The latest of many public meetings on the St. Elmo Apartments development, in the works for five years, produced big news. Developer Duball, LLC has joined the project as a partner, after the Lenkin Companies concluded they didn't have an adequate team to bring it to the finish line. This immediately raises expectations for a building that already looked promising in the renderings. Duball has become one of the most prolific developers of luxury properties in downtown Bethesda, with the Lionsgate, Stonehall Bethesda and Cheval Bethesda condos already in their Bethesda portfolio.
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View of sketch plan version (left) and proposed
version (right) from Old Georgetown Road |
Now Duball is steering the St. Elmo Apartments project, which will be located next to the Bainbridge Bethesda at 4930 Fairmont Avenue. Duball President Marc Dubick reassured attendees of the firm's experience in delivering large buildings in downtown Bethesda, their ability to manage construction of such projects with as little impact as possible on neighbors, and their long-term commitment to the community compared to out-of-town developers that build and quickly sell to others.
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St. Elmo Apartments site plan; line
running lengthwise across shared plaza shows
actual property line between the two developments,
indicating how far the St. Elmo has been moved back
to create a larger promenade |
Dubick and attorney Steve Robins had additional breaking news about the St. Elmo project Monday night. By lowering the ceiling heights of the residential floors, the building has gained an additional floor, jumping from 21 to 22 stories. Lenkin has relocated from its now-demolished offices on Fairmont Avenue at the building site, and therefore will no longer need office space in the St. Elmo tower. This has freed up more floor space for other uses, and allows the number of units to increase from 245 to 280 apartments.
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| Site plan for the shared promenade plaza |
The number of units, Dubick said, figured prominently in Duball's decision to maintain the original plan for rental apartments. He said it would take too long to sell 280 units in the post-recession market. Retail space has been slashed in about half, dropping from 15000 SF to 7000 SF. That retail will be located on the Fairmont Avenue side of the building.
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View from St. Elmo Avenue of
ground floor and promenade |
One novel solution to the issue of truck deliveries at the future building will be the inclusion of garage doors on both the Fairmont and St. Elmo Avenue sides of the building. Residents will enter from St. Elmo, but trucks will enter on Fairmont, and then drive through the building and exit onto St. Elmo. Duball was one of the few developers to provide a pull-off driveway downtown in recent years, at the Stonehall, again addressing a source of complaints about curb lanes and sidewalks being blocked by deliveries.
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| From the Fairmont Avenue side |
Parking will be provided in a four-level garage under the building - unlike Marriott Corporation's sweetheart deal with Montgomery County to take over the Woodmont Corner public parking garage during business hours when their relocated Bethesda headquarters opens. The Marriott scheme was brought up by the owner of a building across the street from the future St. Elmo Apartments. He said his complaints about the Marriott garage takeover were ignored by officials, and the expected loss of nearby parking has harmed the viability of his property.
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| View from Fairmont Avenue looking east |
Dubick concurred. "What were they thinking?" he said of the garage deal, adding that the loss of the garage adjacent to the Cheval and Lionsgate was a sticking point for retail tenants considering the ground floor space at the former. There was a consensus among many at the meeting last night that the Marriott takeover will continue to have a negative impact on commercial leasing in that part of the Woodmont Triangle.
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View from Fairmont Avenue of original sketch plan
version (left) vs. new Duball proposal (right) |
The architectural design of the St. Elmo Apartments has been tightened up on several sides, particularly the side that faces the plaza it will share with the Bainbridge. Those who had expressed concern about the ultimate width of that plaza will be pleased to learn that Duball has slightly pulled the St. Elmo back from the plaza there. They are also fine-tuning the balconies to make them "pieces of sculptural detail on the building," and to refine "how the building meets the sky." Let's hope that includes lighting detail, which really helps the skyline of downtown Bethesda.
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| Massing diagram |
Duball and Lenkin want to start construction as soon as possible, they said. If there are no delays in the approval and permitting process, they hope to break ground in the first quarter of 2021. Construction will take about 30-36 months, for a 2023 or 2024 delivery.
14 comments:
Marriott is paying market-rate for all the spaces in the garage and the facility will be open to the public on weekends and after 5pm on weekdays. Once Marriott takes occupancy of their building, parking in Woodmont Triangle during regular business hours will be an issue, no question.
