New lakefront apartments proposed for Rio in Gaithersburg

 

The Mayor and Council of Gaithersburg will hold a public hearing tonight, January 5, 2026, on the proposal to build up to 500 apartment units at the Rio Lakefront development in Gaithersburg at 7:30 PM. Under the plan, new residential buildings would be constructed on the other side of the development's lake, between the boardwalk and I-270. Public comment submitted to the City has been trending negative toward the proposal. One factor not helping win public support is the generic architecture being shown at this stage, which resembles numerous other recent apartment buildings in many places in our region (what do you call those tacky facade "frames" that are on virtually every new building these days?), and does not mesh well with the existing structures on the opposite side of the lake.

Nathan Landow, developer and philanthropist, dies at 93

 

The Montgomery County business and civic communities lost a giant earlier this week, when real estate developer and philanthropist Nathan Landow passed away on December 30, 2025, at the age of 93. He leaves behind an outsize imprint on the Bethesda skyline. His contributions to the town include his namesake Landow Building office property, and several apartment and condominium towers. Landow went above and beyond design and regulatory requirements, bestowing buildings such as The Seasons, Crescent Plaza, and Fairmont Plaza with resort hotel-style balconies and design features. If you've been inside The Promenade at Pooks Hill, you know it's like being on a luxury ocean liner on land.

Other landmark properties developed by Landow outside of Montgomery County include The Colonnade and The Carlton Towers in Washington, D.C., and Prospect House in Arlington. He was responsible for 17 large-scale residential buildings in total over his career, beyond his commercial and office developments.

Landow's contributions extended outside of improving the architecture of the region. He was a prolific fundraiser and contributor to the Democratic Party at all levels, and even served as Chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party at one point. He was not only a key benefactor of the Mayo Clinic and Charles E. Smith Life Communities, but also made architectural additions to both of their campuses.

Services will be held on Sunday, January 4, at 12:30 p.m. at Washington Hebrew Congregation (3935 Macomb Street NW). Shiva will be observed at the home of Harolyn and Michael Cardozo on Sunday, January 4 at 7 p.m. and on Monday, January 5 at 7 p.m.

Memorial donations may be made to Landow House, c/o Charles E. Smith Life Communities, 6121 Montrose Road, Rockville, MD 20852, or online at www.smithlifecommunities.org/giving.

MCPS leases final space at former Leidos site in Gaithersburg

 

Matan Companies has announced that its 44-acre life science and industrial campus fronting I-270 in Gaithersburg, which consists of two 198,000-square-foot Class A buildings at 700 and 750 Progress Way, is now 100% leased. The final piece was the recent execution of a 161,500 SF lease with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), which has leased 161,500 square feet at 700 Progress Way. MCPS joins existing tenants AstraZeneca (198,000 SF full-building lease at 700 Progress Way, signed December 2023) and Daikin Comfort Technologies Distribution, Inc. (36,145 SF at 750 Progress Way, signed May 2024). Matan's announcement did not specify what MCPS plans to use the space for, or the annual cost of the lease to Montgomery County taxpayers.

“We are extremely proud to have delivered and fully leased this state-of-the-art campus,” Matan Companies Director of Leasing James Matan said in a statement. “The diversity of best-in-class occupants—AstraZeneca in life sciences, Daikin in advanced HVAC distribution, and now Montgomery County Public Schools—demonstrates the incredible flexibility and strategic location of these assets along the I-270 corridor.”

Tiger Sugar space marketed for lease in Rockville

Have we reached peak boba tea? Tiger Sugar's space at 12266 Rockville Pike at Federal Plaza in Rockville is now being marketed as a sublease opportunity. The tea shop's existing lease runs through January 2029, but they apparently want out now. According to the online listing, the space can become available to a new tenant on 30 days' notice. Tiger Sugar remains open for business at this time.

Lakeforest Transit Center to be relocated and redeveloped at former Gaithersburg mall property

 

There's a new development in the redevelopment of the Lakeforest Mall site in Gaithersburg. A ceremony was held yesterday to kick off the first phase of a newly-announced partnership to relocate and redevelop the Lakeforest Transit Center. Transit is key to transforming the former community hub into a vibrant, mixed-use development, especially with no new highways or rail service planned for the massive housing and commercial growth that will occur.

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, Maryland State Delegate Julie Palakovich Carr, and County Councilmembers, including Marilyn Balcombe, Sidney Katz, Dawn Luedtke, and Laurie-Anne Sayles, joined Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) Director Chris Conklin, WRS Inc. Real Estate Investments Principal Kevin Rogers, and other community leaders to celebrate the milestone.

