Bank of America's branch at 5135 River Road in Bethesda has been "temporarily" closed for some time, with no explanation. Now the company says it will make the closure permanent at the end of the day on March 28, 2023. That essentially just covers the ATM services available outside, as the bank itself is still closed.
Bank of America, like PNC, Capital One and several other banks, has been shuttering branches since the pandemic began. BOA hasn't closed as many as the others in our area, though.
What is the future for this property? As of today, real estate records show it is still owned by a trust of Lawrence Z. Bulman and has not been sold. It's unlikely to redevelop into a high-rise until Montgomery County updates the Westbard sector plan. The last update in 2016 excluded all the properties on River Road, primarily because a majority of land owners there intend to wait for the Purple Line extension to Westbard, when building heights and density allowed will greatly increase.
The Macedonia Baptist Church next door to the bank owns its land. It has been under pressure from developers to sell for years, but has resisted all offers so far.
Expect to see the smaller properties on River Road be assembled into larger ones when the sector plan is updated in the future. Remember, the Purple Line doesn't have to actually be built for construction to commence on the redevelopment it will allow. Developers at Chevy Chase Lake and along the never-built Corridor Cities Transitway can tell you about that.
If someone wanted to move forward with a smaller residential or mixed-use building, they could do that now under the current zoning. It would not provide the financial return of waiting for the sector plan update, however. Alternatively, a developer with influence over the Montgomery County Council could use the controversial "minor master plan amendment" process to upzone the site prior to the sector plan revision.
Barring that, in the more-immediate future, another bank could take over the building. The best case scenario would be a fast food restaurant with a drive thru, such as Taco Bell, Shake Shack, Jack in the Box or Burger King. Bethesda may be the only town of its size in America to have only one drive-thru fast food restaurant, the McDonald's near the bank at 5214 River Road.
12 comments:
Although it sounds like a good idea to me, what evidence can you provided that any extension of the Purple Line west of Bethesda is planned, or that land owners are in fact waiting for this to happen. This sounds like pure speculation and fear-mongering to me.
Even a single track of the Purple Line could extend to Westbard and provide a one track extension on the west end of the line, which is common where light rail extends into less dense areas.
9:19: It was a poorly kept secret over the last couple of decades, as longtime readers of this blog know. But it finally burst into the open a few years ago. The County Council and the developer-backed Greater Greater Washington website began openly discussing it in 2019. Finally, the Planning Department published a map online that showed a desire line for a Purple Line extension along the Capital Crescent Trail to Westbard. When I asked how they could show this with no public discussion or process, it was suddenly deleted from the map.
Wait until people find out the great "park" they've been waiting years for by Mon Ami Gabi and Tacombi was just a placeholder for the tracks to eventually cross Bethesda Avenue!
It's the developer's world. We just live in it.
"The best case scenario would be a fast food restaurant with a drive thru, such as Taco Bell, Shake Shack, Jack in the Box or Burger King."
What is "best case" about junk food and minimum wage jobs in a time of record-low unemployment?
Another Fast Food Restaurant will try to get in there, since Fast Food Restaurants are generally frowned upon up the street in Downtown Bethesda...........The McDonalds across the street is one of the busiest in the Baltimore / Washington Area. A real Cash Cow !
@12:32 PM.
Bethesda snobbishness at its finest. Leave your bubble.
M&T Bank has 2 Branches in North Bethesda (with Rockville Addresses) on both sides of Rockville Pike that are way too close to each other and probably cost them an arm and a leg to build as they were built right before Covid. I wonder if they keep both of those as well.........or close one of them. They are both rarely busy.
Is 'busy' why they never get your order right? I thought it was English comprehension, I stand corrected.
"Taco Bell, Shake Shack, Jack in the Box or Burger King."
Taco Bell is not expanding in this area apart from its more upscale "Taco Bell Cantina" brand. Its parent company, Yum! Brands, which also owns KFC and Pizza Hut, is in terminal decline.
The nearest Jack in the Box restaurant is in North Carolina.
Burger King is in terminal decline.
If Macedonia Baptist Church sold that property on River Rd it could purchase a plot of land a little further out of town upon which to build a new church and a CEMETERY. Guess that's not as easy as demanding the taxpayers fund it.
Bring back Roy Rogers as that Mickey D's' neighbor!
Double R Bar Burgers and a pretty darn good breakfast platter*
* for 'fast' food, that is.
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