'New Life Sciences Center Planned for White Flint Metro Area
'Tonight (Thursday), County Executive Marc Elrich addressed the White Flint community to share a plan that would bring a new Life Sciences Center for research, innovation, technology, and education to the area.
The Life Sciences Center would be built in the 15 acres of vacant land that are adjacent to the White Flint Metro station. WMATA is a partner in this project.
The initial enthusiasm for the possibility of Amazon coming to White Flint sparked a desire to have another technology center in the White Flint neighborhood. Per Elrich, “If it was good enough for Amazon to consider, there must be something there… this is the place to make a play like this.”
In addition to work and education spaces, it was mentioned that the science center would most likely include new street level retail.
The timeline for this project has not been determined at this moment. There are not any lead developers, but Elrich shared that he has taken meetings with possible tenants and that “the interest is there.” There have been discussions with multiple universities, both in and out of state. (These universities were not named during the meeting.)
The hope is that this would bring more jobs to the area, and in turn, drive more innovation and industry around the county. Elrich stated “It would be nice to give the post-docs from NIH a place to go”– sharing a concern that some of the scientists who move to the county only do so temporarily.
During the meeting, the prospect of bringing an additional “smaller, hipper” center to the Twinbrook area as well.
Images courtesy of Friends of White Flint.
By: Michelle Katz @pike.and.rozay
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Mr. Elrich,
I wish you and your team the best of luck but have zero confidence that there will be any action and will be continued talk just like your predecessor. Mr. Leggett had also proposed a similar “campus” on Belward Farm in Gaithersburg touting “30,000” jobs. In addition, there was a similar initiative for the White Oak area, partnering with the FDA; what happened to that? One more thing, please don’t breathe a word about the attempt to bring Amazon to White Flint. You have no right to do so and neither does your predecessor. The credit belongs to Governor Hogan for driving the recruitment committee to land Amazon HQ2.
@Craig Washington, your comment misses the mark on a few points. First, Amazon is no longer seeking an additional campus, that ship landed across the river, where airport and federal government access are at their doorstep. Second, The right to lobby for a lucrative tax paying business, is the right of any politician seeking to improve his representative base. This includes a city, county, or state official. Finally, the “predecessor” is in most cases, no longer interested, or eligible to lobby for such a cause. Next time you may want to stay a bit more focused, and less angered in your delivery.
I’d definitely prefer this to apartments, but would much prefer it be left essentially alone. As a former resident of a nearby apartment, it was nice having green space in Rockville, which is becoming harder and harder to find. It’s a beautiful, nature-rich area. In the 10 years+ absence of development, nature moved in. Seems unethical and downright needless to do this here and now, especially when Rockville has multiple vacant areas where something like this could be created.
If you’d like to check out how beautiful this area is:
https://www.facebook.com/WhiteFlintWildlifeMeadow