Sneak peek: Arts Alley at the Cheval Bethesda condo tower (Video+Photos)

One of the amenities at Duball, LLC's soon-to-deliver Cheval Bethesda ultra-luxury condo tower is Arts Alley, a 2000 SF arts incubator that will be managed by the Bethesda Urban Partnership. The width between the former gas station property and the Woodmont Corner public parking garage was increased by 5 feet, as part of the Cheval construction.

The just-about-finished product

Decorative lighting lines the alleyway, and large windows give the artists' studios extra visibility. Their work is expected to be displayed, and the public can use this alley to access the parking garage from Old Georgetown Road. Cheval Bethesda is located at 4990 Fairmont Avenue, and its first residents are tentatively expected to move in next month.

Artist's rendition

The real thing

Close-up of lighting elements

One of the studio spaces

Cheval Bethesda

Pubic meeting to be held on Edgemont II development in downtown Bethesda

Developer Equity Residential will hold a required public meeting on its revised plan for the Edgemont at Bethesda II apartment tower on February 6, 2018, at 7:00 PM at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center at 4805 Edgemoor Lane in Bethesda. The proposed 150' tall high-rise would be at the northwest corner of the intersection of Edgemoor with Woodmont Avenue.

The new plan proposes 160 units, down from the 175 units proposed at a community meeting last June. At that time, no street-level retail was proposed, along a lonely stretch of Woodmont Avenue that currently offers a poor pedestrian walking experience after dark. Some questioned why the developer would not follow standard new urbanist principles and include retail. The developer said the narrow width of the proposed building made retail space impractical for the project.

Sala Thai building for lease in Bethesda

Two floors in the building that houses the Sala Thai restaurant is available for lease, according to an online listing by Joel Danshes. That listing states that the lease is "for both floors only." Sala Thai has a ground floor dining room, and a second-floor banquet space, totaling 5000 SF. There is a third floor at 4828 Cordell Avenue, as well. Counseling Center of Maryland is also listed as a tenant in the building. Sala Thai remains open for business, but the first floor "restaurant space" is clearly listed as available for lease in the announcement.

Kuya Ja's Lechon Belly to open at White Flint Plaza this Spring

Kuya Ja's Lechon Belly has been serving Filipino specialties at a pop-up location inside Gwenie's Desserts at 12113 Nebel Street in North Bethesda. Now the owner is gearing up to launch a stand-alone restaurant in White Flint Plaza this Spring. According to the owner, the current pop-up will only continue for a few more weeks, before changing over to the new carryout restaurant. The restaurant will be at 5268-H Nicholson Lane.

Sign being removed from Barnes & Noble at Bethesda Row (Photos)

Now that Barnes & Noble has closed at Bethesda Row, the sign is being removed from the facade of the building. It's not yet known what structural and cosmetic changes next tenant Anthropologie will make to the building, or how the outdoor cafe seating will fit with the existing plaza and water feature.

Sports Extra, Urban Country move in Bethesda (Photos)

Two downtown Bethesda retailers relocated this weekend. Sports Extra left its Old Georgetown Road storefront, and moved around the corner to 4938 St. Elmo Avenue. That was once the home of Gallery St. Elmo.

New location

Old location now available
for lease

Urban Country's new spot at
Bethesda Row

Also moving was Urban Country at Bethesda Row. Their new location is one door up Arlington Road from their former location, at 7121 Arlington.

Signs of new Roche Bros. dining ventures in downtown Bethesda (Photos)

Signs of the next culinary ventures of Alvaro and Alonso Roche have been popping up on Fairmont Avenue in the last few days. Their Pho pop-up in the former TapaBar space at 4901-A Fairmont now has new signs and menus announcing a fusion/hybrid concept called R Family Kitchen & Bar. The menu keeps the Pho, but also adds American, Venezuelan, Argentinian, European and Mediterranean dishes and influences.

This means you can start with a piquillo pepper and chickpea hummus, have a bowl of pho, and then one of their western main courses - chicken, steak, or Norwegian salmon. Sides skew Euro-American, but sometimes with a Spanish twist of serrano ham or pimenton butter added. Interestingly, R Family's steak is of the coulotte variety, the cut that across-the-street rival Medium Rare has made its trademark in the D.C. area.

