A tower crane has been assembled at the Westbard Square development in Bethesda. It will assist with construction of a new 200-unit apartment building, which is the final phase of redevelopment on the former Westwood Shopping Center site at 5400 Westbard Avenue. The stack-and-pack style building will have ground floor retail space, and above-ground structured parking. Greystar is the developer, and the building was designed by MV+A Architects. A mid-2027 delivery is expected for the project.
Nice to see this multi-family mixed use project getting built. Residential housing construction starts are way down, as much as 40% below last month, in the East Coast.
ReplyDeleteThey have created plenty of fertile ground for petty crime.
DeleteOh wow, apartment construction around Bethesda. Huh.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, dog bites man; night follows day; water reported by many to be wet.
If you haven’t noticed, there are almost no buildings under construction in Bethesda, or in fact the entire DC area. So yes, this is a big deal.
DeleteIf you haven’t noticed, Bethesda is awash in apartment buildings and condos already completed. There is no law that requires we continue to build and build and build. A compulsion among property developers, sure, but therapy or a 12-step program can alleviate that addiction.
Delete4:40 PM Good answer!!! :-)
DeleteHow many stories is this to be? Looks like it will be tall.
ReplyDelete5 Stories - 60 feet total height
DeleteIt is two stories of residential over one story of parking over retail. So really not that tall, but a fairly large footprint, hence the long tower crane.
ReplyDelete4:40 More folks living in a walkable, pedestrian friendly downtown discourages suburban sprawl elsewhere, and helps retail, restaurants, cafes, movie theaters, performing arts centers, county parks, farmers markets and even a new planned aquatic/recreational center, to thrive. Of course there is no law that requires this growth, but it certainly improves the public realm for many.
ReplyDelete6:41: This is what they promise us to get approval, but they fail to deliver. "I will gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today." Movie theaters are in demand, but simply not as financially lucrative as using that space for more square footage of retail or residential use. Ergo, we got no replacement for the Regal Bethesda at 7272 Wisconsin. The County Council should have made a replacement cineplex mandatory in the minor master plan amendment governing redevelopment of that property, but deliberately opted not to, deferring to the developer.
DeleteNew planned aquatic or recreation center? These have long been needed in downtown Bethesda and at Westbard. Yet they were included in neither master plan, and I'm not aware of any proposal for one since.
Within one generation, our elected officials have managed to destroy three major gathering spaces in downtown Bethesda that had energy after business hours: the Metro Center plaza, the Apex Building plaza, and the Barnes & Noble plaza. It takes real talent at being a moron or a villain to pull off a trifecta like that. We're being led by very stupid people.
Gosh, @6:41, that does sound appealing! "Retail, restaurants, cafes, movie theaters, performing arts centers, county parks, farmers markets and even a new planned aquatic/recreational center"
DeleteAs Robert points out @ 8:41, a fair chunk of your fantasy world has no reality/earthly/Westbard-based corollary. Also, about your use of plurals --i.e. "farmer's markets". I know of Normans Farms, on Mass Ave, which has been running in one or another fashion for almost 40 years, so seemingly doing something that has let it manage all these years before the arrival of new apartments at Westbard. I'm not sure where those other farmer's markets, plural, are, though. Certainly, nothing comes up in Google searches for "Farmers' market near Westbard." Maybe that info will be updated once these additional apts go online.
The best thing for county parks to thrive is for developers to stop building. There's an undeniable element of the absurd in suggesting nature's future is better reassured by the addition of more concrete, drywall, and itinerant lese-holders than it is by being left alone. "We had to close the forest because not enough people visited," said no one ever.
I’m sorry about the grammatical error. Each one of these large mixed-use projects is required to seta aside 20% of their site as open space, often in the form of privately owned public space (POPS). Most of these projects are redeveloped existing sites that have little or no green space, like the next phase of Westbard is replacing a massive strip center and surface park with housing, retail, structured parking and enabled a permanent POPS in the form of Westbard Square, as well as another smaller paper on the north end. Yes these projects add people, but the county certainly requires developers to add open space and expand public realm amenities like street trees, benches, and pedestrian scaled lighting. I can’t think of any county park that can’t benefit from more people. Trying to stop all new development is equally absurd, as these new projects drive the county to have more affordable (MPDU) housing units, sustainable and energy efficient design, and fund infrastructure improvements that the whole community can enjoy.
ReplyDeleteA decade of the Downtown Bethesda development plan and no meaningful open space has been added in that time. The Council backed out of a plan to expand Veterans Park and have a public green. It was a bait and switch.
ReplyDeleteDo you really expect The Council to do anything useful?
DeleteCapital Crescent Civic Green was acquired by the county, planning to start this fall. Two new county parks on Elm are now proposed and waiting for the developer to proceed. The East Greenway has partial if full site plan approval on three blocks, again waiting for those three developers to advance their projects. Getting private developers to pay for and build your county parks seems to be a long game…
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