DC developer buys downtown Bethesda office building

D.C. real estate powerhouse Douglas Development has just acquired the office building located at 7514 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda. A small building, its tenants include Keepers Staffing and Tyber Bierhaus.

Developer Douglas Jemal has been active with a number of transactions in downtown Bethesda in recent years. Douglas Development sold its 8008 Wisconsin property to Toll Brothers, acquired a small parking lot on Del Ray Avenue, and just this week celebrated a addition of new anchor tenant Target at its Shops of Wisconsin mall.

The most anticipated Douglas project is on the properties that house the old Tommy Joe's space, and the venerable Pines of Rome restaurant, giving the firm a through-block space large enough for a major mixed-use high rise.

At least one seriously injured in 18-wheeler-car collision in Bethesda

A car and a tractor trailer have collided on River Road at Landy Lane in Bethesda. At least one person is seriously injured, classified as a trauma patient and described as "unconscious." That person had to be extricated from the wreckage of the car.

There is a leak of diesel fuel from the tractor trailer. Avoid the area if possible.

Westbard cemetery protest at Planning HQ Thursday 10:00 AM

Macedonia Baptist Church is holding a press conference and protest regarding Montgomery County's failure to respect an African-American cemetery in the Westbard area of Bethesda - upon which developer Equity One and the county's Housing Opportunities Commission wish to build a parking garage - tomorrow, Thursday, April 6, at 10:00 AM, at the Montgomery County Planning Department headquarters at 8787 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring.

After the Planning Department stalled in reaching an agreement with two anthropologists the church sought to have oversee an investigation of the cemetery, which was already desecrated by construction workers building Westwood Tower in the late 1960s, County Executive Ike Leggett asked the Planning Board to appoint a mediator to resolve the dispute.

Evidence that has come to light, regarding attempts by the department to withhold information on the cemetery and its desecration from the Planning Board and the public, has outraged church officials. "Recently released documents exposed a vast Planning Department 'cover-up' of information led by Montgomery County Planning Director Gwen Wright regarding the African Burial Ground," the church said in a press release yesterday. "Ms. Wright took pains to conceal documents showing the location of the Bethesda African Cemetery from the Planning Commissioners, County Council, the public and indeed the County Executive, Ike Leggett. Further, freedom of Information documents and previously marked confidential records show that the county's Housing Opportunity Commission (HOC) and Equity One (EO) have been collaborating since 2015 on development plans to facilitate HOC's and EO's mutual illicit goals."

"It is the mother of all ironies that HOC—whose ostensible mission is to assist low income families, including African Americans—would collude to build a parking garage and housing on top of a cemetery that is the final resting place for many 1st generation freed Africans," said Macedonia Baptist Church Pastor-elect Rev. Segun Adebayo. "Some 60 years ago, it was collusion between the county and developers that systematically dispossessed our ancestors of very valuable land," Adebayo said. "And it is Montgomery County and Equity One who are doing the same things today. Because of Ms. Wright's role in the 'cover-up' we will not accept her participation in the planning process or the mediation."

At the last protest over the cemetery at Planning HQ, the department or Planning Board called in 7 police officers to confront protesters, and Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson surrounded himself with 3 officers when approached by representatives of the church who wanted to hand him a petition. On Thursday, the Board will have a completely-unspecified discussion related to the stalled cemetery investigation, and the public has been denied the right to speak at the meeting. Strangely, there is no staff report for this agenda item less than 24 hours before the meeting, raising further questions of transparency.

Want the signs from Dunmor's Beer House in Bethesda?

Here's a find for the collector of Bethesda history. Two signs from Dunmor's "beer house," the landmark at 8013 Woodmont Avenue being razed to make way for a Toll Brothers' condo building, were for sale on Craigslist yesterday. Alas, the listing seems to have disappeared now, possibly indicating they were sold. Fortunately, I got a screenshot before the ad vanished.

Bethesda Target opens early - and you're going inside (Photos)

The new Target store in downtown Bethesda had a soft-opening last night, complete with a DJ and celebratory cake. I now bring you the first images from inside the long-awaited store. Target is located in the Shops of Wisconsin at 6831 Wisconsin Avenue (a.k.a. Trader Joe's).

