New renderings of just-approved Gables Pike District apartments (Photos)

The Gables White Flint mixed-use residential development has a new name - and new renderings to go with it. Now referred to as Gables Pike District (after the recent rebranding of White Flint as the Pike District), the 5.14 acre Gables Residential development has just received approval of its site plan from the Montgomery County Planning Board. It will replace a couple of surface parking lots, and be part of a new street grid along Old Georgetown Road and a realigned Executive Boulevard.

Gables Pike District will include 3 buildings, 2 new streets, up to 476 apartments, 31,000 SF of retail, and a public parking garage that will serve both the development and the nearby Wall Park and Kennedy Shriver Aquatic Center.

"Gables Pike District will be another important step towards the transformation of the Pike District as a truly vibrant live, work, play community," Gables Residential’s Jorgen Punda, Regional Vice President for Investments, said in a statement yesterday. "We appreciate the collaboration from park and planning staff and the County Executive’s office that has helped us to reach this point."

This new rendering of Festival Street at the future development may remind you a bit of the successful Bethesda Lane at Federal Realty's Bethesda Row, except with cars allowed in this case:

Phase 1 of the development, which will include the parking garage, is on track to begin construction early next year. The apartments should begin construction in 2017.

New renderings of Gables White Flint in North Bethesda's Pike District (Photos)

The Montgomery County Planning Board is scheduled to take up the preliminary site plan for the Gables White Flint project in North Bethesda on April 30. Two surface parking lots in the rapidly-growing Pike District will give way to up to 476 residential units, a public parking garage, and 31,000 SF of retail space.

Planning department staff are recommending approval with many conditions, including agreed-upon widths of roads, and a lengthy list of bicycle facilities and recreational features. The project site is along Old Georgetown Road, as well as the future Market Street and Grand Park Avenue extension.

Renderings via Montgomery County Planning Department