DC Developer Parking Latest Project on Bethesda Lot

A Washington, D.C.-based developer is acting on Montgomery County’s blessing and getting in on a spurt of local redevelopment activity with its plans for a parking lot.

Monument Realty filed initial plans this week with the county’s planning agency for a multifamily project in Bethesda, the Washington Business Journal reported. The developer is planning an eight-story, 230-unit apartment building at Lot 25, one of two parking sites the county wants to be redeveloped in the area.

The two-acre lot is bound by Wisconsin, Maple and Highland avenues and Tilbury Street. Within those confines, Monument would tuck a 230,000-square-foot property, including 8,000 square feet of “live/work” spaces that can be either apartments or offices (or both).

Twenty percent of the building’s units would be set aside for affordable housing. Of those 46 units, 35 would be for households making up to 70 percent of the area median income, while the remainder would be for those making up to 50 percent.

There will also be garage space for both residents and the public. The project is expected to cost $90 million and break ground in 2026.

Monument did not comment on the development to the outlet.

The developer is partnering with Broad Branch Development and Mosaic Realty Partners at Lot 25. While Monument is taking the lead on that parcel, Broad Branch is leading the redevelopment of smaller Lot 44 and an additional parcel, where its developing condos and townhouses. The county put out a request for proposals to redevelop the lots in 2021; Mosaic is an equity partner in both projects.

Bethesda is only a few miles outside of the nation’s capital. Elsewhere in Maryland enclave, developers Stonebridge and Rockwood Capital recently sold an office property at 7500 Old Georgetown Road to In-Rel Properties for $29.9 million, a 78 percent drop in value from 2019, when the joint venture purchased the property.

— Holden Walter-Warner