Target cake with Target
napkins

DJ

Escalators

The store's number - in balloons

Groceries

Wall art

Self-checkouts

Milk

CVS Pharmacy counter

Fresh copies of
Star Wars: Rogue One

A great selection of games
for downtown Bethesda

PS4 is well-represented,
as well

Starbucks inside Target

Montgomery County Council stealing money from senior citizens via "tax credit"

Montgomery County falsely asserts that its proposed FY-2018 budget "holds the line on taxes," and reduces the property tax rate "by 2.5 cents." In reality, homeowners will pay more in property taxes, due to rising assessments. That's not the only doublespeak in the budget. Olney resident Louis Wilen has done the math, and found that the theoretically-generous Homeowners Tax Credit of $692 actually raises the tax bills of senior citizens over 65 who make less than $60,000 a year.

Worksheet by Louis Wilen showing
comparison of issuance of $692 flat credit
versus non-issuance of $692 flat credit
(click to enlarge for greater detail)

Seniors aren't aware of this, Wilen says, because the Homeowners Tax Credit worksheet is not usually provided to homeowners, meaning that the tax credit calculation is hidden from them. For those seniors under the $60,000 income level, that calculation turns the $692 tax credit into a $346 tax increase. Wilen will ask the Council at tonight's budget public hearing to replace the flat $692 credit with a decrease in the property tax rate, to solve the problem for the affected seniors.

Wilen's finding fits a long-time pattern of this County Council, which has a history of imposing flat taxes and fees that hit residents with low or fixed incomes hard countywide. Taking advantage of senior citizens won't help the Council erase the severe trust deficit it has with its constituents, which led to overwhelming passage of term limits last November.

Gas leak in Glen Echo Heights

Montgomery County firefighters are responding to a report of a gas leak in Glen Echo Heights. According to scanner reports, firefighters on the scene report that a construction crew working on a house in the 5300 block of Wapokoneta Road have struck a 2-3" gas line underground. Firefighters are evacuating the house, and say that the gas level in the air is rising rapidly, according to their monitors.

Lawyer MoCo Council hired without knowing how much he'd charge will cost $575 an hour

Remember when the Montgomery County Council hired an immigration lawyer on March 7, without knowing how much he would charge taxpayers for his services? It turns out you'll be paying him $575 an hour, according to the Daily Caller. Maybe he just "blew them away in the interview," like Lee Mazzilli did the Orioles front office in 2004. Remember how well that worked out?

Attorney Leon Rodriguez's fee is even higher than what the County is paying for legal representation in the Silver Spring Transit Center lawsuit. Yet, the specific purpose for retaining Rodriguez has yet to be articulated by either the Council or County Executive Ike Leggett.

This simply adds to the speculation that Rodriguez will be an expensive way for the Council to divert attention from its disastrous handling of the economy, and bad relations with many communities over unpopular land-use decisions. He will likely be utilized in what will amount to expensive PR stunts over federal immigration issues, to capitalize politically on the overwhelming opposition to President Donald Trump in progressive Montgomery County.

That may make for good politics, but it is a shameful abuse of taxpayer funds. Montgomery County is the only jurisdiction in the D.C. region to hire a separate immigration lawyer, which alone tells you how morally and ethically wrong the move is. County attorney Marc Hansen is fully-qualified to address any federal immigration issue that relates to Montgomery County, just as his counterparts do in every other local jurisdiction.

Just in today's Council session alone, councilmembers are set to approve over $1.5 million in new salaries, for frivolous new County government jobs ranging from security officers for the $1.6 million conversion of the County Council Building into a literal bunker, to a new small business office and staff - who wouldn't be needed if the County didn't have the most overbearing tax and regulation burden in the region.

Now we find out the immigration attorney hired with the non-specific purpose of protecting illegal immigrants, just 9 days before two illegal immigrants would be accused of gang-raping a 14-year-old girl in a bathroom at Rockville High School, will cost us $575 an hour. How much money has the County Council put toward the safety of children in our public schools since March 16? Zero dollars. What a public relations disaster.

Throw the bums out.

Class 520 Thai ice cream rolls moving in, Ten Thousand Villages moving out in Bethesda (Photos)

Movers unloading the
equipment and inventory
for Class 520

Two businesses went in two separate directions yesterday at the Shoppes of Bethesda on Elm Street. Class 520, a Thai ice cream roll shop, was moving in, as Ten Thousand Villages was being emptied out after closing. This is the second location of Class 520, which started with the original Rockville store.

