The building hasn't topped out yet, but the first windows are being installed at The Wilson, Carr Properties' Class A office tower that is part of the 7272 Wisconsin Avenue redevelopment. Two big disappointments remain with this project. One I've already discussed at length, the failure of the Montgomery County Council to require a replacement cineplex for the Regal Cinemas in the 7272 Wisconsin minor master plan amendment, the loss of which has devastated downtown Bethesda restaurants and foot traffic.
The other is my understanding that Fox 5 will not have a glassed-in studio with a view of the area outside when they relocate their broadcast operations here. That would have been a great tool to promote tourism, dining, shopping and economic development in Bethesda and the county at large. How did the County Council and economic development officials fail to have that conversation with the parties involved? Probably because they just don't understand how business and economic development work, I'm afraid.
37 comments:
Another extremely late report. Installation of the windows on the second floor started more than two weeks ago and is nearly complete.
The photos are out of date as well, since they show only the lower row of windows. A second row of windows has since been installed.
"The must-read blog for broken Bethesda news, when you want to be the last to know."
5:07: False. That's always your first sour grapes comment on every scoop I post. As usual, you are lying. I'm sure they continued installing the windows yesterday after these pictures were taken, Sherlock. It's called a construction site.
You are BTB and you know more about building than any developer or construction work! You even have your very own hard hat. So naturally you know best.
Very few modern televisions studios use actual windows anymore. Too many reflections and variable uncontrollable lighting for production. Modern green-screen technology with high resolution digital video feeds can produce backgrounds that match the realism of a real window. A simple 8K Red video production camera mounted on the top of the building could produce the “live” background of Bethesda, with DC with the cathedral, Washington Monument and Capital in the background that you seek. Of course any high-res feed from anywhere in the world can be used.
I hope that do take the opportunity to brand their new studios as being in downtown Bethesda. Have you heard if they still plan to include the Fox5 ticker on the edges of the Purple Line elevator/escalator canopy?
I’m still not sure how comfortable liberal democratic Bethesda and MoCo will be with the ultra conservative Fox5 in their henhouse.
Sinclair is the most right wing and they fit fine in Rosslyn
So you actually believe that the county council and economic development folks in MoCo should have somehow mandated how Fox5 designed and built their new studio? You believe that the developer should have been forced to put a large panoramic window in their new speculative office building?
I suppose you also believe that developers should be required by law to include disco’s with bottle service in all new buildings as well.
And we all though you were a Republican and a free market capitalist...
6:25: You are describing a Libertarian. No, I clearly did not say mandate - I said they should have negotiated and discussed the possibilities. Now it's yet another lost opportunity, because we have very stupid people in elected and appointed offices in our county.
He also thinks the DEEP STATE council should have forced the developers to put in a movie theater in Bethesda. That is idiotic and socialist. Did he really think that would work?
That the developers would be able just put one in by magic? And if no theater company wanted to have an outlet there that the developers wouldn’t be able to build?
6:42: LOL - Every member of the Council is a socialist. Don't you feel like a total chump supporting them and boosting their campaigns when you yourself claim to be a conservative Republican? Like most globalist Republicans on Capitol Hill, in action you are not a Republican.
You share the Council's own beliefs - that socialist policies should apply to everyone EXCEPT DEVELOPERS.
Meanwhile, it was the Council's sworn duty to protect our community and businesses by requiring a replacement cineplex. They declined to do so.
I bet the anti-cineplex folks posting here don't live in Bethesda. They are enjoying their new or renovated theaters in Silver Spring, Wheaton, Rockville, Gaithersburg, etc.
The theater should have gone into the building (Wilson) replacing the Apex building. Right at the purple line station, next to a metro entrance and easy stroll to restaurants.
How can you scream socialism and demand a private business have a movie theater? That is big government telling the private sector what to do.
Since you obviously know more about socialism than anybody else in the county please explain.
And if said business can’t find a theater tenet then what? The building site stays as is? Please enlighten all of us stupid people and let your big brained genius shine upon us
Rockville renovated? When?
Seems like incentives to include a theater would work. I.e. get more height in exchange for including a theater, as was apparently done for one project.
The county's tallest buildings should be near our downtown Transit stations anyway.