Menu for R Family

The difference? For $20.45, Medium Rare gives you steak with Secret Sauce, fries, bread and a salad; R Family's includes chimichurri, mojo picon and your choice of one side for $19.75. R Family also promises your main course will be served on a sizzling plate. In terms of flavor and portion size, that debate can only be settled with a taste test at both restaurants. R Family will be serving lunch and dinner.

Two doors down Fairmont, in the revamped space that once belonged to local favorite Fresh Grill, workers were applying the sign for the Roches' TacoArepa. That fast casual spot will draw on Venezuela, Cuba and the Caribbean for culinary inspiration. In the alley alongside the building, construction for the associated beer garden is also underway now.

Beer garden under construction
in back of the future TacoArepa
on Fairmont Avenue

Artist using stencil to create
logo for TacoArepa at
4905 Fairmont Avenue

Stencil removed, et voila!

Water main break starting on St. Elmo Ave. in Bethesda (Video+Photo)

There appears to be a new water main break on St. Elmo Avenue, between Old Georgetown Road and Norfolk Avenue. Water is standing and flowing in the roadway. Fortunately, temperatures were above freezing during the day, and will be again today, but this break is likely to get worse if not tackled soon.

Just Cozy closes, Things Remembered closing at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda (Photos)

Just Cozy has Just Closed at Westfield Montgomery Mall. Their space has been cleared out, and their sign rather shabbily ripped off of the storefront.

Just Cozy

Also on the way out is pop-up gift shop Things Remembered. As of last night, their closing sale was offering savings of 90% off, a true clearance liquidation.

Things Remembered

Stonehall Bethesda retail space to be filled by bank

The suspense is over. Wells Fargo Bank will be the retail tenant in the ground floor of the Stonehall Bethesda condos, at 8302 Woodmont Avenue.

A past Montgomery County Planning Board had stipulated the space be filled by a "quality restaurant," which was notable for proving that the County does indeed have the authority to require a type of business tenant. However, developer Duball, LLC requested that stipulation be amended, citing a lack of market demand for a restaurant at that location. The change was granted by the County.

Ralph Lauren closes in Chevy Chase, as the ultra-rich flee MoCo (Photos)

MoCo's Rodeo Drive

looking more like

Skid Row

Yet another store has closed on Wisconsin Avenue in Chevy Chase, the stretch many once referred to as "Montgomery County's Rodeo Drive," leaving a barren strip of shuttered storefronts and smashed out bus shelters. The closures have directly corresponded to the exit of many of the County's wealthiest residents, who have sought refuge in lower tax jurisdictions around us. Studies have shown many of them have resettled in Loudoun, Fairfax, Frederick, and Howard counties.

Ralph Lauren has closed its doors at the Collection at Chevy Chase, where high-end retailers have fled along with their fabulously wealthy clients. Such clients usually sustain these posh boutiques through economic bubbles and recessions alike, so their downfall has been solid evidence that those clients are largely seeking greener pastures - and pastures that let them keep more of their green.

The grand windows of Ralph Lauren are now papered over. Letters announcing the store's name above the stately entrance have been pried off, leaving worn shadows behind.

Next to go will be DePandi at 5518 Wisconsin, which is currently holding a closing sale. The front windows of the shop are plastered with the GOING OUT OF BUSINESS and EVERYTHING MUST GO! signs so ubiquitous around Montgomery County these days. The high-end suit shop was opened five years ago by famed master tailor Eduardo DePandi.

Montgomery County is in real trouble, as the County's $120,000,000 budget shortfall - and structural budget deficit - prove. We haven't attracted a single major corporate headquarters in two decades. MCPS has been in a steep decline since 2010. Thirteen nightspots have closed in downtown Bethesda since County Council President Hans Riemer's "nighttime economy" initiative instead tanked the nighttime economy. The County has lost over 2000 retail jobs since the turn of the century, according to the Maryland Retailers Association. Even Riemer's former chief-of-staff and the Washington Post have taken to calling our private sector economy "stagnant" and "moribund."

Montgomery has fallen well out of the Forbes "Top Ten Richest Counties in America" list. We can see that on Montgomery County's "Rodeo Drive" these days.

Smashed-out bus shelter on
Wisconsin Avenue. Stay classy,
Chevy Chase!