Class 520

Class 520

Ten Thousand Villages

Perhaps the last
Ten Thousand Villages
shopping bag to be
found in Bethesda

A couple of Montgomery County
Councilmembers stopped by to
bid farewell to
Ten Thousand Villages, yet
another business closing on
their watch

Ten Thousand Villages

MoCo Planning Dept. sought to withhold Westbard cemetery info from Planning Board, public, emails show

2015 Planning Department
"Confidential" internal map
showing cemetery

Emails reveal senior staff at the Montgomery County Planning Department sought to keep detailed information about a Bethesda African-American cemetery from being shared with the Planning Board and the public, during the Westbard sector plan process. Montgomery Parks and Planning Department staff knew the exact site of the cemetery, and had found no evidence to suggest those buried there had been removed. The troubling picture comes to light from a batch of public information request emails obtained by Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row, giving more context to the current controversy over the graveyard between the department and Macedonia Baptist Church, whose earlier members are among those buried there.

A press release from the church this morning calls the effort to keep cemetery details "confidential" a "vast government cover-up." The Planning Board is scheduled to hear an update on the cemetery investigation, which it had ordered the Planning Department to have completed by now, on Thursday morning. But that investigation has not even begun, and the Board is now likely to instead discuss a letter from County Executive Ike Leggett, directing them to have an independent arbitrator resolve the dispute between the department and the church. MBC leaders are planning a protest at the Planning headquarters at 8787 Georgia Avenue during Thursday's meeting, at which the public is being denied the right to speak.

The internal emails, primarily from 2015, show that Senior Planner for Historic Preservation Sandra Youla had uncovered a significant amount of detail about the hidden cemetery, which was already desecrated by construction workers building the Westwood Tower apartments in the late 1960s. Developer Equity One and the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission are now actively seeking to build a parking garage on the cemetery site, which would desecrate the cemetery once more. Youla, who was responsible for one of the few bright spots of the Westbard sector plan - an extensive historical background section - provided land records, aerial photographs showing a tree-covered cemetery site, newspaper and oral history accounts, and even a map showing the plot's location on the Westwood Tower site.

All of this information was labeled, "confidential." But as a Planning Board bus tour that would include the cemetery site neared, senior department leaders sought to prevent commissioners from learning the details Youla had provided.

In a September 15, 2015 email to Montgomery County Planning Director Gwen Wright, Youla said Westbard sector plan project manager John Marcolin "will be in touch to ask how to handle questions on this potential archaeological site on the upcoming Westbard PB [Planning Board] tour on 9.17.2015." Youla appears to have been advised by senior staff that the cemetery details should be kept tightly controlled at this point, even as the Board and the public should have had full access to be able to provide feedback on the plan. "Please do not distribute further until we discuss," Youla warns several Parks Department employees in another September 13 email with attachments of a cemetery history and maps.

A September 8, 2015 message explicitly identifies the burial site as encompassing "Parcel 175...and Parcel 177," and asks if those parcels are being considered for purchase by the County as parkland. Of course, Equity One and HOC were at the same hour steaming ahead with a plan to build a garage on the cemetery. It might be a good idea to let the Board and the public know that the cemetery is on that site, right?

Not so fast. "[M]y understanding is that we are not bringing up the topic of the cemetery at all," wrote Area 1 Division Chief Robert Kronenberg on the morning of the bus tour. "I hope Sandra [Youla] understood that." Later that day, after the Planning Board bus tour has ended, Department of Parks Cultural Resources Manager Joey Lampl expresses her concern to Kronenberg that the "Planning Department did not wish to bring [the cemetery] up this morning," arguing that it is essential "that Planning and Parks agree on when to bring up this important subject to the attention of the Planning Board...sooner, rather than later."

"Thanks for meeting with me and John Hench the other day to clarify who is saying what on the tour today," Park and Trail Planning Supervisor Brooke Farquhar wrote to Marcolin, Youla and Historic Preservation advisor Scott Whipple the morning of the tour. "The plan is:
1. There will be no site-specific indication of where the cemetery was because now it
is considered an archaeological site."
2. Gwen will respond to any questions about the pre-existing cemetery and its
relocation."

Note the highlighted words referring to the cemetery in the past tense, and citing its "relocation." Huh? The information Youla provided these staff members with, in fact, showed no evidence that the cemetery had been relocated. She was unequivocal in her finding on that matter:  "No evidence has been uncovered yet that human remains were relocated from the one-acre parcel."

My own research has uncovered no records or documents showing any authorized relocation of remains from this site, and neither have the separate research efforts of the Macedonia Baptist Church and Little Falls Watershed Alliance. In short, while we know that some remains on the site were illegally relocated downward from the Westwood Tower footprint by construction workers, and an unspecified number of other remains may have been illegally relocated to Howard Chapel Cemetery by Westwood Tower architect John d’Epagnier, there is no evidentiary reason to believe the hundreds of other gravesites there have been disturbed or relocated. The article by Bill Turque in the Washington Post that recounted the alleged reburials at Howard Chapel also revealed further cover-ups by the Planning Department, which never informed the public of the information it had regarding d'Epagnier's actions, nor that all documents related to the construction of Westwood Tower had been mysteriously "shredded" in 2015.

