Proposal For 105 Townhouses in Rockville Area Currently Occupied By Vacant Office Buildings

Missing Middle Jefferson, LLC has submitted an application for consideration by the Montgomery County Planning Board for the property located at 2115 East Jefferson Street. The Applicant proposes to demolish the existing building and redevelop the property with 110 residential units including townhomes and stacked townhomes. The Property is located within the employment center along Executive Boulevard and East Jefferson Street, within the western portion of the White Flint area.  The property is one record lot. The Net Tract Area of the property is 239,218 SF.  Today, it is occupied by a vacant office building of approximately 139,000 SF.

Per documents submitted in the application to Montgomery Planning: The property is currently developed with a multi-level office building and a large, surrounding surface parking lot.  The office building has been vacant for some time and both the former owner and the current owner sought either commercial tenants or conversion of the existing office building into a residential use without success.  Based on the high vacancy rates for aging suburban office buildings such as this, the existence of superior office locations in Bethesda and along Rockville Pike, and the acute demand for new housing, Applicant has determined that is in the public interest to redevelop the Property with townhomes and stacked townhomes. 

The applicant proposes to demolish the existing building and parking lot and to redevelop the property with 105 townhouse units (including 15% MPDUs).  Open space and green area will be located throughout the project including a wooded area on the western end, a central common area next to that wooded area, a large central open space area and other internal green areas, all serving various recreation, relaxation and open space roles.  The specific location, size and features of these open spaces will be determined through the Site Plan process.  Included with the application are representative renderings of the various locations of these areas and representative uses.

Most of the proposed units are planned to be rear loaded with alleys serving internal garages for each unit with a few front-loaded units at the rear of the property.  The pedestrian system will include sidewalks on both sides of the internal roads as well as through the various open space areas.  Applicant will construct a path that will connect to the Green Acres School to the west, enabling access to Green Acres from East Jefferson Street, the public transportation system and both METRO stations.  The Project also will include stormwater management facilities now required by county and state regulations but not previously existing on-site. Every unit will have its own garage parking and additional visitor parking will be provided along the internal street system.  Bicycle parking will be provided according to code requirements as well.

Previously reported on by Caitlynn Peetz. Featured photo courtesy of Montgomery Planning.

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