Longtime residents may recall the Bethesda TV & Appliance Co., Inc. on Fairmont Avenue. The building was built by the business owner, Ray Stone, in 1955. It was the first commercial building constructed on that block of Fairmont. Stone passed away in March of 2014 at the age of 96. In recent years, the building was leased as a construction office for the Bainbridge Bethesda apartment tower, until being acquired as part of the future site of the St. Elmo Apartments.
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| A view of the destruction from St. Elmo Avenue |
If existing apartment tenants continue to enjoy a 0.4% mandatory rent increase cap, it seems that new apartments like St. Elmo will be required to charge a higher rate to make up the difference. Sort of an unintended consequence of restricting rent increases.
ReplyDeleteSo sad to see this come down even though it was inevitable. My grandfather was a customer for years and I went with him to Bethesda TV many, many times. Old Bethesda is indeed fading away.
ReplyDelete"If existing apartment tenants continue to enjoy a 0.4% mandatory rent increase cap, it seems that new apartments like St. Elmo will be required to charge a higher rate to make up the difference. Sort of an unintended consequence of restricting rent increases."
ReplyDeleteWhat on earth are you talking about? The owner will - as always - charge as much rent as the market will bear. You think they currently don't? And obviously a 3 month .4% rent cap in 2022 isn't going to affect a building that won't come online for several years.
The only way for rents to come down (or at least slow the pace of increase) is to keep putting up new buildings to compete for tenants.
ReplyDeleteMy point was that any form of rent increase protection is simply offset by landlords charging more for new tenants in existing buildings, and for all tenants in new buildings. Rent increase protection only works for tenants that stay in place, and can dramatically impact others.
ReplyDeleteOf course landlords will charge as much as the market will bear, but at least existing tenants have some stability if restrictions are in place.
It seems the one way to get low rent, is to sign up during initial lease up, where landlords often offer one or more months free to entice tenants. Of course one would need to be willing to move every year to maintain these discounts. Not fun.
"My point was that any form of rent increase protection is simply offset by landlords charging more for new tenants in existing buildings"
ReplyDeleteAnd my point is that makes zero sense. Landlords don't get to "simply offset" by "charging more." The result of a landlord increasing prices beyond market rate isn't that the landlord makes more money. The result is the unit sits vacant.