Fourth try for stalled Rock Spring Centre development in the works (Photos)

Project density reduced to delay high-rises

in favor of mid-rise residential and

retail anchored by grocery store

Rock Spring Centre, a major mixed-use development in North Bethesda that has been stalled since 1998, is coming out of the cobwebs for a fourth time by my count. And it's taking a suburban turn away from the original urban concept for now, due to a weakening in the Montgomery County real estate market. In a new site plan amendment, developers seek to significantly reduce the number of residential units in two high-rise buildings for Phase 1 and Phase 2, to allow for more-immediate development of 133100 SF of non-residential uses and 610 residential units in Phase 3 at the lower southeast corner of the property. Any other uses would be relegated to a new Phase 4 in the future.

The project had been revived once in 2011, and partner Peterson Cos. dropped out the following year. In the fall of 2015, DRI attempted to move a revised plan without a movie theater forward, but financing proved to be an issue when an additional investment partner did not materialize. By 2019, the project's approvals were set to expire, which would have scuttled the whole plan. A team of Rock Spring Properties, Floyd E. Davis Company and Buchanan Partners sought and received an extension last July.

View from helicopter over future
Rock Spring Plaza and forest
conservation area

At the time, the applicants' attorney, Steven A. Robins, told the Montgomery County Planning Board that the plan had "evolved" since 2015, and that a new preliminary plan would be filed at a later date. Now we have a site plan amendment in the works, which would reduce the number of residential units in Rock Spring Tower One by 226 units and in Rock Spring Tower Two by 227 units. This density would then be transferred to the Phase 3 development. In other words, consider Phase 3 to be "Phase 1" at this point.

View across Rock Spring Drive from
helicopter above Walter Johnson/Giant side

The applicant developers are the same as in 2019. In a statement filed with the Montgomery County Planning Department by the applicants' law firm, Lerch Early & Brewer, the developers explain that "[t]here currently is not a market to support construction of high-rise residential towers on the Property." As a result, they are now seeking to build the Phase 1 and 2 towers with only 125 units in each building at a later date, if the market improves for high-rises.

View from northbound
Old Georgetown Road

A ground lease on the property forbids condo development, so all units at Rock Spring Centre will be rental-only. The developers stress that the amendments being sought are primarily to position a larger Phase 3 for successful realization, by ensuring there are enough residents in the Phase 3 area to support the significant retail that will be located there.

Residential and retail buildings at corner of
Old Georgetown and Rock Spring Drive
showing internal parking

Phase 3 will be split into two sub-phases, 3a and 3b. Phase 3a will include a shopping center with surface parking, anchored by a grocery store, and with a drive-thru restaurant pad site at the southeast corner facing Old Georgetown Road and the future Quarry Knoll Drive. It will also include a 6-story residential building with up to 305 units and up to 33000 SF of ground floor retail. That building will have six levels of parking, five of which will be "semi-concealed" by storefronts, residential units or architectural treatments.

Grocery store-anchored shopping center
with surface parking, drive-thru restaurant
a block north of the mixed-use part of Phase 3

The developers note that drive-thrus have even greater importance now in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. They also say that the location and current market demand a traditional, auto-centric retail center at this time, and that they will have the option to develop a building on the surface parking when the market calls for it at a later date, "when the market can support a more 'urban' grocery store at this location."

Grocery store

Phase 3b will feature a 7-story residential building with up to 309 units, and up to 23300 SF of ground floor retail space. It will have a 6-story above-ground parking structure with concealing treatments similar to the other building. The developers are leaving the option open to build Phases 3a and 3b separately, or simultaneously, based upon market demand.

View from Rock Spring Drive

The developers say that there will be three points of emphasis in the Phase 3 development: significant forested areas that will remain preserved on the site, the natural water feature from which the property derived its name, and pedestrian safety. An internal spine road, Stone Gate Lane, will connect Old Georgetown Road with Rockledge Boulevard. It will have street parking, but be wider than the internal roads of Pike & Rose. There will be street trees and outdoor cafe seating.

View from across Old Georgetown Road

A main internal intersection - Stone Gate Lane at Stone Spring Street - will be constructed as a "tabletop intersection." The roadway will be flush with the sidewalk there, and have special pavers, bollards, lighting and planting the applicants state will calm traffic and improve pedestrian safety. It will also be the gateway to a 0.60 acre Rock Spring Plaza public space and the forest conservation area beyond it. Rock Spring Plaza will have an active water feature, performance space and seating areas.

Current state of the interior of
the Estate House on the property

Immediately adjacent to the plaza and forest area will be a replica of the existing Estate House, the original family home which currently still stands on the property. It will house retail or a restaurant. The developers are in discussions with the Planning Department and Montgomery Parks about the possibility of creating an interim recreational field atop stormwater management space at the corner of Rockledge Drive and Rockledge Boulevard.

A signaled intersection will provide safer access to the property from Walter Johnson High School across Rock Spring Drive. Recreational trails traversing the forest conservation areas are planned, but most other recreational features will be for residents of the future buildings.

According to the developers, the project can build up to 1250 units, and will not be impacted by a development moratorium related to school overcrowding.

The downsizing at Rock Spring is the latest evidence that the market for apartments and condos is weakening in Montgomery County. Virtually every new high-rise apartment building since the Great Recession is hosting airbnb hotel guests, students, and contract housing recipients, rather than all actual renters paying full rent.

A Westbard redevelopment plan rammed through over resident objections is already partially collapsing from the late realization of what residents had argued from the beginning - there just isn't much demand for residential or retail space in a town already dotted with vacant apartments and storefronts. Sector plans that similarly gave away the store to developers in places like Wheaton and Forest Glen have stalled out entirely. Just yesterday, the County Council proposed giving developers a sweetheart deal to build at Metro stations in those areas - 15 years of paying no property taxes, even as residents were socked with yet another property tax increase in the FY-2021 budget.

In making the announcement, Councilmember Hans Riemer acknowledged that there is currently no market demand for such multifamily projects in Montgomery County. He did not articulate why taxpayers should subsidize developments for which there is currently no market, probably because the whole idea makes no sense whatsoever.

Fortunately, Rock Spring Centre is not seeking such taxpayer handouts. It still looks like it could be a pretty good development in this form, if the right retail and restaurant tenants can be attracted. That is a challenge in itself, in moribund Montgomery County. But the site has always had the advantage of being right at an interstate interchange, a potential traffic generator that downtown Bethesda and Westbard do not share.