The latest in a string of office-to-residential reconstruction projects is primed for approval in Montgomery County, this time near Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda.
Rockledge Associates wants to redevelop a fully vacant, aging office building, located about a half-mile south of the Interstate 270 and Old Georgetown Road interchange, into a six-story multifamily building with nearly 300 units.
The Bethesda developer owns two office buildings on the roughly 4-acre Rockledge Executive Plaza, which sits at the southwest corner of Rockledge Drive and Rockledge Boulevard, about two miles southwest of Pike & Rose in Rockville.
Plans call for demolishing the 162,000-square-foot office building at 6610 Rockledge Drive, on the north side of the property, and constructing up to 295 studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments, according to planning documents.
Another 167,000-square-foot office on the south side of the property, at 6600 Rockledge Drive, was delivered around 1980 and will remain office space. The building serves as the corporate headquarters for Bethesda’s Total Wine & More.
Rockledge submitted an expedited review application for the commercial-to-residential reconstruction project in October, and the county's Planning's Development Review Committee will provide feedback on the developer’s concept plan at its meeting on Tuesday.
Rockledge did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the project’s cost and timeline.
The office market in Montgomery County has “changed dramatically” since the office buildings were delivered on the site 45 years ago, making the site a prime candidate for redevelopment, Matthew Gordon of Selzer Gurvitch, the project’s land use attorney, wrote in a July statement of justification for an amendment to the existing office park's site plan.
The project would help “break up the property” into a smaller, more walkable development, Gordon wrote in planning documents for Rockledge’s concept plan, which Montgomery Planning accepted in May.
At least 15% of the units in the multifamily building would be earmarked as moderately priced dwelling units, which cater to people earning 80% of the area's median income.
Rockledge also wants to work with the Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs to restrict another 2.5% of the units to rents affordable to tenants earning 60% of the area median income for 25 years. Those units won’t qualify as county-required MPDUs, but will add more regulated affordable housing to the area, per planning documents.
The site is just over two miles southwest of the North Bethesda Metro Station, and the surrounding area is mostly home to other office or medical buildings. The Montgomery Apartments, a 386-unit, 11-story apartment building, sits across Rockledge Drive to the east and is one of the only high-density residential developments near the Rockledge Industrial Park.
The developer pencils in up to 347 parking spaces for residents in an existing parking garage on the south side of the property, which currently serves the industrial park’s office tenants. The project will also add 21 new on-street parking spaces within private driveways.
The project will also add a roughly 2,000-square-foot grass lawn, interior courtyard, terraced garden area, grilling area and picnic seating. Inside the building, residents will have access to a fitness center, lounge, community room and a 100-bike storage room, according to planning documents.
In total, the development would bring about 21,400 square feet of public open space to the site, mostly through additional green space facing Rockledge Drive to the east.