The Cheltenham apartments, now under construction at 4725 Cheltenham Drive in downtown Bethesda, have been rebranded as The Dax. Remarkable for containing no surface or construction parking, the building is anticipated by the developer and Montgomery County planning authorities to attract tenants who will either be car-free, or will park in the County public parking garage across the street. About 90' tall, the building will contain 100 units - 17 of which will be Moderately-Priced Dwelling Units - and no retail. The project received an $8 million subordinated loan from the Montgomery County Government Green Bank.
A crew completed a scheduled disassembly of the tower crane at the site last week, as you can see in these photos. The Dax replaces the Midas auto repair facility on this property next to a CVS Pharmacy. Community Three is the developer, Eric Colbert & Associates is the architecture firm, and the lead construction contractor is Eichberg Construction. A Q4 2026 delivery is anticipated.
31 comments:
The lack of parking is complete BS and 100% against what the residents of East Bethesda pushed back against to the Planning Board and County Council during the planning and approval phases (and beyond). Those oganizations don't give a crap what residents and taxpayers want.
The cliche "all politics are local" is a total joke in MoCo as it only applies if and when the local bodies and elected officials listen.
The developer made the totally bogus argument to the neighborhood association that they don't expect *any* of the residents to have a car. Are you kidding me?
The planning board and county council members refused to address this issue when asked directly by the members of the neighborhood association, and they rejected all of our concerns and arguments to reinstate onsite parking that the prior deveoper had planned.
How pedestrian.
So realistically will people be buying monthly passes to a garage or driving around the blocks looking for spots or what? I agree probably 66-75%+ of residents will have cars even if living near a Metro was a selling point to them. People want that for when there's traffic or they're going somewhere point to point near the metro stations but they still need to get around the DMV quickly all other times.
This is the council allowing their developer donors to get away without building critical infrastructure AND social engineer their utopia without cars which they will never be inconvenienced with.
7:51 PM: They'll either need to buy monthly passes to park in a garage or drive around looking for spots. The downtown Bethesda plan requires that parking be provided for new buildings, although it doesn't have to be a 1:1 ratio of units:parking spaces. The prior developer for that location had planned on provided parking spaces for about two-thirds of the units. The County Council waived the requirement for the new developer.
Yuk yuk
Time for the East Bethesda Citizens Association to pass rules for some mighty high parking fines for any vehicles caught without residency stickers or guest passes, and to sign up some service to patrol the streets vigilantly. Maybe start towing cars away after several infractions? That should keep the Daxxers at bay.
Once again there is a county parking deck directly across the street that offers monthly parking permits. Why force the developer to construct expensive underground parking and charge tenants higher rent to pay for the cost. Reciprocal useage of county owned parking decks makes perfect sense. Office users in the weekdays and residential users in the evening and on weekends. This also helps the county pay for the maintenance and construction of new public parking. Certainly not quite as convenient as parking under your own apartment building, but if it saves money, could reduce my rent, it seems like a good idea to use existing infrastructure.
It is a giveaway to the developer who doesn't have to build even a small garage as part of the project.
Human nature says the renters with cars will find the least expensive option which will be to park in the neighborhood and not pay for a garage pass.
I live in downtown Bethesda and am happily car free. We exist, and I love this project.
If a MoCo thug steals your car or if you get carjacked and don't want to get another car, this is the perfect place to move.
The Better Bus reroutes have messed up a lot of the more useful routes. Hence I drive more now.
Those residents with cars will probably be using the public parking garage directly across the street. That may have been what the board was planning all along.
Perfect building for all the pro bikers who claim cars are bad.
There's a underutilized public parking garage directly across Cheltenham. Residents of this building with vehicles are obviously going to park in that garage.
Not building a parking garage is certainly a gamble, but I have multiple friends in the DMV who chose not to buy a car, since they can get where they need to be with only a scooter or the metro and other public transportation. Hopefully the building management won't be greedy and will keep prices low to offset the lack of a garage.
@6:45 Defiance of reality is a theme with your responses. Thanks to your bosses lack of enforcement of existing laws, people will actually need parking within the building. Three sexual assaults within the last couple of months including an afternoon attack in the library on Arlington is zero concern to you. Pathetic really.
Too logical for the incessantly bitter complainers on this site.
Don’t forget we have Comrade Elrich’s bike lanes. Who needs cars ?
This is incorrect. No on site parking is required in the Downtown Bethesda Overlay District. In fact, developers are awarded required points if they provide minimal or no parking on site. Similar to design excellence points, affordable housing points, vegetated roof points and more.
Critical parking infrastructure already exists in the county parking garage directly across the street.
People don’t need parking within the building if it already located directly across the street in an underutilized county parking deck.
If parking was provided under the building, tenants would indeed have to pay for it. Most apartment building landlords in downtown Bethesda charge at least $250 to as much as $475 per month for a parking space.
I believe the landlord is indeed proposing some very affordable rents, especially giving the high percentage of junior one bedroom units averaging only about 535 SF. To construct a 10’ x 20’ parking space and half of a 20’ wide drive aisle, each space would total about 300 SF, more than half the SF of the apartment, and cost at least $80,000 to construct. It’s very smart to leverage that county deck across the street.
"Logical" is a word you're using but have absolutely no idea what it means.
EBCA is NOT an HOA, it is a non-governmental body and membership is voluntary. It has no authority over anything regarding the neighborhood, not parking, towing, nor issuing fines. I have never seen a "residency sticker" and it would have no legal authority anyway. Parking permits are issued thru the county.
It's all about you! No one else should need anything else!
Thanks to your bosses muting law enforcement, someone bringing their groceries after dark will become a new adventure!
@ 7:44 - The bus stops right in front of the CVS.
That's good to hear!
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