Woodmont Grill abruptly closed permanently at the close of business Tuesday night at 7715 Woodmont Avenue in downtown Bethesda. Yesterday, the sign you see in the photo above was posted on the front door. Seating was also removed from the outdoor patio area on Wednesday. What can we expect to happen next at the site of what by most accounts was downtown Bethesda's most-popular restaurant?
The restaurant's parent company owns the building and the land. This gives them a number of options the typical restaurateur doesn't always have. They could introduce a new dining concept here, and remodel the building.
Second, they could lease or sell the building to another restaurant tenant.
Third, they could sell the property to a developer, or partner with a developer, to redevelop the site.
That's going to be far less lucrative for them now, compared to the opportunity they passed up in 2017. Marriott International wanted to buy the Woodmont Grill and Tastee Diner that year, to expand the footprint of its relocated Bethesda headquarters all the way to the corner of Woodmont and Norfolk Avenues. As I exclusively reported that year, Marriott made offers to both restaurants in early 2017.
Marriott offered Tastee Diner $5 million, but was unsuccessful in acquiring either restaurant. Two months later, Marriott sweetened the Tastee offer to $7 million. Tastee was prepared to agree to this offer. Alas, Woodmont Grill refused Marriott's final offer, rendering the Tastee Diner site useless to Marriott and scuppering the whole deal.
Today, Marriott has zero use for either of these properties. Due to worldwide events since 2017, they are probably glad their HQ isn't any bigger than it wound up being. It is oversized as it is, with many employees working from home. So many, that Marriott leased back the public parking garage across the street to Montgomery County during the business hours it was to have had exclusive use of it. I wouldn't be surprised if Marriott were to ultimately lease out part of their building, or sell it altogether and relocate again to smaller quarters. They would save a ton of money - and even more if they moved to Virginia.
The best bet for redevelopment will be to assemble the Woodmont Grill with the Tastee Diner property. Height would have to be emphasized over width and depth to maximize the number of residential units in the prospective building. It would likely be exempt from having to include parking, with the Woodmont Corner Garage being diagonally across the street. With inflation, both landowners will likely be able to command at least as much as they were offered in 2017. Of course, those dollars are worth much less than they were eight years ago.
10 comments:
Another restaurant has closed. The Outback Steakhouse is downtown Silver Spring permanently closed.
Have heard the groups looking to buy are only interested in leasing it back as a restaurant use
1:16: Correct - read all about it:
https://eastmoco.blogspot.com/2025/10/outback-steakhouse-closes-in-silver.html
A Friendly’s would crush it at that location. Coffee Fribble anyone?
Reservation already booked at Houston's in ATL. Ah, nostalgia complete.
HAH! Excellent. Be a pal and bring me back a rack of ribs and a couple of their grilled artichokes, would you please?
Hmmm, a place that serves burgers and milkshakes, literally an arm's length from Tastee Diner?
I'm not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work there, Lou.
6:01 - Yes, the benefit of an ATL Thanksgiving holiday. Don't forget Spinach Dip, Hickory Burger, Hawaiian steak and piping hot,
shoe string fries.
The Hillstone statement blaming parking and inability to find workers doesn't add up.
They packed every table - reservations required!
Almost no restaurant in Bethesda has their own parking lots at this point except for a Benihanna. Woodmont has good garage parking across the street and street parking.
Marriott leases their headquarters building so they can't sell...
Post a Comment