Developer Stonebridge's proposal to redevelop the former Jewelry Exchange building at 7749 Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda will include the adjacent 7755 Old Georgetown office building property that is home to Old Georgetown Grille and Colonial Opticians. Renderings show the lots assembled for the project also include one-story retail buildings on St. Elmo Avenue next to 7755 Old Georgetown. They depict the Serpentine Dance Studio and House of Milae buildings remaining in place between the future high-rises of 7749 Old Georgetown and currently-under-construction St. Elmo Apartments.
Stonebridge is proposing a 175' tall apartment tower that would include up to 240 rental apartments, 15% of which would be Moderately-Priced-Dwelling-Units (MPDUs), the minimum required by Montgomery County. Up to 6000-square-feet of ground floor retail and restaurant space are proposed, as well as a 150-space underground parking garage. Rooftop features would include a partially-covered terrace, a not-yet-determined amenity, and a green roof area.
The architectural firm contracted by Stonebridge for the development is Bethesda's SK+I Architectural Design Group. Renderings show the building will follow the base-and-tower massing design that has become ubiquituous among projects built under the guidelines of the 2017 Bethesda Downtown sector plan. VIKA is the engineering firm.
A required public meeting regarding the project Sketch Plan will be held tonight, Monday, June 26, 2023 at 7:00 PM at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center at 4805 Edgemoor Lane in downtown Bethesda. The meeting will be held in the Wisconsin conference room at the center. Stonebridge will present the project to the Bethesda Design Advisory Panel on June 28, and submit its Sketch Plan to Montgomery County in July.
The Montgomery County Planning Board is expected to review the Sketch Plan at a future public hearing in October or November of 2023. It would then review the subsequent Preliminary and Site plans for the project in 2024. If all plans are approved, a Q1 2026 groundbreaking is anticipated.
Images courtesy Stonebridge/SK+I
27 comments:
Pretty sure people gonna be upset that GG will be gone. Don't worry, they can come back after it's all finished - at twice the rent. Heckofa job, Brownie.
Thank you for this detail. I thought that that had to be part of any huge building. The former jewelry exchange was not nearly wide nor deep enough. Every corner will eventually be torn down. The family (I'm assuming it is) that owns the old Georgetown building will make a boat load of money. Imagine how much that cost to build versus the sale. Plus, they've enjoyed rent for years to well recoup their costs. No doubt real estate is among the best investment there is. All Bethesda charm will disappear. I was not a fan of the grill and thought it was awful. But mom and pop local is better than every other chain from NYC coming in.
Woodmont Triangle may become Ballston circa 2000...a dense, soulless urban area of non descript residential high-rises.
Even worse, many of these new units will be unoccupied or used as hotel rooms (look for the out of towners with their rolling luggage).
11:57 sure is struggling to come up with a reason why a vacant one floor jewelry store being replaced with a new $100M building is actually a sign that things are terrible and getting worse.
11:57 I see some folks with wheely lugage on the streets of Downtown Bethesda but not that many. Maybe they are being used as as extended stay hotels?
Learning
I'm looking forward to the redevelopment of this corner. It's pretty moribund and could use better ground floor retail.
Lots of folks live in Bethesda and wisely take the Metro to airports for business or vacations. Lots of folks visiting DC choose to stay in one of the six high rise hotels in downtown Bethesda.
I think Norfolk will always be lined with a variety of cafes, bars and restaurants, even more-so with more folks living in new multi-family high-rises, especially all the new one proposed on Battery Lane. I don’t really see much charm in run down nasty old one story retail and restaurants. I guess “soul” is an acquired taste.
1157: The property @ Edgemoore and Woodmont where the law office is now is going to be just that with an ugly Pelican spanning 9 stories on the side. Yuck.
I'd love to see a more all day retail use on the bottom floor. Since the Old Georgetown Grill has limited breakfast and lunch hours, it is vacant all evening, making for a boring corner.
I have no problem with the redevelopment, but that building design looks horrible. Circa Miami Beach.
@11:57 -- I believe you meant to use the present perfect tense: "has become."
The out of towners with their rolling luggage, looking for directions to their furnished apartment. They're a different species than a commuter. You don't see many commuting on Metro everyday using a rolling luggage, but the out of town travelers...the only thing they know is Starbucks.
The Flats at Battery/Wisconsin has a large number of short term renters- apparently the service isn't great based on the reviews online. People wished they had just stayed at a hotel.
JAC: "I hate everything that is in Bethesda now, but everything that is going to replace it will be worse."
5:47 - Huh?
I never suggested they were commuting, just residents heading to the Metro to the three airports in the area accessible by rail. Or folks staying in one of the six high-rise hotels. And even if they are staying on a short term apartment rental, how is that a bad thing?
This is a sketch plan. That's simply the massing, not the building's design (which is pretty obvious since it's, you know, entirely yellow).
Stonebridge will go down in history as the folks who killed the legendary Old Georgetown Grille.
Why is Bethesda going to look like NYC?
12:11 - Inasmuch as I prefer a local, mom and pop operation, Georgetown Grille was awful in every way. The local will be missed if that makes sense but tht place won't be.
12:52 AM
Density in downtown Bethesda is increasing because it makes tons of sense to build tall, dense, mixed-use projects within walking distance to transit, which includes the Metro, and the future Purple Line, and maybe even BRT. This greatly reduces suburban sprawl and long, mind numbing commutes. Dense and tall buildings help existing and new retail, restaurants and hotels thrive. Living close to transit and walking and biking instead of driving is very healthy.
The Downtown Bethesda Sector Plan was carefully crafted to trade additional allowable height and density for new parks and schools. Sustainable and energy saving design engineering, increased urban green cover, and storm water management are all required by the new plan. Design excellence is somewhat subjective, but is a required step in the review process, where a panel of architects, planners and landscape architects need to sign off on the large projects. New developments are required to adopt current streetscape guidelines, including street trees, benches, trash receptacles, brick paving, pedestrian scaled lighting and the underground of overhead utilities where possible.
Downtown Bethesda has had many high-rises for well over forty years. The continuation of this, and expanded density and height are sound planning ideas to preserve and expand the area as one of the best walkable urban places in the county and country.
12:52:
What new parks? What new schools? Maybe they have some promised for the future... yep I believe that.
Learning
Many of the community benefits of the Bethesda Plan have, sadly, quietly been cancelled, such as the expansion of Veterans Park. Woodmont Triangle will not be seeing any substantial increase in desperately needed green space. The Triangle will see additional highrises and hard scape concrete spaces.
"What new parks? What new schools?"
Are you joking? You've got to be joking. Or you need to read local news every now and then.
5:07:
What is a new park that has been created downtown to make up for the rapidly sprouting urban jungle? What new school has been built?
Learning
Bethesda Elementary has 30 kids in their kindergarten and 1st grade classes.. MCPS needs to catch up and build elementary schools in Bethesda. We cannot even fully fund the schools we have because the part of the council that are directly involved with real estate development voted against increasing property taxes.
Bethesda is going to look like some high density characterless nightmare. No green space, just folks packed in like sardines in buildings with no charm or architectural integrity. Cheap construction built for a short-term profit.
Bethesda has absolutely no eye to the future or any concern whatsoever about the very serious environmental crisis we face.
This is about money and greed with no concern at all for a residential community or the environment.
I was thinking it will be like Manhattan without Central Park but Manhattan, unlike Bethesda, has some beautiful architecture, old and new, But greed has the upper hand there too now.
Build some Condos. Everything is Apartments
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