Youla also made several significant recommendations. First, that the African-American cemetery and an unrelated family cemetery "be added to the Montgomery County Cemetery Inventory, and perhaps this should be added as a recommendation in the Westbard Sector Plan." Second, that the "River Road African American cemetery should certainly be commemorated, regardless of whether there are still remains on site." That is the same position MBC's Pastor-elect Segun Adebayo has taken publicly.

"[I]t is reasonable to explore purchasing both parcels P175 and P177 as park land," Youla wrote, another recommendation of MBC, which wants to build a museum commemorating the River Road African-American community. Youla also suggested the Parks Department conduct ground penetrating radar tests to delineate the cemetery, and that Equity One should be notified of the graveyard.

Notably, Youla also wrote that "There may be remains on other nearby parcels, since cemetery boundaries may not have been precisely marked and it is a frequent occurrence that graves extend beyond cemetery boundaries." That is precisely one of the concerns MBC and the community had when the Planning Board rammed through Equity One's sketch plan in February - could there be remains either already in-place, or illegally relocated, on adjacent parcels which now could be redeveloped thanks to that decision. Youla brought up the question of whether the Planning Board should make an official declaration in the sector plan that any remains on-site should be left to rest in peace, even if Equity One has the legal right to move them.

"We all need to be on the same page," wrote Park and Planning Stewardship Division Chief John Hench on the morning of the bus tour. It appears the Planning Department, Equity One, the Planning Board and the public were anything but. Youla's recommendations and findings were watered down in the final Westbard sector plan. At one point, the plan dares to declare, "The cemetery is no longer extant, the land having been sold in 1958."

Advocates for historical preservation of the cemetery and the lost black community are questioning what the effort to downplay the cemetery in 2015 was all about. "The question remains whether upper echelon officials were utterly left in the dark throughout the process, or if they were privy to the cover-up and had a part in structuring the proceedings in a way that could provide them plausible deniability," Macedonia Baptist Church asked in its press release this morning.

Voorthuis opening today at Westfield Montgomery Mall, Stride Rite closes (Photos)

Stride Rite

The new Westfield Montgomery Mall location of Voorthuis Opticians will open this morning at 10:00 AM. It is located on Level 2, next to Tommy Bahama in the Nordstrom wing. In other mall news, eyebrow-threading studio Brow Art 23 has moved into a new space near its old kiosk. Finally, Stride Rite has closed altogether.

Brow Art 23

Car stolen on Wisconsin Ave., missing person in Randolph Hills + more - Bethesda crime update

Here's a roundup of crimes reported across Bethesda on March 30, according to crime data:

Stolen car. 7700 block Wisconsin Avenue.

Theft from vehicle. 7100 block Arlington Road.

Theft. 5400 block Wisconsin Avenue.

Theft. 9800 block Belhaven Road.

Theft. Lord & Taylor (White Flint Mall).

Missing person. 11500 block Monongahela Drive (Randolph Hills).

Petition asks Federal Realty to keep Barnes & Noble at Bethesda Row

As the realization that downtown Bethesda's community hub Barnes & Noble is on the way out sinks in, some residents are seeking to stop the December closure of the bookstore. A petition asking landlord Federal Realty to "Keep Barnes & Noble in Bethesda" on Change.org had 447 signatures as of 7:57 AM this morning.

The petition asks Federal Realty to "strike a fair leasing deal" with the struggling chain bookseller, and threatens to boycott the as-yet-unknown replacement tenant(s) of the large anchor space at the corner of Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues. It has even drawn a snarky comment from snarky blogger Matthew Yglesias, who once thought invading Iraq was a good idea.

How much room there is for reconsideration of Barnes & Noble's decision to exit is unclear, but the odds of reversing it are likely steep. Barnes & Noble said yesterday in a statement that they were "unable to come to an agreement" with Federal Realty on a new lease. For its part, Federal Realty is saying nothing about the future of Barnes & Noble, having a policy to not comment on tenants' lease situations.

My guess is that the struggling bookstore chain doesn't want to be tied down to a long new lease for any of its stores, and that could have made the potential rent significantly higher. Secondly, we don't know what Federal Realty may know. If Nike is waiting in the wings to lease this spot they've been rumored to covet, for example, that could be a more appealing anchor - from a real estate standpoint - than a chain bookstore that could file for bankruptcy at any time - particularly if the country goes into recession again.