The redevelopment is a joint effort between Montgomery County and WRS Inc. Real Estate Investments. WRS is set to redevelop the nearly 100-acre site into a dynamic mixed-use community featuring residential housing, entertainment, shopping, and public gathering spaces.

“Lakeforest Mall was a place where people came together for decades, and this redevelopment gives us a chance to reimagine this site,” Elrich said Monday. “Transportation, housing, and economic development are connected, and this project reflects that.”

The now-closed Lakeforest Mall holds a special place in the community, having served as the County's largest mall for a time and a well-known gathering spot for 45 years since its opening in 1978. Greed on the part of the mall's final owner, and chronic failure by County leaders to address violent crime and gang activity at the mall resulted in the disgraceful demolition of the once-luxurious shopping mecca now underway at the site.

The first phase of the agreement focuses on site preparation for the new transit center. WRS will prepare nearly two acres of land, which includes filling in a drainage pond and grading the site to make it build-ready. This initial phase is expected to take about one year.

Following the completion of site preparation, MCDOT will purchase the land from WRS and commence construction on the new transit center itself.

The new transit center will continue to serve the eight existing Ride On bus routes currently using the Lakeforest Transit Center. Crucially, it is also being designed with scalability to accommodate the future MD 355 Flash Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor. "The new transit center will support the nearly 2,000 riders per day who rely on the current Lakeforest Transit Center, as well as create capacity to accommodate the planned Flash Bus Rapid Transit corridor along MD 355 and any future developments," Conklin said.

Damascus bank branch to be auctioned off

A former Truist bank branch in the center of Damascus is about to be auctioned off. The building and associated structures are located at 9916 Main Street. This is a prime location for business, or for potential redevelopment as residential or mixed-use, with such redevelopment eagerly sought by the Montgomery County cartel, who have been working overtime to urbanize rural Damascus. They also want to jam as many Democrats as possible into the Republican town, before the U.S. Supreme Court declares their gerrymandered legislative and council district maps illegal. The opening bid is a ridiculously low $175,000, according to the online listing.

Gaithersburg shopping center for sale

Want to own a shopping center in Gaithersburg? Quince Orchard Marketplace at 12215 Darnestown Road is on the market for sale. Comprised of five individual properties, the shopping center is anchored by a Safeway grocery store. Other tenants include CVS Pharmacy, a Sunoco gas station, a Capital One bank branch, and California Tortilla. Beyond the revenue generating possibilities, of course, is the redevelopment potential of the site. The online sale listing does not include the asking price. 

Rockville Planning Commission to review Toll Brothers condo project September 24

It's been two years since Toll Brothers proposed redeveloping the commercial townhouse complex at 622 Hungerford Drive (MD 355) in Rockville into a 2-over-2 residential condominum complex. Tomorrow night, Wednesday, September 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM, the Rockville Planning Commission will consider the project's Final Record Plat application. If approved, the application will resubdivide the two-lot property into a single new lot, to allow construction of the 48-unit condo complex. It will also allow for the dedication of right-of-way by the applicant for improvements to the west side of Hungerford Drive. City planning staff are recommending approval of the application.

Proposed configuration of the condos

The two-lot site is designated in
black in this aerial image of the
property as it appears today; the
white-roofed building immediately
south is the U.S. Post Office, which
is not part of the property in question

The Spot food hall is on the way out in Rockville

ZAP! BOOM! POW! The crash out of the food hall fad in Montgomery County is snowballing. Caught up in the downhill momentum is The Spot at 255 N. Washington Street in Rockville. Its 6033-square-foot space just hit the market for lease Friday. The listing is being handled by H&R Retail brokers Bradley Buslik and Austin Hersh. Although The Spot remains open for business, the online listing states that their space is "available now."

A series of food halls, primarily targeted at the large Asian demographic in Rockville, opened in 2018 and 2019. The Spot's biggest rival - The Block - has already exited. Down in struggling Friendship Heights, the food hall called The Heights recently shuttered, having experienced perhaps the briefest run of any such enterprise in the County. Still chugging along in Rockville is Pike Kitchen.

The departure of The Spot will be a major blow to what's left of nightlife in Rockville Town Center. Spaces occupied by bars like American Tap Room and Gordon Biersch remain vacant years after both closed their doors. Raucous rooftop nightlife events at The Square in Rockville fell victim years ago to complaints of noise by apartment dwellers at the development. Food halls survived the pandemic, but seem to have ultimately lost their novelty shortly thereafter, leaving huge spaces behind.

