Woodmont Central Office Building Up for Bid, Construction to Begin Midsummer

Donohoe Development's Bethesda office building at 8280 Wisconsin Avenue, one of three components of the developer's ambitious Woodmont Central megadevelopment, went up for bid last week, with an eye towards breaking ground in midsummer.

"Right now we're pricing it among subs as a GMP [Guaranteed Maximum Price]," said an estimator at Donohoe.  "Assuming things go forward as planned, it's supposed to start construction in July."

The rectangular six-story building, designed by WDG Architecture, will feature just over 81,000 square feet of office space, including 10,500 square feet of ground floor retail.  Developers anticipate LEED Silver certification. In renderings, the Wisconsin-facing facade is a visually interesting massing of planes, mostly metal and glass with a few precast concrete panels for contrast.  On the northeast corner is a vertical element that denotes the entrance to the Battery Lane District.

The first phase of the Woodmont Central project, the Gallery of Bethesda, kicked into gear last month, when demolition began at 4800 Auburn Avenue, the planned site of the residential tower.  That 17-story building will feature 234 dwellings, just under 200 below-grade parking spaces, and 4600 s.f. of ground floor retail space.  A second 16-story residential tower is also planned at 4850 Rugby Avenue, separated from the Gallery of Bethesda by a large plaza, but is reportedly still in the design development stage.


Bethesda, Maryland real estate development news