In today's climate (and especially given yesterday's scare at USA Today's headquarters), security consultants are probably strongly opposed to panoramic windows on newsrooms.
Sorry, but requiring a theater is an absolutely idiotic policy regardless of your political leanings, but especially if you're going to constantly complain about the council being socialist. Such a a requirement for any development project would place an enormous burden on the owner (and probably make it impossible to finance), but this particular project would have never happened if a theater was required given the space needs for parking, the CCT tunnel, and the Purple Line tunnel.
Movie theaters occupy well over 100,000 valuable SF. Carr made the right choice. Their office building is leasing extremely well at very high rents and the apartment building will probably be the most expensive in the county.
If you want to catch a movie you can find one nearby in nearly all directions. South to Friendship Heights, north to Pike & Rose, and west to Montgomery Mall. I agree that it would be great if downtown had a IMAX multiplex and that it would benefit surrounding business (although not to the extent you think), but requiring a specific developer to include one is absurd.
Barnes & Nobles probably had a greater impact on foot traffic than the theater anyway, but Bethesda Row is more active than its ever been. You parrot Donald Trump's talking points, and are clearly his biggest Bethesda fan, maybe you should ask him (a career developer) how he feels about your proposal.
7:37 AM Bethesda Row can't be more active than ever.
Maybe things will pick up when the new Matchbox, ice cream store and restaurants open.
The Matchbox and Bethesda Lane spaces are large and key, so there's no way you can say we're at peak activity with those vacancies.
No one here is stating that they would not love having a great new cineplex in the Wilson. What many seem to question is the belief that the developers should have been required to include one as part of their approval.
You all realize that the driving force at the Apex was the desire to rebuild the site to allow a more logically planned Purple Line station. If the project was not rebuilt, the station in the existing tunnel would be on a curve, creating dangerous gaps in the boarding platform. The existing tunnel did not have room for both a light rail station and the CCT,. The new CCT has been rebuilt in the project in a separate new tunnel, and will eventually extend under Wisconsin and connect with the new CCT that will be parallel to the Purple Line east of downtown. Thirdly the new south Metro entrance requires a massive new ventilation system that would have required a 90’ tall freestanding vent shaft if the building was not rebuilt and incorporated it into the design. You can see the massive new vents and shafts going in on the Wilson building now.
To incentivize the developer to rebuild the project, the county increased the allowable building height from the originally proposed 250’ to 290’, then eventually to 295’. To mandate an expensive cineplex as part of the approval might have killed whole project. Early conceptual plans did show a below grade cineplex, a bit like a larger version of the Landmark Bethesda Row, with four or five medium auditoriums and one larger one. Apparently this did not make financial sense for Carr and was removed, replaced primarily with more below grade parking.
I still have hope that JBG Smith will build an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, like the one they are doing in Crystal City, as the final part of their 7200 Wisconsin project. Buy and take down the older four story office building oat 7220 Wisconsin, and expand the adjacent parking decks, build a new underground or grade level cinema, topped by more office, hotel or residential. A perfect location for a new cineplex, across the street from the Bethesda Market Development by EYA, and steps from Red and Purple Lines and the CCT. They could use a reciprocal parking arrangement with the Wilson, 7200 and 4747 buildings to share and monetize the office parking in the evening and weekends when it is otherwise vacant.
7:32 AM No one wants to see a newsroom working, but having a studio open to the plaza or street would be ideal.
@ 7:32 AM - Security, definitely. But an even bigger concern for Fox would be Bethesdians carrying signs saying "FOX LIES" and "MOSCOW MITCH" in view of the cameras.
7:57 AM The "Save Westbard" signs too!
Re the cineplex:
-Wilson building - "that ship has sailed."
-7900 building - "that ship has sailed."
So, instead of beating these dead horses for all eternity, where do you propose to encourage a new cineplex to locate in downtown Bethesda?
Socialism is a scare word they've hurled at every advance the people have made. Socialism is what they called public power, social security, deposit insurance, and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for anything that helps all people. --Harry Truman, 1952
8:02 AM If they can assemble the spaces across from Veteran's Park, that would be one.
