More from Our MoCo Forecast
While we're talking about Maryland, could Bethesda be getting hip? At least parts of it. Cooper Carry's David Kitchens, snapped with Fairweather Real Estate's Jane Fairweather at our Montgomery County Forecast yesterday at Bethesda Blues & Jazz, says the Woodmont Triangle section of Bethesda has been able to woo trendier restaurants (and with it, a younger demographic) than other submarkets in Bethesda, meaning the North Bethesda area may be a haven for developers and retailers looking for young folks.
That'd be music to the ears of Stonebridge Carras' Doug Firstenberg (right), who's firm is developing 8300 Wisconsin Ave in the Triangle, a mixed-use project anchored by Harris Teeter. (Free cookies for kids at Teeter may be the greatest amenity since roofs.) Doug, here with MRP Realty's Ryan Wade says that while rents for new projects like 8300 and Stonebridge's site at Bethesda and Woodmont avenues may seem high—almost $2,000 for a studio—that's because Bethesda hasn't had a new stock of apartment product in some time.
Technology Council of Maryland CEO Phil Schiff (with Foulger-Pratt's Brigg Bunker, during a makeshift episode of Between Two Ferns) is proud that MoCo's unemployment rate is the lowest in the state. But growing the jobs base will require more entrepreneurs, he says, and programs affiliated with the community, universities, and the county school system to support the innovators need to be in place as a result.
There's an opportunity for developers to bring residential to the 270 and 29 corridors, says Duball's Marc Dubick. But since both corridors lack wide Metro access, he says, picking which spots to build in will be of the utmost importance, since renters/buyers have so many other choices.