Tequila Modern Mexican restaurant space available for lease in Rockville

A 3,841-square-foot restaurant space at 11 N. Washington Street in Rockville Town Center is now being marketed for lease by Paraclete Realty. Paraclete's online listing notes that dedicated parking is available for the restaurant, but does not indicate the amount of the monthly rent sought. The space was vacated by Tequila Modern Mexican earlier this year, after just a few months in operation. According to documents filed in Montgomery County District Court and posted at the premises, the restaurant owed the landlord $11,962 in rent as of May 2, 2025. 

Montgomery County Council rams through ZTA to upzone SFH neighborhoods

The Montgomery County Council took the first major step toward realization of its radical, warmed-over Reaganomics "Thrive 2050" plan yesterday, by approving construction of duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, and apartment buildings up to four stories tall on lots currently restricted to single-family homes along multiple commuter corridors. True to its form of recent years, the Council simply blew off community opposition, and a crowded hearing room of angry residents. Taunting the crowd at times, the Council's sense of invincibility was hard to hide in both their microexpressions and tone of voice. The "More Housing N.O.W." zoning text amendment - like Thrive 2050 - had no grassroots support, and overwhelming opposition among residents.

Steamrolling ahead, the Council's willingness to outright lie about the intention of the ZTA was astonishing. From the beginning, they have attempted to sell Thrive and this ZTA as addressing housing affordability issues. Councilmember Andrew Friedson specifically cited middle-income "teachers, firefighters, police officers and nurses" as being able to afford the $2 million duplexes and $1 million apartments that the ZTA will produce. This is nothing more than pure, unadulterated malarkey. Incredibly, the reporter from The Washington Post accepted this farcical statement at face value, declining to fact check Friedson, ask tough follow-up questions, or outright declare Friedson's statements as false, as the paper regularly does for Donald Trump. The Post even used the term "missing middle," which doesn't remotely apply to the multimillion-dollar units that will be constructed under this ZTA. 

Eligible properties (in pink and yellow) in
Aspen Hill, Glenmont, and Wheaton

All this ZTA will do is increase the cost of housing in Montgomery County. If the townhome right next to the parking garage with no backyard at Westbard Square is $1.x million, then the future duplex with half a backyard and half a front yard in Springfield has to go for $2.x million. Now the colonial with the full front yard and backyard and Whitman school district is suddenly $3.x million, and the new-construction McMansion is $4.x million. Heckuva job, Brownie!

Urbanization of the suburbs is the primary goal of the ZTA. For example, the map of eligible properties shows how this ZTA is advancing the plan to urbanize River Road between the D.C. line and the Capital Beltway, which I have warned you about for many years. You can see the many churches, schools, country clubs, and other large properties the Council and their developer sugar daddies imagine will be demolished in the coming years. The speed limit on River Road has already been improperly reduced to 35 MPH, the exact opposite of sound traffic engineering, as the road is designed for speeds up to 55 MPH. Eventually, under the urbanization plan, River Road will be reduced to one lane in each direction, with bus/bike-only lanes seizing the other travel lanes heading east and west. A Purple Line extension to Westbard will be planned to juice density even further. As tall apartment buildings rise along the sides of River Road, the speed limit will drop to 25 MPH. Similar plans are in the works for Georgia Avenue between Olney and downtown Silver Spring, Old Georgetown Road, Veirs Mill Road, Route 29, MD 355, and other major commuter routes countywide.

Here is how each Councilmember voted on the ZTA yesterday. The names under "YES" are the people you will be voting AGAINST on your 2026 ballot, and the names under "NO" are the people you will be voting FOR in the 2026 Democratic primary election.

YES - to approve the ZTA

Gabe Albornoz

Marilyn Balcombe

Natali Fani-Gonzalez

Andrew Friedson

Evan Glass

Dawn Luedtke

Laurie-Anne Sayles

Kate Stewart

NO - to oppose the ZTA

Will Jawando

Sidney Katz

Kristin Mink

Is Marlo Furniture on the way out in Rockville? (Photos)

Marlo Furniture has been a landmark presence on Rockville Pike since 1995. A new real estate listing suggests that, 30 years later, that could be changing. Several spaces in Marlo's custom-built warehouse showroom at 725 Rockville Pike are being offered for lease, including an 89,100-square-foot space that will become available on "January 01, 2026." Marketing materials prepared by Transwestern show renderings of "Your Sign Here" where the current, large "Marlo" signs are attached to the front and side facades of the building. The listing brochure states that prospective tenants will be joining Goodwill and Movement Rockville, with no mention of Marlo.

