Thursday, September 26, 2019

Another job center lost in Rockville, as developer cancels office building in favor of residential

Montgomery County continues
to become the bedroom community
for job centers elsewhere in region

The developer of 1800 Research Boulevard in Rockville, a property approved for an office development, is requesting a master plan amendment to flip it to residential. FG Office Group, LLC, a Lerner shell company, is seeking to build a 350-unit residential building with courtyards and two "amenity spaces." One will be a pool, and the other a green space with patio and picnic areas.

Previously, the site had been designated for a 210,981 SF office building. The site would seem ideal for a biotech or medical research company, given its proximity to the I-270 biotech corridor, Shady Grove Hospital and The Universities at Shady Grove. But Lerner says it has concluded there is no market demand for office presently. Lerner adds that it has been unable to find tenants for their existing Fallsgrove office building on Shady Grove Road.

The moribund Montgomery County economy continues to stymie the office market. Some developers have been forced to move their own headquarters into their new office buildings because they are unable to sign an anchor tenant. Montgomery County hasn't attracted a major corporate headquarters in over twenty years. The end result is that a planned job center at Fallsgrove, similar to changes at King Farm and elsewhere in the County, will now be permanently lost. So even if the County changes leadership and policies to be more business-friendly down the road, those new jobs can't be placed here to reduce the number of Rockville residents driving to job centers in Northern Virginia and the District.

8 comments:

  1. Montgomery County will become PG county and Baltimore in our lifetimes what a time to be alive

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  2. I know, let's build more restaurants and retail! Our problems will be solved!

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  3. No, the problem is ine of pricing. The issue at Town Square is the micro version of this macro problem. Landlords continue to price MoCo office space and Rockville space in particular as though it is a DC location. There is no cost savings for a company to relocate here rather than pay similar rates for a more prestigious DC address.

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    1. 9:13: That may be a factor, but can government force the private sector to lower rents? The higher cost of locating in Montgomery County is also due to the taxes, regulations, minimum wage structure and business-unfriendly policies of the County.

      I was quite intrigued to see if Jeff Bezos would put his personal beliefs ahead of the cost savings for his company and choose Montgomery County for HQ2. Ultimately, he did not, and joined every other corporation in choosing Northern Virginia.

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    2. No one even remotely educated re: the DMV thinks NoVa is cheaper than MoCo. Amazon is paying a substantial premium for NoVa v. the literal dirt of the White Flint site, not that a $1T company cares one way or another that NoVa cost a few million more here or there.

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    3. 12:15: Have you checked the tax rates for all the taxes recently? Virginia is far cheaper for business. Bezos would have saved a fortune even if there were no incentives or tax breaks compared to Montgomery County and Maryland.

      Amazon did care, and that's why they chose Virginia along with the direct airport access, which MoCo (by choice of their elected officials) doesn't have.

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  4. Any word on the Marvelous MArket closing at Congressional Plaza?

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    1. Modern Market has closed in Rockville and Bethesda.

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