Montgomery County taxpayers pay $9.6 million for new park that won't happen; developer to get land instead

Novel Bethesda continues to sidestep
community engagement with new plan

Montgomery County's unusual land-use authority, the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, has another potential scandal on its hands. Commissioners purchased two properties in 2020, 7800 and 7810 Wisconsin Avenue for $9.6 million. At the time, they told the public that the land would become an extension of Veterans Park. However, last week, the commission said that the park will not be built after all, because it could not acquire the Reddz Trading building and an adjacent 4-story condo building on Woodmont Avenue. Instead, a significant part of the land will now be buildable space for the Novel Bethesda apartment tower at 7820 Wisconsin Avenue.

What was promised in 2021

What was promised to taxpayers by
Montgomery County officials in 2021,
when they purchased $9.6 million in property

What was shown by the developer of Novel Bethesda in 2021 as a large green space, is shown on new renderings as a comparatively narrow strip, and is hardscape rather than green space. The Novel Bethesda itself is now shown as having a larger footprint, instead. Despite the new proposed configuration of the project, the renderings are appearing at meetings of the Bethesda Design Advisory Panel (last week) and at the Development Review Committee (tomorrow, December 6, 2022), but no public meeting was held for nearby residential property owners beforehand.

What may actually happen instead, if the
new proposal is approved by Montgomery County

Adjacent property owners in the Fairmont Plaza condos at 4801 Fairmont Avenue say they have received no notice of the altered plans from the Novel Bethesda developer, have not been offered a new meeting with the developer, and were not informed of the DAP or DRC meetings. No pre-submission public meeting was held, despite new plans. The developer's plan to have all of the garage, loading dock and trash collection functions of the building face residents at Fairmont Plaza was not well received by residents in 2021, and remains the case in the new renderings as well.

The M-NCPPC commissioners who approved the $9.6 million land purchase in 2021 were forced to resign by the Montgomery County Council earlier this fall over other controversies. 

Several questions remain to be answered:

1. Will the developer of Novel Bethesda, which is reportedly in discussions to purchase 7800/7810 Wisconsin from the M-NCPPC, have to compensate Montgomery County taxpayers for the properties at the full, current market value? Montgomery County officials have a long record of either selling public land to private developers at below market value, or outright gifting it for free, such as public rights-of-way.

2. Why did M-NCPPC commissioners approve the sale without finding out if the other two property owners would sell first? This was basic due diligence when making such an expensive land purchase. Instead, a reckless decision was made with Other People's Money. This purchase decision process should be folded into the large number of scandals from the past planning commissioners that remain to be investigated.

3. Now that the land on 7800/7810 is available, why isn't the Novel Bethesda being reconfigured so that the loudly-promised extension of Veterans Park can be successfully realized on the Fairmont Avenue side of the Novel Bethesda site (they own the EagleBank and 7-Eleven properties), and the massive 31-story building itself be relocated onto all of 7800/7810 Wisconsin, and utility functions of the building placed on Norfolk Avenue?

4. Why is Novel Bethesda expressing great concern about its project's impact and compatibility with the Marriott International headquarters to the Design Advisory Panel, and none about the Fairmont Plaza? The Marriott HQ is not a residential building, and relatively few employees are working on-site. With the continued working-from-home phenomenon, many residents of Fairmont Plaza will have 24-hour impacts from the Novel Bethesda.

7820 Wisconsin Avenue redevelopment project hits bump

Another bump has appeared in the long and winding road to redeveloping the square block bounded by Wisconsin, Norfolk, Woodmont and Fairmont Avenues in downtown Bethesda. The recently-unveiled 7820 Wisconsin project has hit a snag that will require a brief delay, and a new public meeting to be held. A new land acquisition on the block requires a revision to the project's sketch plan, so the holdup is not related to any of the issues discussed at the original public meeting on the project.

The developers will submit a new sketch plan to Montgomery County. A new public meeting will then be held in about two months or less.

7820 Wisconsin final design will depend on Montgomery County delivering expansion of Veterans Park

A few more details and questions came to light at last night's presubmittal meeting for the proposed redevelopment of the 7-Eleven at 7820 Wisconsin Avenue, and the former EagleBank building behind it. Attorneys Barbara Sears and Nick Mansperger represented the applicant shell companies, Bethesda Land, LLC and Bethmont, LLC. As I reported last week, the proposed 315' tall tower would include 403 residential units and 14750 square feet of retail and restaurant space. While the renderings are far more advanced than most projects at this stage, there are two factors that could significantly alter the final design of the tower.

One factor will be whether or not Montgomery County can deliver the proposed expansion of Veterans Park on the other half of this square block of Wisconsin. That park is prominently shown in the renderings for 7820, which led one resident to say it was "disingenuous" to show it as already complete in the images. If the park is not delivered by the County, the applicants will revise the design of the building.

A second factor, what to do about the small 4-story condo building next to the EagleBank building, shed light on what the two massing options shown in my previous report were all about. If the applicants cannot obtain the ground rights, they will at least attempt to obtain the air rights to build over the condo building.

Final parking space numbers are not yet available. The applicants plan to provide sufficient parking for residents, but none for the retail or restaurant patrons.

