Historic Bethesda bank building sells at a loss in auction

The historic former Bank of Bethesda building at 7500 Wisconsin Avenue was auctioned off in March. A resulting real estate transaction, which closed on April 23, has just been entered into Maryland property records. The winning bid was $4,100,000, a significant haircut from the last sale of the building in 2020, when it sold for $6,175,000. That sale was in turn a major drop in value from the $9,300,000 SunTrust (now Truist) paid for the landmark crossroads property in 2016. SunTrust had sold the building in 2008 for $5.5 million, so it's been a money loser for every buyer for over a decade now.

Who acquired the bank building late last month, and what can we expect to happen to it? The property record is too confusing to reach a solid conclusion on that at the moment. "DNA Real Properties LLC" is listed as the new owner. That entity is a real estate firm located in Las Vegas, with no public-facing website that I can locate. But...the address given on the state record for DNA Real Properties LLC is right here in Montgomery County, at 3111 Automobile Boulevard in Silver Spring. That's the Koons Silver Spring auto dealership at the Montgomery Auto Sales Park. 

But the property at 3111 Automobile Boulevard is not owned by DNA Real Properties LLC. The dealership site is currently owned by the Mary A. Nonnemacker et al Trust. That is the only property at the Auto Sales Park owned by that trust, and as far as my research finds, the only Koons dealership property owned by the trust in Maryland.

Koons recently opened an urban-style Lincoln dealership in downtown Bethesda. Will the bank building become another storefront dealership for Koons, or do DNA Real Properties or the Mary A. Nonnemacker trust have other plans? Who is the real owner, and where are they actually located? Was DNA a holding company for the property until the real buyer could obtain financing and close on it, and is mistakenly listed as still being the current owner? The transaction record raises almost as many questions as it answers.

Historic Bank of Bethesda building to be auctioned off online

A historic Bethesda landmark could be yours next month, if you win an online auction of the property, located at one of Montgomery County's most-heavily traveled crossroads in downtown Bethesda. The Bank of Bethesda building opened in 1927 at 7500 Wisconsin Avenue. It sits at the crossroads of Wisconsin, East-West Highway and Old Georgetown Road, and directly opposite the Bethesda Metro station. The building would later transfer to other banks, such as Crestar and - most recently - SunTrust. 

A Prince George's County development firm acquired the building for $6,175,000 in 2020. The reason for the "low" price at such a prime location is largely tied to the fact that redevelopment options are far more restrained than for a non-historic property. As we've seen at The Whitney up the street, residential or office space can be added to a historic property, if key structures and facades are retained. So there is lucrative potential for the site with the right architectural vision, but a developer can't simply raze the bank and redevelop every square foot of the property. Alternatively, a new owner can keep the building as-is, and lease it out to banks or other retail/office tenants for significant income.

Transwestern is handling the auction, which will be held online starting March 19, 2024, and continuing through March 21. The starting bid is $1,250,000. Could it go for less than $6,175,000? Given how much you could charge for rent in the Bethesda market, or realize in a partial redevelopment/addition to the site, that could end up being a steal.

Historic Bethesda Theatre marquee replaced with...LED electronic screen (Photos)

The marquee of the historic Bethesda Theatre at 7719 Wisconsin Avenue has been replaced with an LED electronic screen. Earl Ciccel, owner-manager of current tenant Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club, wrote to Montgomery County that the existing marquee was dangerous for staff to change the letters in a travel lane of Wisconsin, and that letters were falling off onto pedestrians below. There is also an ongoing issue of water damage to the marquee and neon signage, and the supper club is proposing to replace the neon light tubes from the BETHESDA sign with LED rope lighting that is supposed to replicate the appearance of the old bulbs.

Montgomery County's Historic Preservation Commission approved the replacement marquee, under the condition that a row of bulbs remain above and below the LED screen. This is what was allowed at the historic AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring. The HPC said it was not as sold on the LED rope lighting, and would have to see an existing example of it "in the field" to evaluate how accurately it can duplicate the look of the original lighting.

My personal take is that LED marquees degrade the historic character of old movie theaters. They are cheaper to maintain, and will be more attention-getting for the supper club, and I realize they need all the help they can get in the current business environment. 

But I'm not in favor of this. Wisconsin Avenue has been six lanes for decades, and somehow the letters got changed and stayed on without anyone being injured. If the original wiring and lighting of the rest of the marquee signage need help, why wasn't at least a tiny fraction of the $11 million(!!) the Maryland General Assembly is giving to the Olney Theatre Center directed to that purpose? 