Images courtesy Transwestern

Metro Pike Center to get facelift in Rockville

Saul Centers is preparing to give a facelift to the Metro Pike Center at 11520 Rockville Pike in White Flint. The shopping center will receive a facade update in the coming months. Let's hope it is more retro than the replacement signage that was installed at the front of the property in the late 2010s. Lost were the totally 80s "Metro Pike Center" logo and background grid (see photo below), replaced by the most abominably-generic font and signage Max Headroom or Buckaroo Banzai could imagine in their nightmares (see photo at top). According to LoopNet, Metro Pike Center was constructed in 1990. White Flint is synonymous with the 80s, and that character should be retained to maintain the "sense of place" that Montgomery County planners give so much lip service to.

Vine Alley, Brews & Barrels spaces marketed for lease at Kentlands Market Square

Kimco Realty is marketing the spaces currently occupied by Vine Alley and Brews & Barrels at Kentlands Market Square in Gaithersburg as "available" for lease. Both spaces have a notation that parties interested in leasing either storefront "do not disturb" the current tenants, who are still open for business. In addition, both businesses have been removed from the tenant roster in Kimco leasing materials for the property. Brews & Barrels opened at 625 Center Point Way in 2020, and Vine Alley opened two years later at 114 Market Street.

Squatters strike again in Rockville

The squatting phenomenon continues to build momentum in Maryland, and most recently in the City of Rockville. Two men somehow gained access to an apartment building in the unit block of Monroe Place in Rockville Town Center on an unspecified date, Rockville City police report. They "took up residency" in a vacant unit in the building. A staff member of the property eventually discovered the squatters after unlocking that apartment's door at 12:15 PM on June 29, 2025, and told them they had to leave. Police determined the two squatters were homeless.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore and legislators had promised to take swift action on squatting, but have appeared impotent to stop it this summer. State Delegate Mike Griffith (R) said yesterday that he will be introducing legislation in the state legislature next year to close loopholes that currently blur the line between a legal tenant and a squatter. He told WBFF Fox 45 that a business client of his currently has squatters living in five of his Maryland properties. "It’s 100% a multimillion-dollar issue here in the state that we need to address," Griffith said.

Squatter takes up residence in Rockville home

A squatter took up residence in a Rockville home for three days last weekend, before Rockville City police were called to the property. The suspect, whom police said is homeless, was inside a vacant home in the 300 block of Howard Avenue from 4:30 PM on June 13, 2025 to 4:00 PM on June 16. New attention is being paid to the phenomenon of squatting across Maryland in recent weeks, as the activity has spiked in Baltimore and other parts of the state. In some cases, people in genuine need of shelter are taking the initiative on their own, but many recent cases in the Baltimore area have involved organized squatting networks operating online, who are taking money from the squatters in exchange for house keys and falsified documents.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D) told WBFF Fox 45 TV in Baltimore that his administration is "taking immediate action" on the issue. Maryland Delegate Ryan Nowrocki (R) disputed the governor's claim. "We have done nothing at the state level to address squatting in Maryland," Nowrocki responded in an interview with Fox 45. "I understand that the governor is making all kinds of claims about this issue, but at the end of the day, the governor is certainly entitled to his own opinion on the matter, but not entitled to his own set of facts. The facts are that squatting is out of control, and frankly, we have no law-and-order in this state right now, and that is partly the governor’s fault."

Construction advancing on Rockville's tallest senior housing project (Photos)

Here's a look at the latest progress on The Pinnacle, a senior housing project that is located at 11565 Old Georgetown Road, about a block west from Rockville Pike and a future north entrance to the White Flint Metro station. It is across the street from Pike & Rose. The 17-story building will house 113 independent living apartments, 40 assisted-living units, and 48 units reserved for memory care and early-stage-dementia Bridge patients. It will have its own 15,000-square-feet of restaurant and retail space, and will appear outwardly as a luxury apartment building, rather than a retirement or nursing facility. Developer Silverstone Senior Living anticipates a Q2 2026 delivery for the project.

Maryland taxpayers to pick up tab for Baltimore developer giveaway

Developers are about to score a mother lode of a real estate portfolio in Baltimore, realizing billions in massive profits, and Maryland taxpayers will pick up the tab for the next twenty years. The property giveaway is being characterized by Maryland elected officials who have tanked the state's finances as "taxpayer savings," counting on a compliant press not to run the numbers, and a complacent electorate not to care. Governor Wes Moore announced the plan in a press release four days ago, in which he promised $326 million in savings over the next two decades, savings he claimed would be realized by moving state government workers into leased space in privately-owned buildings. In turn, the nine state-owned buildings will be sold to developers.