Two points of controversy emerged at last night's meeting. The biggest sticking point is the plan to place the garage entrance and loading dock on the Fairmont Avenue side of the building, which particularly offends residents of Fairmont Plaza who will face that side. Virtual "attendees" pressed the attorneys on this decision, and asked why no traffic studies on that loading dock plan have been conducted.

The attorneys argued that the County does not allow loading docks on Woodmont Avenue. When a resident pointed out that the new 8001 Woodmont has its loading dock on that side just yards away from the 7820 Wisconsin site, the attorneys could not immediately answer why it had been allowed in that case.

A second community complaint was the lack of a delivery pull-off area, which has caused trucks to block traffic at other buildings like Flats 8300 when they stop in travel lanes to make deliveries. Few buildings provide these in recent years, and the County Planning Board has shown little mettle in demanding developers provide them.

Rendering courtesy of Design Collective

7820 Wisconsin developer unveils designs for tower with 25.1% affordable housing in Bethesda

Here's a first look at the newest plans for the redevelopment of the 7-Eleven and former EagleBank properties into a single, high-rise building at 7820 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda.

The proposal for the tower includes 403 residential units and 14,750 SF of ground floor retail and restaurant space. If that number of units remains the same at approval, the developer is offering to have 101 affordable MPDU units in the building. That would be 25.1% affordable housing, higher than the standard 15.1% required here by Montgomery County. 

Exceeding the MPDU minimum will allow the building to be a maximum of 315' tall, which would make it one of the tallest buildings in downtown Bethesda so far. 290' is the standard maximum height under the 2017 Bethesda Downtown sector plan.

Public open space is
shown in green

250 square feet of public open space is proposed, and 7000 SF of right-of-way streetscape area (likely to comply with Bus Rapid Transit requirements along Wisconsin Avenue and future bike lanes along Woodmont and Fairmont Avenues). The open space is truly in the postage-stamp category, and would be placed at either end of the Fairmont Avenue side of the property.

Garage entrance and loading dock
are proposed for Fairmont Avenue side

Once again, the less-desirable side of the buiding is being pointed at Fairmont Plaza. The parking garage entrance and loading dock will be on that side, near the middle of the block. Of course, this makes some sense in that the other streets are far busier. But if there is no retail or restaurant use on that side, the design would effectuate the opposite of new urbanism principles, and deactivate the block from the level of activity it now has with 7-Eleven.

Renderings for the building - much splashier and more-advanced than many developers show at this stage of the process - show compatibility between the design and a potential Norfolk Avenue/Veterans Park Civic Green directly adjacent to it. Montgomery County will have to acquire the other half of the square block to achieve this goal, however. Given the pie-in-the-sky nature of that happening, the renderings that emphasize a green space the property owners don't control must be taken with more than one grain of salt.

More details about the project and timeline will be discussed at the virtual meeting I previously reported will be held on January 25, 2021.

The two adjoining lots that
would be assembled for 7820 Wisconsin

All renderings courtesy of Design Collective

New renderings of 7820 Wisconsin Avenue tower - possible tallest building in Bethesda (Photos)

Developer Aris Mardirossian's planned 7820 Wisconsin Avenue residential tower will vie with at least two other projects for the title of "tallest building in Bethesda." More advanced renderings by the project's architecture firm, Baltimore-based Design Collective, have been unveiled on their website. The renderings also show massing images of the future Marriott headquarters on the next block south, and Fairmont Plaza, which looks like a low-rise building placed next to the 314' tall 7820.

7820 will include 320 units, 9,000 GSF of retail, and a 5-level underground parking garage. 25% of the units will be designated as affordable.

Rendering courtesy Design Collective
All rights reserved

Proposed Bethesda residential tower could be tallest in town (Photos)

Developers unveiled plans for a new high-rise in downtown Bethesda, on the site of 7-Eleven and EagleBank, at the corner of Wisconsin and Fairmont Avenues at a public meeting last night. Bethmont, LLC, and Bethesda Land, LLC are partners on the mixed-use project; Design Collective is the architect, and VIKA will handle the engineering aspects.

Attorney Barbara Sears of Linowes & Blocher said the approval process for the 319-unit tower is expected to take twelve to eighteen months. Construction will take two years.

The building will feature 150 underground parking spaces, a lit top and sky lounge, and 8700 SF of retail space around the ground level. At least one resident at last night's meeting wanted 7-Eleven to return in that space, calling the popular convenience store "a valuable community amenity." Sears said a convenience store was not out of the question for the development.

Sears also said they were unable to coordinate a larger project with all of the landowners south of the site on that square block. She said the developers haven't yet determined whether the building will be marketed as rental apartments or condominiums. The tower could rival Carr Properties' 7272 Wisconsin project in height, with 30 stories or 290'.

The primary concern expressed by residents last night was the plan to place all vehicular access - resident garage and loading dock - on the Fairmont Avenue side of the building. Residents noted that most properties along Wisconsin and Woodmont Avenues have vehicular access from those routes, including the new Marriott headquarters and hotel, Flats at 8300 apartments and Fairmont Plaza directly across the street from this proposed project.