A standard retailer in that spot, with no public gathering space inside, is unlikely to satisfy those lamenting the demise of Barnes & Noble. In the event there is no new tenant already secured, I'm sure Federal Realty is going to consider public sentiments such as those expressed in this petition. But, ultimately, such decisions are usually driven by the current real estate market, including the decision to let B&N go.

Drug bust at Walter Johnson HS, car stolen in Randolph Hills + more - Bethesda crime update

Here's a roundup of crimes reported across Bethesda on March 29, according to crime data:

Drug arrest. Walter Johnson High School.

Drug arrest. 10400 block Old Georgetown Road.

Vehicle burglary. Georgetown Square Giant.

Liquor arrest. 10500 block Rock Spring Drive.

Collision/property damage. 10900 block Westlake Drive.

Stolen car. 4800 block Topping Road (Randolph Hills).

Barnes & Noble closing at Bethesda Row

Barnes & Noble will close at Bethesda Row at the end of this year, according to David Deason, VP of Development at the bookstore chain. The store has been rumored to be closing for years, with a Nike store at one point the subject of speculation as a replacement tenant. This time the lease is indeed up, and B&N is out.

"We had discussions with the property owner in hopes of agreeing to an extension of the lease," Deason said in a statement this morning, "but unfortunately, we were unable to come to an agreement." He said the North Bethesda store at Montrose Crossing will remain open.

The closing will be a severe blow to downtown Bethesda, and to foot traffic around Bethesda Row. It has served as everything from a meeting place, to a place to charge your gadgets during power outages. With a cafe upstairs, and a plaza out front, the bookstore has served as quasi-public space for the last two decades. Whoever the next tenant is will almost certainly not allow people to just hang out inside the store. Barnes & Noble has also been a symbol of Bethesda's highly-educated population, where you were as likely to bump into David Brooks or a CNN anchorman as you were your neighbor.

While the store had cut back nighttime hours in the aftermath of Montgomery County Councilmember Hans Riemer's disastrous "nighttime economy" initiative, the collapse of downtown Bethesda's nighttime economy that initiative triggered is not believed to be the reason for the closure.

True Food Kitchen Bethesda opening pushed back to June

True Food Kitchen's Bethesda restaurant won't make its previously-announced Spring 2017 debut. The company says the grand opening will now be in June 2017. They are currently hiring a sous chef for the restaurant. Serving upscale, healthy cuisine, True Food Kitchen will be located in the Solaire Bethesda apartment building, and its address will be 7100 Wisconsin Avenue.

Theft at Whitman HS, Bethesda Row Apple Store + more -- Bethesda crime update

Here's a roundup of crimes reported across Bethesda on March 28, according to crime data:

Theft from vehicle. St. Elmo Avenue at Arlington Road.

Theft. 7200 block Woodmont Avenue.

Theft. Bethesda Row Apple Store.

Theft. 4300 block East-West Highway.

Theft. 5500 block Wisconsin Avenue.

Theft. Friendship Heights Giant.

Theft. Walt Whitman HS.

Theft from vehicle. 7100 block Democracy Boulevard.

Collision/property damage. 10600 block Kenilworth Avenue.

Progress at River Rd.-Braeburn Pkwy. intersection as Monday crash shows Whitman crosswalk danger

Maryland State Highway Administration workers have made significant progress toward completion of an interim flashing signal solution for the dangerous intersection of River Road and Braeburn Parkway near Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda. Additional poles have been erected, and already the "Braeburn Parkway" street sign is attached to a new signal arm over River Road at the intersection. The backplate of an eventual message sign is installed, as well.

At the crosswalk just east of the intersection, which nearby residents consider just as dangerous as the intersection itself, a street light has been erected. The project is supposed to be completed by the end of March, so they have about 13 hours left. Three people died in an accident at this intersection last year, when their turning Chevrolet Volt was hit by a westbound driver who had been traveling 115 MPH approaching the crossing.

On Monday, I saw the aftermath of the type of accident residents have reported at the crosswalk in the past. Approaching the top of the hill from Goldsboro Road, I saw a three-car crash had occurred in the left lane. A white Mercedes Benz was stopped just short of the crosswalk, and each of the two cars behind it had hit the rear of the vehicle in front of it. It looked as though the driver of the Mercedes had tried to stop for a pedestrian trying to cross River Road.

Just wanted to pass this report along as we await the results of the SHA study for a realigned River Road-Pyle Road intersection.