A 70'-tall luxury condominium building has been proposed for 4702 Chevy Chase Drive in Bethesda, near the Bethesda Fire Department station. The site backs up to Nottingham Drive, a residential street. Development partners on the project include GLW of Burtonsville, Prevoyant LLC, Winthrop Investment Group, and the Lessard Design architecture firm. A residential home most recently used as a dentist's office currently sits on the property.
The project includes 85000 SF of total development, with 70 condo units and 63 parking spaces. Under current Montgomery County rules, that is more than the required 56 spaces. But it must be noted that there have been parking issues in the neighborhood over the years. Vehicles will enter the garage from Chevy Chase Drive; trash will be rolled out on trash day for pickup from that same entrance. An enclosed loading dock will be accessed from Nottingham.
Development of the site falls under the guidelines of the Bethesda Downtown sector plan. Residents nearby have expressed concern about the potential noise of HVAC systems for the building. They have also asked for a sign that would state no deliveries can be made using Nottingham. Some residents would like a pedestrian connection for park access across the property between Chevy Chase Drive and Nottingham. The developers have resisted the request, due to concerns that residents of the future condos would have privacy issues with people walking past their first floor windows.
4 comments:
I am really amazed that any developer is proposing a large new condo project at this time. Last time I checked Zillow, Stonehall had nine unsold condos and Cheval had ten unsold condos, several years after the buildings were completed. Brand new units are available in both the Hampden Lane condos and the Lauren. Two units in the Darcy has been unsold for six months, even after price reductions. Perhaps these will be a lower price point, and of course, they won’t be entitled, designed, engineered, bid and constructed for at least two years. Imagine the carrying cost of holding a dozen unsold units for years. The Lauren even lost their remaining units to the bank.
If this gets approved, I bet it will be delayed for years before being build. Not unlike the fully approved Rugby Condos and Of course the infamous 8008 Wisconsin, now owned by the Toll Brothers. Both are fully entitled and sitting on a shelf gathering dust.
These need to be rental units to make sense in this market. Or at least designed to condo standards, but leased as apartments in the near term, and later converted to condos, like the Chase.
It’s amazing that they propose to place their loading and service drive on Nottingham, a quiet dead-end residential street with single family homes on the south side. All parking, service and loading should be accessed only from Chevy Chase Drive, which is already lined by multi-family housing. Ground level accessed townhouses should line the frontage on Nottingham.
And of course they should be required to create a pedestrian connection along the east edge for neighbors to the north to easily access Norwood Park.
I wonder if the adjacent fire station will ever be redeveloped to included housing over a rebuilt station, as was proposed several years ago. Although I stayed in a pension in London one time that was located over a fire station, and was awoken many times. I guess you can get used to anything...
@2:19pm They can get the plan approved now and leave it on the books for decades, and just because they say condos now doesn't mean it can't be apartments or an AirBnB later. The planning board has approved a lot of downsizing requests because developers say they're concerned about absorption, which is odd because the planning board is telling us there's a shortage so we should provide subsidies for projects like this one.
Seems like everyday I get up and Robert Dyer is reporting on a new development project.
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