The Wilson, a Class A office tower developed by Carr Properties at 7272 Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, is about 5 floors above street level now (the building will top out at 290'). No major corporate headquarters tenant has been found yet, but Fox 5 will be moving their offices here from Northwest Washington. In fact, none of the post-recession office projects has been able to break that streak of failure in moribund, antil-business MoCo. Montgomery County has failed to attract a single major corporate headquarters in over two decades. Among the major corporate tenants who chose Virginia over Montgomery County are Northrop Grumman, Volkswagen, Intelsat, Hilton Hotels, CEB, Gerber, Amazon, Nestle, and Lidl.
26 comments:
I knew he couldn't make it through one post without "moribund". Everybody drink!
8:02AM Cin cin!
212K SF of the 360K SF available office space has been pre-leased. That's all I got.
Will this site feature blade signs when it is complete?
Wow, I can’t believe how stupid those developers are to build dozens and dozens of high rise offices, apartments, condos, hotels and restaurants without the prospect of a Fortune 500 HQ. They must not read this very informative blog that continually decries the demise of Bethesda. They must be all fools!
Or maybe you have overemphasized the importance of relocated corporate headquarters when analyzing the business health of a community.
Play the drinking game carefully. Downing a shot for every ‘moribund’ ‘Hans’ or ‘cartel’ could lead to alcohol poisoning.
10:14 AM I haven't seen "Hans" mentioned much other than by you in the comments.
"Wow, I can’t believe how stupid those developers are to build dozens and dozens of high rise offices, apartments, condos, hotels and restaurants without the prospect of a Fortune 500 HQ."
Or a multiplex cinema showing blockbusters.
I previously heard there will be two buildings. One office building, and one condo building. Is this still true? Are they building both buildings simultaneously
I love what Dyer is doing for MoCo with these reports!
Every day I wake up and Roald is giving Attaboys to Robert Dyer and his reports!
Take that, MoCo Cartel!
I hope The Wilson gets a sewer connection so they can turn it into a billion-dollar federal tax shelter!
Check out Rockville Nights for an update on a new winery/restaurant in a surrounding town!
I love MoCo!
Too bad Bethesda lost Grapeseed and Vino Volo...
10:46
One building is office and one is apartments on top of a shared podium, which is what you see here.
https://ggwash.org/view/42261/this-building-is-very-tall-and-very-vacant
11:57am old article!
The tallest building in the region is Capital One's headquarters in Tysons and it is quite occupied.
11:36am great report on Rockville Nights. I love Cooper's Hawk!
Fairfax lost Exxon Mobil. Arlington lost Northrup Grumman when they moved to the vacant Exxon Mobil headquarters. General Dynamics' headquarters is also in the vacant Exxon Mobil headquarters.
Correction/clarification: Texas poached the Mobil headquarters in Fairfax when Mobil merged to become ExxonMobil, and moved to join Exxon down in Irvine, Texas.
"Vacant ExxonMobil headquarters" should be "vacant Mobil headquarters".
Since the building height is measured from the grade at the building entrance on Elm, to the top of the highest occupied floor, the actual and perceived height of the apartment will be much higher than the approved height of 290’. The entry on Elm is on an upper level of a plaza at the corner of Wisconsin and Elm, about 40’ above the height of the future Capital Crescent Civic Green. The apartments include a roof terrace and amenity space, as well as a very tall mechanical penthouse that is about 50’ above the highest occupied floor. Together, these two extentions at the top and bottom of the tower will add about 90’ to the height, so the total building height viewed from the corner of Woodmont and Bethesda, will be about 380’ tall.
For reference, this is 30’ taller than TWICE the height of the new 4747 Bethesda office building which is 175’ measured to the top of the penthouse level.
This slender end of the 30 story high Elm will be a soaring mixed use tower overlooking the Capital Crescent Civic Green. The height of the 23 story Wilson office tower on Wisconsin will be only slightly shorter, and also dominate the skyline, at least until the Avocet and Metro Towers are completed a 250’. Maybe two more 185’ and 225’ residential towers near the Farm Women’s Market, and a third 250’ tall tower on the vacant gas station site, and a 295’ high tower for 4 Metro Center.
Big at very tall changes are coming to this end of Bethesda.
9:58: No, I have not overestimated the importance of corporate headquarters - Montgomery County, which hasn't attracted a single major corporate HQ (and has lost others it had in the past) in over twenty years, is at rock bottom in the region for job creation, new business starts and business growth. MoCo also has declining revenue despite record high taxes, and is suffering from a structural budget deficit as far out as the forecasts go.
It's quite clear that corporate HQs are a critical element to a successful economy in a region like this.
10:46: Yes, still 2 buildings, but this report is only on the office tower.
Why do you include all of Montgomery County in your comments? I thought this was a blog about Bethesda, specifically Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row.
Many of your negative comments are about the ills of MoCo, and most of your readers comments are counter arguments about the incredible growth in Downtown Bethesda area. Can we get on the same page?
Yes of course MoCo in general is stagnant in many ways, but you can not claim that downtown Bethesda is in any way in decline, with over 24 recent high rise projects that were built and fully occupied since 2008, and over 36 high rise projects under construction or under review.
Yes, we have less night clubs and lost a mainstream theater, but you must realize that all this recent and new construction is a tremendous growth spurt for the Bethesda CBD. We all know you like to look on the dark side of most topics, but clearly all this activity in Bethesda is a net positive for the city. Perhaps you don’t agree how it has and is growing, but you can not state that We are not experiencing a very large increase in density.
With massive transit connectivity to other nearby areas, I’m not so sure that all places need to be packed with corporate headquarters to thrive. Perhaps Bethesda’s strength will not be based on its own corporate offices, but a more diverse mixture of lifestyle choices. A very reasonable 18 minute ride on the Red Line gets you to downtown DC with millions of corporate office spaces. Historically, for the most part, Bethesda had been one of the bedroom communities that supported the CBD of DC. Over time, it has created its own business district, but still has a very large residential base. I believe about 36,000 people work in the downtown, and about 10,000 people live in downtown. With all of the new construction, it is predicted that with the new offices being built about 45,000 people will work in downtown, but 25,000 will soon live in the downtown, a large shift toward a residential orientation.
I read somewhere that 35% of the downtown Bethesda residents use the Metro to travel to other locations to commute to work, and an equal amount of people living outside of the area use Metro to travel to the city. Obviously some come to work in area offices, but most are likely to travel here for shopping, dining, special events and entertainment.
1:09 PM The Exxon Mobile campus in Fairfax was bought by INOVA who just opened a new cancer center and are planning a large mixed-use/medical focused development. General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman have their own properties @ fairview park (caddy corner across 495/ rt50)
5:17
Yep and Avocet will be around 300' if you include the trellis.
Saith Dyer: "Yes, still 2 buildings, but this report is only on the office tower."
Also saith Dyer: "Among the major corporate tenants who chose Virginia over Montgomery County are Northrop Grumman, Volkswagen, Intelsat, Hilton Hotels, CEB, Gerber, Amazon, Nestle, and Lidl."
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