Downtown Bethesda Parking Lot Approved For Condo Project, Park
A new 11-story condo building has been approved in downtown Bethesda just off Wisconsin Avenue.
Broad Branch Partners received approval from the Montgomery County Planning Board to build 53 condo units and six townhouses on the site of a surface parking lot at 4702 West Virginia Ave., MoCo360 reported.
The property sits just east of the Wisconsin Avenue commercial corridor and one-third of a mile north of Marriott’s headquarters.
The approval allows the Bethesda-based firm to construct up to 125K SF of mixed-use development, rising 114 feet. The condo units will be larger than the typical multifamily units, with the majority having three or four bedrooms, according to planning board documents.
The board’s approval requires 15% of the homes to be moderately priced dwelling units and seven “deeply affordable” at 50% of the area median income.
The board also required the developer to dedicate 5,582 SF of the lot as a new portion of the Eastern Greenway public park, outlined in the county’s 2017 Downtown Sector Plan. It also requires Broad Branch to contribute a minimum $300K for improvements to an existing park adjacent to the development site.
Broad Branch purchased the property in 2019. The developer initially had plans for a 19-unit condominium building rising 35 feet which were approved in 2019. Thursday’s approval allowed an increase to the density limitations.
Founded in 2015 by Shane Crowley and Jason Weinstein, Broad Branch has completed several other condo projects in Bethesda and D.C.
Another 58-unit condo development is going up one-third of a mile to the west of Broad Branch’s project. Novo Properties and DBT Development Group have plans to build a 110-foot property with ground-floor retail at the former site of Steamers Seafood.
Roughly a half-mile to the south of the project, Greystar Real Estate Partners and Partners Group are building a 25-story, 301-unit apartment building at 7340 Wisconsin Ave.