Ignore the toilet car man's "black box" theater idea that no one else wants (and we already have plenty of existing live theater spaces around town)
Seems like only Dyer has an uplifting, positive vision for Bethesda and MoCo as a whole right now. Everyone else is fearful and negative. Basically saying, we stink but there's nothing that can be done: we don't have an airport, we're old, we're georgetown, we don't go out to eat anymore, we're shut ins and don't want any damn nightime entertainment options downtown, we're stuck as a bedroom community, if you do anything special at Fox 5, people will shoot at them, if you want to see a movie, spend money in DC instead, etc.)
So why doesn't anyone vote for Dyer, ever? Why can't he even get paid advertisements on his blogs?
8:28: A total blackout on news coverage of me and my campaign, voter fraud, illegal voting and manipulation of voting machine results at dozens of precincts revealed by election data. I have had paid ads on my blog.
8:06: Reading skills are a must - the original comment I responded to called me a socialist, and I responded to it. Let's set the record straight.
7:52: Keep in mind that the minor master plan - the stage at which the Council could have mandated a theater - was approved long before Carr acquired the property. A totally different developer was originally working the project behind the scenes.
Carr's architect, in fact, showed the theater AND the Purple Line station in the original plan. So it clearly was viable.
7:37: "Bethesda Row is more active than it's ever been." LOL, have you been in Europe for the last couple of years. Anyone who has lived here more than a few years could instantly tell you the number of people patronizing Bethesda Row has significantly dropped over the last two years since the theater, and then B&N, closed.
The parking space vacancies were so embarrassing they had to disable the numbers readout on the older garage.
The Wilson is leasing, but it's not leasing to the type of tenants most desired for a Class A building, such as major corporate HQs - of which MoCo hasn't attracted a single one in over 20 years, so it hardly reflects badly on Carr, just our elected officials.
The only "absolutely idiotic policy" was to not require the replacement cineplex. As I warned the Council and Planning Board in 2014 testimony, the economic impact has been devastating on downtown businesses. It's cost us up to 20000 people per weekend who are no longer coming here for dinner and a movie.
7:48: All of the big restaurants that closed were still operating when the massive parking space vacancies began last summer - the egg definitely preceded the chicken in this case.
Not sure why the troll is so obsessed with past elections, but the last cycle was highly irregular. The first in at least a generation without a single debate or one word written in the legacy local media.
Remember, Councilman Leventhal's colorful debate socks received more coverage by legacy sources than the general county at large race.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/07/28/amc-and-regal-put-the-final-nail-in-moviepass.aspx
The negative anonymous guy is back.. cinema as we know it is doomed!
1:19 PM So you think our Governor, County Council, former County Exec and staff all wasted a tremendous amount of time try to lure Amazon HQ2? (And Amazon still scored all of the county's proprietary economic data).
The time has come for the return of multi-plex cinema in downtown Bethesda.
Full stop.
Just so we are clear, Robert Dyer advocates government being able to force land owners to build and only allow specific businesses on their property?
4:04
Yes. It is only socialist when the council is trying to do it. When he wants the same kind of control it is because Robert and ONLY Robert knows anything.
4:04: "Just so we are clear," the Minor Master Plan Amendment was secretly sought in 2014 by a developer who later dropped plans for 7272 Wisconsin. At that time, the proposed height of the new building was beyond what zoning allowed.
In exchange for giving an exception to current zoning via the MMPA, it is not only possible for the Council and Planning Board to extract concessions from the developer(s) who would profit from the exception, but it is their job as representatives of the people to get public benefits for those extra profits being allowed to the private business.
For 7272 Wisconsin, at a minimum, those should have included a requiring a replacement cineplex to protect the downtown economy, and having the developer pay for and construct the replacement CCT tunnel under 355.
Beholden to developers, the Council and PB declined to mandate either.
Second, as I've noted for years, the Planning Board set a precedent that it can force a developer to have a particular type of business on-site as a condition of approval. That was set when the PB required the Stonehall to have a "high-quality restaurant" on the premises.
The only reason it didn't happen was that a different set of PB commissioners later agreed to release Duball, LLC from the mandate.
So there are indeed specific instances where government can and should mandate a specific business (as the District - often only in letter rather than practice - supposedly attempts to limit the loss of gas stations on lucrative development sites, unlike MoCo).
What was the rationale for releasing the mandate?
The parking garage across from Vuk is always full Friday night.
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