Wednesday, March 06, 2019

MCDOT to lease historic Wilson Store on Middleton Lane

The historic Wilson Store (a.k.a. Community Paint & Hardware) at 4538 Middleton Lane in downtown Bethesda has been available for lease for over a year. With no private sector takers, owner Montgomery County is now going to lease the vacant building to...Montgomery County. The County Department of Transportation is proposing to enter into a 1-year lease of the structure for $32,525. It will have an option to renew after one year with a 3% rent increase.

Montgomery County acquired the building from developer Carr Properties, and agreed to relocate it from its former location next to the now-demolished Apex Building to facilitate redevelopment of 7272 Wisconsin Avenue. The store, believed to be the last remaining 19th century building in downtown Bethesda, had previously been moved a short distance in the late 1980s, to make room for the Apex Building. This time, the move was to the County parking lot at 4538 Middleton, where the County hoped a doctor's office or beauty salon might lease the space. Several residents sued to stop the move, but it took place anyway.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Several residents sued to stop the move, but it took place anyway."

LOL

Anonymous said...

They should have just torn this down. Another ridiculous waste of money.

Anonymous said...

The developers paid to move it.

Anonymous said...

It doesn't matter who paid. It was still a waste of money. The county could have extracted a different concession from the developer. And did the developer also pay to rehab the building, and will the developer be paying to maintain the building, and did the developer pay for the parking lot on Middleton that could have been used for another purpose or sold to the person who owns the lot fronting Wisconsin in the block to make a larger lot?

Anonymous said...

"The historic Wilson Store (a.k.a. Community Paint & Hardware) at 4538 Middleton Lane in downtown Bethesda has been available for lease for over a year. With no private sector takers, owner Montgomery County is now going to lease the vacant building to...Montgomery County."

The building had spent the previous three decades of its existence as a bank.

Is that what you would have preferred to see there?