This means a double payday for developers. The state - a.k.a. you, the taxpayer - will have to pay rent to house thousands of government employees in privately-owned office buildings around Charm City. And, developers will acquire valuable downtown property at - based on what we've seen in previous government dispositions of real estate in Montgomery County and Maryland - discount rates, compared to the value they will realize with redevelopment as luxury apartment buildings.

Some have theorized that there are an infinite number of realities. In none of those realities is leasing market-rate office space, over 20 years, cheaper than renovating and continuing to operate buildings you own. But it is a good program for elected officials to help fill the vacant office space owned by developers who have contributed fat checks to their campaigns. It's good to have friends in high places.

The payout bonanza won't end with Maryland handing your money over to developer sugar daddies for market-rate office leases all over Baltimore. That's because a valuable cache of state-owned buildings and prime downtown land is about to be added to their portfolios at value prices.

State Center Complex:  (201 W. Preston St., 300 W. Preston St., 301 W. Preston St., 100 N. Eutaw St.)​

State Center has been one of the biggest ongoing development scams in Baltimore for a couple of decades. What started as one developer giveaway turned into developer lawsuits against the state when they couldn't have things their way. Then, last November, the developers got $58.5 million from you - the taxpayer - for...nothing. The Moore administration paid off the developers with nearly $60 million just to end the legal battle - a battle the state would likely have won if the case had gone to trial.

So, as a taxpayer, you're already out $58.5 million for nothing at State Center. That was just the appetizer. Here comes the main course, courtesy of Gov. Moore: the complex will still be sold off to developers, who will redevelop the site with thousands of luxury apartments.

2100 Guilford Avenue

A solid low-rise government building with parking lot. Sure to be a teardown and redevelopment for luxury apartments.

​William Donald Schaefer Tower (6 St. Paul Street)

One of the tallest buildings in Baltimore, 6 St. Paul Street was only built in 1986. I was inside this building about twenty years ago, and it looked very modern and new even at that point. Now the state is claiming the building is facing "catastrophic failure?" This is a potential Trump Tower-style conversion to luxury condos, that will pay off handsomely for the developer fortunate to acquire it under a political fake "fire sale." The Maryland cartel again disrespects former Gov. Schaefer, who was treated very badly in his final years by the political machine.

310-311 W. Saratoga Street

Another prime property, right on top of the Lexington Market subway station. This guarantees maximum density will be allowed to the prospective developer, which means maximum profit.

200 W. Baltimore Street

They don't build 'em like this anymore. A prime conversion candidate for apartments, or a wasteful teardown - the option will be up to the buyer. Located right across from CFG Bank Arena (a.k.a. the Baltimore Arena). Unlike Camden Yards, you can still see the Bromo Seltzer Tower from inside 200 W. Baltimore Street. Maximum profits await!

201 St. Paul St.

Another "they don't make 'em like they used to" architectural gem. 

The worst part of this latest corruption scheme isn't the fake, inflated claims of savings. It's that the $326 million is over twenty years, while the state is facing a potential $6 billion shortfall in 2030. Aging buildings, even assuming the state has criminally failed to properly maintain them, aren't the source of Maryland's budget woes. It is astronomical overspending that has brought us here, and the Maryland legislature made clear this spring it has no intention of stopping that anytime soon.

Our local media appears too starstruck and weak-in-the-knees around Gov. Moore to challenge him on this real estate portfolio giveaway, and massive new expenditures in leases at empty office buildings owned by developer sugar daddies. They have simply accepted the poorly-documented claims of "savings" at face value, and have chosen to parrot the governor's message of "nearly four-hundred million in savings!!!!"

Unlike the local media, let's follow the money in the coming months and years. What will the sale prices of the government buildings be, compared to their true market value? Who will acquire them, and how much have they donated to Gov. Moore, Comptroller Brooke Lierman, and members of the legislature? 

Montgomery County elected officials have been giving away County-owned properties at discount rates - and sometimes even for free (!!) - for many years this century. Conversely, they are glad to overpay for rents in private office space owned by their developer sugar daddies (witness the Board of Education's move from a building owned by Montgomery County Public Schools into a glossy new office building, despite MCPS owning numerous vacant school buildings and other properties across the county. And just this week, the County government revealed it purchased a bank property in Olney that mysteriously gained over $1 million in value just since 2021, an additional cost the County was delighted to pay with taxpayer funds.