BETHESDA AIR RIGHTS CENTER PURCHASE PRICE REVEALED

Buyers of Bethesda's Air Rights Center purchased the massive complex with a Cassidy Turley-secured $150,000,000 loan, it has finally been revealed.

MidAtlantic Realty Partners L.L.C., of Washington, D.C., and Rockpoint Group L.L.C., of Boston bought the valuable air-rights property.

Bethesda history lecture alert!

The complex is so-named for being built on air-rights property once designated as a potential Bethesda mall and town square, parallel to the (unbuilt) Northwest Freeway right-of-way.

When the Georgetown-Tenleytown-Bethesda-Pooks Hill freeway was killed by the Montgomery County Council's inaction, the air-rights became Metro-related.  Wisconsin Avenue was just a bridge along that stretch then - hence, the literal rights to build in the air over the B&O railroad right-of-way.

The Apex Building is also an air-rights development.

Without the Northwest Freeway, you enjoy the wonderful rush-hour traffic of Wisconsin Avenue twice each day. Wasn't that smart?

The new owners plan to renovate and expand the complex.

BETHESDA AIR RIGHTS CENTER ON SALE FOR $257 MILLION

TIAA-CREF has put one of downtown Bethesda's most valuable properties on the market.  Cassidy Turley will handle the potential sale of the Air Rights Center for the owners.

This is the third iconic Bethesda property to be put up for sale this year.

It would be a shock, but nothing is shocking after the Montgomery County Council proposed the county seize, and demolish, one or more of the complex's towers through eminent domain earlier this year.  The suggestion went nowhere, and the council eventually resolved to remove the Capital Crescent Trail from the future Purple Line tunnel under the Air Rights Center.

But that brief moment suggested some in the development community may covet the site, for a denser, mixed use project.