Construction for Cathedral Commons a Step Closer

A sign today announces the parking lot of the now-closed Giant Food at 3336 Wisconsin Ave. will close April 23 to prepare for construction of Cathedral Commons. The grocery store closed last week, but the parking lot remained open. Crews also have removed the classic Giant sign on the building.

Bozzuto, Giant's financial partner for the project, posted a site plan yesterday for the $125 million mixed-use development that will span two blocks along Wisconsin Avenue.

Street-Works is developing the site that will have a new Giant Food anchoring 128,000 s.f. of new retail space. The site also will include 137 apartments, eight townhouses and 500 parking spaces.

A raze permit for the Giant as well as other parts of the 3300 block were approved Jan. 30th by the Historic Preservation Office according to documents released by the Office. Permit applications for the 3400 block also were filed.

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Federal Realty's Mid-Pike Plaza to Rival JBG's NoBe

Earlier this month, Federal Realty's plans for "Mid-Pike Plaza" passed under the noses of the Montgomery County Development Review Committee. Apparently, it passed the sniff test; but unfortunately it takes a lot more than that to get development projects approved and rolling in Montgomery County. The development site spans 24.38 acres to the west of Rockville Pike and just north of Old Georgetown Road. Developers have plans big enough to warrant the massive site, calling for a whopping total of 1,725 residential units when all is said and constructed. Residents will be joined by roughly 300,000 s.f. of retail, over a million square feet of office space, a 125-key hotel, and a carbon imprint of 4,145 parking spaces (all structurally built). It's yet another sign that White Flint is destined to become drastically denser in less than a decade.

Being still in the wee hours of the project's preliminary planning life-cycle, drawings, courtesy of architect Tim Mount at Street-Works are are rather sketchy (pun intended) and offer only a distant perspective. This fuzziness cannot be attributed to lack of a steady hand, but is rather typical of the master planning stage in which details are scarce, and reveals the wiggle room necessary for developers and architects to successfully navigate the often tumultuous and always tedious planning process. But that process is getting easier and more efficient thanks to the newly approved White Flint Sector Plan, says Federal Realty developer Evan Goldman. "Our Sketch Plan follows almost exactly to the White Flint Sector Plan, which the citizens were already highly involved with," Goldman explains, "making the process a lot quicker, and minimizing disputes." Goldman and Federal Realty will present their Sketch Plan to the Montgomery County Planning Board next month, and hope to submit their Site and Preliminary Plan applications shortly after.

If the market continues to cooperate, and the planning process goes smoothly, Goldman believes they'll be ready to break ground in 2012. He thinks that would place Mid Pike Plaza as the front runner of major developments currently in the pipeline. LCOR has already broken ground on the new U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) building at North Bethesda Center/White Flint Metro, and JBG's North Bethesda Phase II should follow right behind Mid Pike Plaza. ProMark's North Bethesda Gateway also looks to get in on the action in the coming years.

Phase I of Mid Pike Plaza will land White Flint three new buildings: one high-rise residential, a small office atop retail, and a low-rise residential over retail. "These will anchor our Main Street and usher in improved streetscapes and a community park," promises Goldman. The second phase will complete the streetscapes, the street grid and public space for the retail plaza, and several more pockets of public green spaces, while future phases will proceed to fill in the block with larger buildings, one by one. As for architectural details, those will emerge later. The next step is "to meet with Street-Works in order to create design guidelines for our main storefronts and streetscapes," says Goldman.

With Bethesda having been the economic engine of the region for the last 20 to 30 years, many of local developers concur with Goldman's assessment of White Flint as the "logical next step" for development. "We're setting up a really good street grid, with all sustainable buildings, great pedestrian friendly roads, and great transit," says Goldman. The blank slate that is the area surrounding the White Flint metro will enable developers' smart growth ambitions to play out on a large scale; and it seems that developers and the community are taking this precedent seriously. Aside from the many proposed development projects, the newly established special taxing districting in North Bethesda will also help improve the area's infrastructure: a ten percent commercial property tax increase as part of the new Sector Plan will help finance $208 million in construction during its lifespan. With Montgomery County officials projecting that new growth in the White Flint area could bring in as much as $6.8 billion, it seems like White Flint is ready to take the torch from Bethesda whether they want to pass it over or not.

Montgomery County, MD Real Estate Development News

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Wisconsin Giant "Launch Party" this Thursday

Despite a pending legal battle that has tied up the Wisconsin Avenue Giant, developers are moving forward - pretty soon - with their 56,000-s.f. grocery store project that will add additional retail, residential, and office space. Developer Steet-Works has announced a "launch party" for this Thursday to celebrate the impending demolition of the abandoned 1950's era G.C. Murphy Co. store and existing Giant, which will yield to a newly renamed "Cathedral Commons."

Parent company Stop & Shop owns the site bounded by Idaho Avenue, Wisconsin Avenue, and Macomb Street and divided by Newark Street, all of which now contains a mostly-abandoned, one-story retail strip and surface parking. Upset with the parking provisions, the threat of increasing density in the area, and even challenging the Commission's authority to make the specific zoning amendment ruling that approved the project, the Wisconsin-Newark Neighbors Coalition (WNNC) had filed a lawsuit to prevent the project, challenging, as they had previously, the Zoning Commission's 2009 approval of the project.

Despite the burst of optimism on the ultimate outcome of the development, the litigation has not yet been resolved, and Street-Works does not plan to begin construction until March of next year. DC officials and President of Giant Food Robin Michel, among others, will gather to announce their commitment to moving forward, ambitiously marking the last days of the 50-year old block that is a deteriorating and out-dated eye-sore. In an official press release Giant promises: "the development will create new jobs and feature neighborhood retail shops, restaurants, a 56,000-square-foot supermarket, townhomes, apartments, engaging open spaces, and an attractive streetscape." Developers insist that the current tenants will relocate into the new retail space upon completion.

When asked what circumstances changed to justify throwing a launch party this week, Sharon Robinson, a consultant for the Giant Team, explained that "this is simply a chance for the company to publicly voice its support for the project, and its commitment to move forward." She added that it will provide the opportunity for Giant officials to elaborate on the details and timeline of the development plans going forward. Councilwoman Mary Cheh is one of the many invested individuals who is happy to hear the news. "I am delighted, as I'm sure residents are," Cheh explained, "that after waiting for many years for this development, that we are finally on the threshold of it actually happening." There is always the worry that the litigation will again prove a hitch in the development's progress, but Cheh has been assured that the legal case of the opposition is not very strong.
In total, the proposed project will contain approximately 136,500 square feet of retail space and 140-150 residential units. After construction begins, developers expect the entire project to be completed within three years. How the project will be phased - likely in two phases - and how developers plan to transition from the old grocery store into the new, remains unsettled. Perhaps those answers will be revealed on Thursday.

Update: The launch party, as predicted by our prescient poster below, has been called off. Giant recently sent out an e-blast saying: "Giant Food wants to give all members of the community an opportunity to join us to launch the new project to redevelop the Wisconsin Avenue Giant and Friendship Shopping Center, which will be known as Cathedral Commons. To honor the High Holy Day, Rosh Hashanah, we will postpone the previously announced launch event." A new date has yet to be set.

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