Apartments at Sumner Place plan unveiled in Bethesda (Photos)

W.C. & A.N. Miller has revealed its plan to redevelop part of the parking lot at its Shops at Sumner Place property at 4701 Sangamore Road in Bethesda into an apartment building. The Apartments at Sumner Place would be 5 stories and 57' tall, and house 132 rental apartments, 20 of which would be Moderately-Priced Dwelling Units (MPDUs). Parking would be provided in an underground parking garage at the rear of the building (facing the Sumner Village condos). Amenity common areas in the building might include a fitness center, party room and an outdoor terrace. 

A new curb cut will be added to Sentinel Drive beyond the existing one, near the property line with Sumner Village. It will be used for loading dock access. From the renderings shown, the building will block the view of the shopping center from the units in Sumner Village that will be directly behind it. 

W.C. & A.N. Miller also revealed that it has future plans for the part of the parking lot along Sentinel Drive where a drive-thru ATM is currently located. A rendering shows that area being replaced in the future by a new retail building, a daycare facility, and a playground. A second pad site retail building facing the new Apartments at Sumner Place across the main driveway through the parking lot is also shown for a future phase. It would take some of the parking currently used by Safeway customers.

Phasing plan showing future retail
buildings, daycare facility and playground
(far left and center)

As I reported last week, a required public meeting on the proposal will be held tonight, April 13, 2023, at 7:00 PM at Capital Workspaces (located over the Safeway at The Shops at Sumner Place) at 4701 Sangamore Road, Suite 100N. A Montgomery County Development Review Committee meeting on the plan is scheduled for April 25. W.C. & A.N. Miller currently hopes to formally submit its Preliminary Plan and Site Plan for the project to Montgomery County in June or July.

A public hearing on the plans would be expected to be held by the Montgomery County Planning Board in October or November 2023. There is not yet a timeline for the groundbreaking or delivery of the project.

Images courtesy W.C. & A.N. Miller/Faik Tugberk, Architects Collaborative

Apartment building proposed for Shops at Sumner Place in Bethesda

W.C. & A.N. Miller can't wait any longer for the Purple Line. The longtime developer and landowner of The Shops at Sumner Place shopping center (a.k.a. Little Falls Mall) at 4701 Sangamore Road in Bethesda is proposing to redevelop part of the property as an apartment building. According to a sign posted on the property yesterday, The Apartments at Sumner Place would be 45' tall, and house 132 apartments, up to 20 "live/work units," and "amenity open space." 

The sign does not specify what additional parking facilities would be provided for tenants of the new apartments, nor the specific location of the proposed building on the site. A section of the large parking lot that is currently used for vehicle storage by W.C. & A.N. Miller and other authorized tenants includes a vacant building that was formerly a PNC Bank. The shopping center is surrounded by other multifamily housing developments on three sides, including Sumner Village and Sumner Highlands, and the Intelligence Community Campus is across the street on Sangamore Road. 

Sign posted on the property
(please click to enlarge)

A required public meeting has been scheduled on the proposal for Thursday, April 13, 2023 at 7:00 PM at Capital Workspaces (located over the Safeway at The Shops at Sumner Place) at 4701 Sangamore Road, Suite 100N. In a rare move for the pandemic era, no virtual meeting URL is mentioned on the sign. However, the sign does give a URL where the presentation materials will be available starting April 10, and gives an email address you can contact for "virtual options."

Currently underutilzed area of the 
Sumner Place parking lot indicated
in red (former PNC Bank at center-left)

By moving forward now, the additional density the Purple Line would allow will not be there to take advantage of with this project. While the theoretical justification for going to Sumner with the light rail line would have been the major employment centers of the ICC campus and Sibley Hospital, I am curious if the behind-the-scenes discussion is turning against extending the Purple Line in that direction. Every inch of the Purple Line extension beyond downtown Bethesda will be a fierce political and legal battle. After all the smoke and courtrooms clear, and the extension were actually built, I firmly believe it would be 2050 or later.

Vacant PNC Bank building

Much "YIMBY Astroturf" discussion in recent years has debated taking the Purple Line to River Road to urbanize the Westbard area, but then having it run out River Road to the Capital Beltway, and then to Tysons over the American Legion Bridge. We do know for certain that the Montgomery County and Maryland state governments have taken several drastic traffic-engineering steps along that stretch of River Road in recent years that clearly indicate their (and developers') perverse desire to redevelop the churches, Kenwood Golf & Country Club, schools, State Highway Adminstration depot, and American Plant site between Kenwood and the Beltway into multifamily housing. That is a greedy and damnable effort you can expect to persist regardless of the Purple Line's future route. But one reader recently suggested something in the comments I hadn't thought of: Is the Montgomery County government's fever to capture half of Little Falls Parkway really about securing that space for the Purple Line to run down the parkway to River Road? 

NEW MARKET OPENING IN FORMER BETHESDA MARKET SPACE AT SUMNER PLACE

Another Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row Exclusive!!!

A new market has signed a lease in the space formerly occupied by Bethesda Market, at the Shops at Sumner Place.

Patty Emory of shopping center owner W.C. & A.N. Miller says that the market will be very similar to the old one, but with "much improved inventory and service."

That is great news for all those who were disappointed when Bethesda Market abruptly closed its doors last year.

Even better news:  the new market will be offering beer and wine, extending the hope that nearby residents - and employees of the soon-to-expand intelligence campus across Sangamore Road - will once again have beer and wine tastings within walking distance.

The as-of-yet unnamed market's owner has "a proven track record and experience," says Emory.

Things are starting to turn around after a brief downturn at Sumner Place.  The future federal employees and residents will soon have a convenient beer and wine store, and a new sushi restaurant called Passion Fin three doors down.

The space in between Passion Fin and Starbucks remains vacant.  Let's hope an interesting restaurant leases that space, or an entertainment related retailer like GameStop.