Whatever the thinking, I believe the HPC is misreading the County code and Secretary of the Interior standards in determining that LED screens are "compatible in character" with a 1938 movie theater facade, and that "the removal of historic materials or alteration of features and spaces that characterize a property" is somehow being "avoided" in this case.

Bethesda building still vacant 31 months later, despite prime crossroads location

A SunTrust Bank branch moved out of the historic building at 7500 Wisconsin Avenue in February 2018. Despite the highly-visible location at the major intersection of Wisconsin with Old Georgetown Road and East-West Highway, the space has remained vacant for 31 months. Real estate firm KLNB has placed signage in the windows marketing it for retail or office use. The building has also been offered for sale, and has redevelopment potential with a 290' height and 5.0 FAR. I've always thought it was a prime location to install a giant TV screen and news ticker, if it ever was redeveloped.

Bethesda's historic Magruder House for lease

Magruder House, a rare 18th century home in Montgomery County, is now available for lease. The home was sold to MRS Real Estate Investment Properties, LLC in November by Capital One Bank, which had operated a branch there from 1978 until 2015. Also known by its original name, Locust Grove, the brick house and property sold for $1,000,000, according to real estate records. Magruder House is located at 7340 Westlake Terrace.

If the name sounds familiar, it's because it was the home of Samuel Wade Magruder, a towering figure in Montgomery County history, and a major in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. When Montgomery County established its first County courthouse, Magruder was one of the initial presiding judges. Patrick Magruder represented Maryland in the U.S. House of Representatives. And most residents above single-digit age are probably familiar with the Magruder's grocery chain, which recently ceased opeation within Montgomery County.

William Wirt in a public
domain image from the
Library of Congress

William Wirt was a boarder at the home when he attended Tusculum Academy, the site of which is now home to the Potomac Methodist Church at 9908 South Glen Road in Potomac, according to the book Maryland, A Guide to the Old Line State. That's right at Falls Road, for those unfamiliar with the location. A native of Bladensburg, Wirt prosecuted the case against Aaron Burr for treason.

After moving to Virginia, Wirt was elected to the House of Delegates, and later became Attorney General of the United States. He was the Anti-Masonic Party candidate for U.S. President in 1832, one of several trounced by Old Hickory himself, Andrew Jackson. One irony in that, is that Wirt represented the Cherokee Nation against Jackson-backed efforts to remove them from Georgia, which concluded in the Trail of Tears forced march west.

Another interesting historical tidbit about this property, is that, after falling out of the Magruder family's ownership, it was at one point owned by the Tenleytown and Rockville Land Company, according to historian John Walton, Jr. That was a division of the trolley company that operated between Friendship Heights and Rockville from 1890 to 1935. Cyclists and joggers today know part of its old right-of-way as the Bethesda Trolley Trail.

A KNLB leasing sign
on the site near Montgomery Mall

Magruder House is being offered for lease by KNLB, according to a sign posted on the property. However, I could not find an online listing on the KNLB website at the time of this writing.

Macedonia Baptist Church requests historic designation for endangered Bethesda cemetery

Action freezes development

at cemetery site

Macedonia Baptist Church has filed a formal request with the Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission and Planning Board to have the threatened Moses African Cemetery declared historic. “With this filing, Macedonia is engaging the protective laws that were in place over two years ago when the Historic Preservation Commission informed the county that Parcels 175 & 177 were ‘of high archeological interest,’" church leaders said in a statement. "Right then and there the County should have embraced HPC’s recommendations to purchase the land and protect it."

Parcels 175 and 177 are parts of a historic black cemetery that contains among its remains the first generation of freed slaves in Maryland, adjacent to the Westwood Tower apartments on Westbard Avenue and an auto repair shop on River Road. Past members of the lost African-American community along that stretch of River Road are buried there, and some of their descendants have been located and are engaged in the fight to prevent the graveyard from development.

In their statement, the church refers to the Montgomery County cartel that I often reference on this website, a cartel that has been behind a team County government effort to steamroller the church and descendant community all of this year. "Land use in Montgomery County is controlled by a rogue cartel of developers and compromised county officials—by serious conflicts of interest because of the campaign contributions developers pour into county elections. 'This cartel was on full display Thursday night when it rubber stamped the further desecration of Moses Cemetery and ignored the wishes of the community yet again,'" Macedonia social justice director Marsha Coleman-Adebayo said.

Harvey Matthews, a church trustee and resident of the lost River Road community until his family was forced off its land in the late 1950s, noted that Montgomery County gives greater protected status to pet cemeteries than to black cemeteries like Moses. "Shockingly, the County will protect dogs and cats and snakes—in perpetuity—under the dictates of historic preservation law," Matthews said Wednesday. "Maybe they would let our ancestors—who were often treated by veterinarians while enslaved—rest in peace beside Fido, and Garfield and Monty Python.”

