WPC's Wheaton Residential Project to Break Ground In May

Washington Property Company's 245-unit residential building at 10194 Georgia Avenue is on target for a spring groundbreaking, adding to the long list of greenlit revitalization projects in Wheaton. "We're out to bid now [for a general contractor], and hope to start construction in early May," said Daryl South, Vice President of Development for WPC. "Everything's ready to go."

Washington Property company acquired the 1.65-acre parcel, which is just steps from the Wheaton metro station, in 2005.

According to a site plan approved by Montgomery County planners in October of last year, the Preston Partnership-designed building will be a six-story u-shaped structure, opening to the south, with the interior space used for a swimming pool and greenspace. Designers used a "variety of masonry and glazing" as well as small parapets and height variations ... to minimize the sense of building mass." Underground, developers are shooting for at least 230 parking spaces spread over two levels, and will be required to offer 12.5% of the dwellings as (subsidized) MPDUs. The site is the former home of the First Baptist Church of Wheaton, which has relocated to Washington Christian Academy while construction on their new building in Olney is completed.

WPC's residential tower is just one of several projects that have gained recent momentum in downtown Wheaton; just a few blocks north is the already approved 17-story Safeway/residential project from Patriot Realty, and across from that is the Computer Building, set to be converted by Lowe Enterprises into a residential tower. At the Wheaton Metro station, bus bays are to be converted into an office complex by B.F. Saul, which is also in talks with the county about converting nearby Wheaton Triangle into a massive mixed-use megadevelopment that would bring nearly a million square feet of office space, retail, a hotel, and a public plaza to the area.

Wheaton, Maryland real estate development news