The Montgomery County Planning Board approved a proposal Thursday to replace two office buildings in downtown Bethesda with a new 12-story residential tower.
Washington Property Co. plans to demolish a three-story building at 4719 Hampden Lane and an adjacent 11-story building at 4720 Montgomery Lane to make way for the high-rise, which would include a minimum of 198 units but could feature as many as 250 if the configuration changes. The Bethesda developer owns both buildings, which together total about 92,000 square feet and are less than 50% occupied.
The new tower will be one block north of a new southern entrance to the Bethesda Metro Station and a future Purple Line stop. The site is bordered by Montgomery Lane, East Lane and Hampden Lane.
A Washington Property spokesperson could not provide a timeline for when construction would begin, saying it depends in part on "improvement in the capital markets and Montgomery County’s ability to attract investment for new development." Many developers have criticized county policies, including a new rent control law, for driving away investment.
The 250,000-square-foot project, designed by Design Collective, calls for 11 for-sale units on the top six floors and 187 multifamily rental units. The developer is finalizing the exact unit mix, which may change based on market conditions, Janel Kausner, vice president of development with Washington Property Co., told the board.
Plans call for 17.6% of the project’s rental units — or about 44 — to be set aside for households earning less than 80% of the area median income. Earmarking more than 17.5% of the units as moderately priced dwelling units allows the developer to boost the tower’s height from the currently zoned 250 feet to 262 feet, according to planning documents.
If the developer converts any condo units into rental units, it will boost the number of MPDUs, according to planning documents.
Washington Property acquired the building on Montgomery Lane in 2019 for $22 million, according to the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. It bought the Hampden Lane building for $5.75 million in 2008 to serve as its corporate headquarters.
The company does not have an immediate timeline for relocating its offices and plans to remain in the Hampden Lane building "for the foreseeable future," the spokesperson said.
The buildings were previously approved for a project dubbed Hampden East, which penciled in up to 150 multifamily units and 340,000 square feet of office and retail space on the narrow site. Those 2021 plans have since expired
The development will include up to 68 on-site parking spaces and 140 off-site parking spaces in the nearby Hampden Square parking garage, according to planning documents. It will also include about 1,500 square feet of public open space along the building’s frontages.
Artie Harris, chair of the Montgomery County Planning Board, said the project would help address the county’s severe housing shortage, and Commissioner Shawn Bartley said it will add to Bethesda’s growing skyline and help cement the city as a “signature place to visit.”
The project is the second approved in downtown Bethesda through Montgomery County’s expedited review pipeline for projects involving change of use from commercial to residential. About two blocks north of the Hampden Lane development, MRP Realty and Prime Finance Partners will transform two vacant office buildings into a 302-foot, 420-unit residential tower.
A slew of other commercial-to-residential conversions, including projects in Silver Spring, Germantown and Rockville, have either been approved or are currently progressing through the county’s expedited review process.