The church's request requires the HPC by law to begin the process of adding the Moses Cemetery site to the Montgomery County Locational Atlas and Index of Historic Sites. That interim step temporarily prevents any additional development at the two parcels in which the cemetery was established in 1911.

Historic Community Paint & Hardware store moved in Bethesda (Videos + Photos)

Crowds of spectators turned out to watch the move of the historic Community Paint and Hardware store overnight in downtown Bethesda. Some were filled with nostalgia, others were simply trying to figure out why there was a massive police operation up and down Wisconsin Avenue. The police numbers were matched by the number of hard-hatted utility workers, who were charged with making sure neither their infrastructure nor the venerable building were damaged by the move.

The store, originally known as the Wilson Store, was moved to clear the way for the redevelopment of the Apex Building at 7272 Wisconsin Avenue. It was previously moved a short distance south in the late 1980s, when that building itself was constructed.

A massive police presence
was needed up and down
Wisconsin Avenue

Crowds began to gather
as southbound Wisconsin
was shut down

Utility workers would swing
each of these signal arms
aside as the store passed
each intersection

The store is ready to move

Two northbound lanes of
Wisconsin remained open

Utility workers had to
protect their infrastructure
while ensuring clearance
for the historic building

Workers manually turned
off traffic signals at each
intersection 

Finally, it was time to move the building, one half following the other, creeping slowly up Wisconsin Avenue to Middleton Lane. There, a site was prepared for the building's new home, in a Montgomery County public parking lot. It is expected to be leased to a professional or retail business.

Front half of store
rolling onto Wisconsin
Avenue

The rear half of the
building creeping up
Wisconsin Avenue

Rear half on Wisconsin

Police had to yell at drivers
who were snapping cell phone pics
to remind them that's illegal

First half of store reaches
Middleton Lane

Police ask crowd to step back
"in case anything goes wrong"
as store is backed down Middleton

Panoramic view of turn
at Middleton

Both halves pause at
Middleton Lane

Front half arrives
at Middleton

Traveling this far was the
easy part, though

Making the reverse turn
onto Middleton, and clearing
the Wisconsin median, were
the biggest challenge

A loud bang startled the
crew, causing a delay, but
eventually the first (rear)
half made the tricky turn

As the rear half starts down
Middleton, the front half
moves into position to begin
the turn to follow it

Rear half makes it
down Middleton to the
destination site

Front half makes the turn
onto Middleton

Front half moving down Middleton
past Chevy Chase Cars to
public parking lot site

Now all that's left is to put
the two pieces back together

Chopped! Historic Wilson Store cut in half (Photos)

The historic Wilson Store building at 7250 Wisconsin Avenue has been chopped in half, in preparation for relocating it to a Montgomery County parking lot on Middleton Lane. That move is scheduled to take place on around August 19, according to the County.

You can see that half of the building has already been raised; the structure will be moved on a motorized dolly system. A sketch of a map is posted, but it's unclear if it is related to the need to remove some obstructions along the route during the nighttime move. Perhaps one of our resident construction or engineering experts can decipher what that map is showing.

Believed to be the oldest, and only remaining 19th century, building in downtown Bethesda, the Wilson Store was later well known as Community Paint and Hardware. It was moved a short distance during the construction of the Apex Building at 7272 Wisconsin in the late 1980s. The latter building is being demolished to make way for a Carr Properties mixed-use project and Purple Line station.

Map

Close-up of beams placed
under the building

As heavy rains continue, can baggies save foundation of historic Bethesda building? (Photos)

UPDATE 1:50 PM: A stop work order has now been posted at the site, and a citation has been issued for working without a permit.

There is no evidence that Montgomery County, or the Historic Preservation Commission, have conducted a site visit to the Wilson Store, now the subject of controversy after the building's foundation was exposed to the elements. The required foundation permit is not displayed on the premises, as would be required to start that excavation work, and there is no "stop work" order posted - as there would have been, had an inspector found that work started. Only the permit request notice remains posted on the building, located at 7250 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda.

"Baggie" placed alongside
part of building foundation

While many heavy rains have passed through the area over the last couple of weeks, residents who have asked a court to halt the planned relocation of the building to Middleton Lane have expressed concern that stormwater runoff is damaging its foundation.

Remnants of the latest
downpour on Wednesday
on the surface adjacent to
the Wilson Store

Now large "baggies" have been placed along some parts of the exposed foundation. It's unclear how effective they are in actually keeping water out. Other gaps remain open to the elements. The last remaining 19th century building in downtown Bethesda, the Wilson Store appears to be a low priority for Montgomery County officials and the County Council.