removed by a blog administrator.
Rule #312(Unwritten): NO LAUGHING!
Rule #476(Unwritten): Any posting of correct homicide statistics for Montgomery County will be promptly deleted
Rule #467: Comments noting that the "Sam Eig" blog averages only one local news story per month for the area that it claims to cover, will be removed by a blog administrator.
Rule #467a: Comments noting that the "Sam Eig" blog averages only one local news story per year for the area that it claims to cover, outside of Gaithersburg, will be removed by a blog administrator.
Rule #553(Unwritten): Any comment noting that Tastee Diner is still open, will be removed by a blog administrator.
Rule #553a(Unwritten): Any comment noting that Kaldi's is still open, will be removed by a blog administrator.
Rule #617(Unwritten): Any comment asking why "Suburban Network News" only reports on 2 council candidates out of nearly 40, will be removed by a blog administrator.
Rule #839 - Interesting points will be deleted.
STAND UP TO DYER AND HIS FIRST AMENDMENT SUPPRESSION!
@6:30 Rule 8233 Never mention the "slightly failing" competing news site, which scoops Dyer on a regular basis and has been "slightly failing" for years now.
"20,000 people who have now taken their dinner-and-a-movie business elsewhere."
How does the income from the "dinner-and-a-movie" crowd compare to the thousands of jobs/residents that will be located in the new buildings and the hundreds of millions in taxable revenue and income generated every year?
Why do you never, ever, ever tell both sides of the story? Also, why not publish on-the-record quotes from the business owners to back up your opinions?
The "20,000" figure comes from promotional material for a cinema that was built in Towson a few years ago. It does not come from any kind of scientific, objective "study".
The figure was a guesstimate by Brian Recher, the developer of Towson Square. His actual guesstimate was: “There’ll be 3,400 seats there,” Recher says. “A multiplex like that can pull 15,000 to 20,000 people on a weekend.”
https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/2014/6/23/the-great-towson-revival
Note that the development was a 45-acre $85 million, 15-screen Cinemark Theatre entertainment and 8 restaurant complex -- that was sold two years after completion at a $45 million loss.
I seriously doubt you could have stuffed such a huge development at the Apex site, as it is somewhat short of the mark of 45 acres in size.
7:07: LOL, I've had every scoop throughout the holiday season, and the vast majority the rest of 2018. No clue what you're talking about. But I do enjoy watching the commenters there playact as if they didn't read the Matchbox scoop on my site a week earlier (they do this all the time). Correct comment to post, folks: "Robert Dyer reported this 10 days ago." Then post whatever your thoughts are after that statement.
7:57: Developers, unlike the Montgomery County Planning Board, don't plan multimillion dollar projects using "guesstimates." This was an actual study, which I remember reading myself at the time, because the proposal to demolish the Regal was on the table at the time. Unlike the Council, I actually do my homework.
Developers like JBG Smith sell completed projects all the time. As far as a "loss," keep in mind that Towson is not downtown Bethesda, to say the least.
"This was an actual study, which I remember reading myself at the time, because the proposal to demolish the Regal was on the table at the time. Unlike the Council, I actually do my homework."
Then please provide a link to the study.
"As far as a 'loss,' keep in mind that Towson is not downtown Bethesda, to say the least."
What is this supposed to mean?
"Developers like JBG Smith sell completed projects all the time."
Well, they do not "all the time" sell at a loss of $45 million. That would be Trump or Kushner levels of incompetence.
"Towson is not downtown Bethesda, to say the least."
The cineplex in Towson has 13 theaters and 3,400 seats. Nothing of this scale could be done in the CBD of Bethesda. Your suggestion that the Planning Board should have demanded this of the Apex site redevelopment, which could not support such a massive cineplex, is naive and stupid.
2:51: LOL - The Kushners are incompetent for sure, but Trump? Are you talking about the same guy you complain is making too much money from properties all over the world, and should have to divest himself?
And here you are in a dark room hunched over a computer taking cheap shots from the peanut gallery at people like Trump and I, who are actually getting stuff done.
You're crazy if you believe there wasn't room for a cineplex in the basement of 7272 Wisconsin - the architect showed it as part of the original plan (which was apparently a ruse, but it was in there).
It's our County Council that was naive and stupid to believe that losing 20000 people per weekend in downtown Bethesda would have no impact on businesses.
9:33: If you don't know the demographic and real estate market differences between Bethesda and Towson, you probably shouldn't be arguing with me in the first place, carpetbagger.
8:02: You're talking about a 5-year-old document, and I'm not your servant. Look it up yourself, you clearly have the free time.
"losing 20000 people per weekend"
Nope. Why do you keep repeating this as though it is established fact? Obsessive repetition doesn't magically make it true.
"You're talking about a 5-year-old document, and I'm not your servant. Look it up yourself, you clearly have the free time."
You don't understand how this works, do you? You are the one that made the claim of "20,000". It is up to YOU to prove it.
"And here you are in a dark room hunched over a computer taking cheap shots from the peanut gallery at people like Trump and I, who are actually getting stuff done."
LOL, this again. Whatever you need to defend that fragile ego of yours. From where did you type your comment?
@ 7:57 "Note that the development was a 45-acre $85 million, 15-screen Cinemark Theatre entertainment and 8 restaurant complex -- that was sold two years after completion at a $45 million loss."
Dyer @ "As far as a 'loss,' keep in mind that Towson is not downtown Bethesda, to say the least."
@ 9:33 PM: "What is this supposed to mean?"
Dyer @ 3:33 AM: "If you don't know the demographic and real estate market differences between Bethesda and Towson, you probably shouldn't be arguing with me in the first place, carpetbagger."
So the Towson cineplex you keep citing was part of a project that lost almost half its value when it was sold just two years later. Maybe they didn't actually generate the "20,000" visitors that they claimed they would. Given that the promotional material for that development is the only place that actually has that claim, maybe you should just stop repeating it so mindlessly, Dyer.
"And here you are in a dark room hunched over a computer taking cheap shots from the peanut gallery at people like Trump and I, who are actually getting stuff done."
"LOL, this again. Whatever you need to defend that fragile ego of yours. From where did you type your comment?"
Re Dyer's comment of 3:33 AM:
"Dark room" - 3:33 AM Dyer Time i.e. 6:33 AM EST was nearly an hour before sunrise. CHECK
"Over a computer" - CHECK
"Taking cheap shots from the peanut gallery at people...who are actually getting stuff done." At Hans Riemer and the rest of those who were actually elected to our County government - CHECK
"Like Trump and I" - LOL.
So it looks like the only question is whether Dyer was "hunched" or not when he typed that.
"cheap shots from the peanut gallery at people like Trump and I, who are actually getting stuff done."
Ruining the country and the county, one distortion at a time.
If Russia has the goods on you too, then it might explain some of your...positions.
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