There goes any notion of an activated pedestrian lane between the two buildings.
I guess one would have to measure the benefit of having 3500-4000 more office workers, and 200 more hotel guests in the area, hopefully visiting area retail and restaurants, compared to the loss of daytime parking for businesses. Other nearby decks are certainly within walking distance, but certainly not as handy.
I guess I would trade the inclusion of a massive new HQ, and a new flagship hotel, for the daytime convenience of a few office workers. I have visited the deck to view the construction of the Marriott HQ and noted that the upper levels are almost totally vacant during business hours. The parking fund will get a big boost by having the deck full all day, and hopefully direct a few dollars to enhancing the existing decks, or funding new construction.
Ridership is up on the Metro by about 3.3% for the last three months. I believe that Marriott claims that 40% of their employees will use public transit or walk to work. I recall they committed to try to returning the deck to full public use over time, but I don’t recall the schedule.
Thanks for the detailed update on the St. Elmo. Duball is a high class developer, and I think this will be a great addition to the Triangle. Not so much if you live in a southwest facing apartment in the Bainbridge, unless you need to borrow some Grey Poupon mustard from your neighbor in the St. Elmo.
VERBOSITY ALERT !!!
@6:36 - LOL, I appreciate the Grey Poupon reference.
For the parking, I agree that the loss of the Woodmont Garage will be inconvenient, but that there are other options that are currently underutilized, like the Del Ray garage next to Imagination Stage, and the Cheltenham garage behind Chevy Chase Cars. They're not as close as the Woodmont garage, but they are two solid options.
"I guess I would trade the inclusion of a massive new HQ, and a new flagship hotel, for the daytime convenience of a few office workers."
Not just one massive HQ, but two combined - Marriott plus Starwood.
6:52 AM I agree with you. I don't mind walking from Del Ray, but you have to understand that many visitors won't come back if they have to walk several blocks to a restaurant or shop.
That's the hard reality.
Bizarre we had to give up a public garage given the large footprint of the Marriott project.
I understand not building new public garages and that at some point in the future we may need less. But local businesses will die or not want to open here in the meantime.
Someone said the garage spaces will be available at night. Hopefully that's not the same person who repeatedly tells Robert that nothing good happens at night in Bethesda and everyone should stay at home. :)
"What were they thinking?"
Probably that retaining a F500, bringing 4,000 employees to downtown Bethesda, renting out an underutilized garage for $40M (yet retaining it for public use during evenings and weekends), creating 1500 construction jobs, adding $2.5M a year in hotel and food/beverage tax revenue, and increasing the HQ parcel's value by nearly a half billion dollars outweighed the negatives by, like, a million percent.
If the Marriott included parking for 60% of their employees entirely on site, the underground deck would likely need to be 8 levels deep, not five, as they are building. Or much of the parking would need to be above grade, with blank walls.
Yeah, they need three parking places for every five employees. Pity they didn’t think of putting their HQ, near a metro station. Or the Purple Line. Or buses. Or a bike trail. Or nearby condos/apartments. Or promote car-pooling. Or allow some telecommuting. Or factor in all of the travel involved in their worldwide business.
Must give employees plentiful parking. Hope it’s free for them, like at NIH.
In Crystal City, Amazon will charge its employees to park in Amazon’s garages, to encourage the use of mass transit. The reimburse their employees for transit expenses. They even go so far as not allowing monthly parking permits, but will require employees to pay each day. This further encourages folks to occasionally use mass transit, at least on some days. If they have a prepaid monthly parking pass, they would never take the Metro. Paying with a credit card every day reminds Amazon employees that perhaps a free ride on the Metro might be a smart and sustainable move.
Maybe Marriott, Host Hotels, Pebblebrook, Orono USA, Fox5, Booz Allen and JBG Smith could do the same.
7:04pm nothing unusual about charging employees to park at garages near metro in urban areas
But I think it is unusual for a corporate tenant to charge its own employees to park in their corporately owned parking deck, but offer to fully reimburse their employees who use transit. Even more unusual to only allow daily payment. Taken together, these measures really encourage the healthy and sustainable use of available mass transit options.
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