Brian Lewis/The Gazette A 2012 Rolls-Royce Ghost (right) and Bentley mark EuroMotorcars’ new showrooms in Bethesda.

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Almost 20 years after the Montgomery County Council last revamped Wheaton's commercial core, it adopted a new sector plan this week to encourage dense redevelopment that would replace its 1950s-era business district with a mix of office buildings, multifamily housing and retail space.

But the question remains whether Wheaton will ever live up to its development potential. That's a question that has plagued planners since the last sector plan was developed with expectations that the arrival of the Metrorail’s Red Line station in 1990 would prove the catalyst for office space demand.

The language approved Tuesday provides new transit-oriented zoning centered around the Metro station that could transform the area, including the county's regional services center, the Wheaton Triangle retail center and the recently expanded 1.6 million-square-foot Westfield Shoppingtown Wheaton regional mall. The plan makes clear county planners’ intent to re-create Wheaton as a jobs center with an emphasis on office development similar to downtown Silver Spring, Bethesda and Rockville.

But the evolution of the sector plan reflects lowered expectations for the 484 acres of the Wheaton central business district, which straddles the crossroads of Georgia Avenue, University Boulevard and Veirs Mill Road. Missing from the final language is the following draft paragraph, which offered a cold assessment for Wheaton.

"The 10,200 existing jobs and 2,000 housing units in Wheaton demonstrate that the 1990 Plan was overly optimistic about both jobs and housing. This Plan's estimate of likely development reflects the market's view of Wheaton's potential to attract new development. This estimate does not limit the potential for additional jobs if conditions change and public or private property owners find more class A office development to be feasible."

Instead, the revised paragraph emphasizes the plan's new zoning encouragement of office development, especially on land owned by the county and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority surrounding the Red Line station. The paragraph concludes with the declaration that "economic development strategies should be developed to encourage office development wherever feasible."

Recent efforts to attract major office tenants to Wheaton have proved futile, frustrating both county officials and private developers.

As a last resort, the administration of Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) is exploring the possibility of moving the parks and planning headquarters from Silver Spring to Wheaton to provide an anchor for the mixed-use project planned by developer B.F. Saul of Bethesda in partnership with the county and WMATA. The same failure to find private or federal tenants lining up to move to Wheaton prompted Bozzuto Development of Greenbelt to back out of an earlier public-private Metro project in 2009.

Development plans in Wheaton have been stalled so long that it's impossible to blame the Great Recession. Greenhill Capital of Bethesda cited weak office demand all the way back in 2006 — two years before the national financial market meltdown — when the company dropped plans to build a 600,000-square-foot complex of office space, shops and apartments on the site of the old Anchor Inn restaurant at University and Georgia avenues.

“Wheaton has missed the train through three development cycles, and it appears it could be left behind again," Greenhill's Leonard Greenberg said at the time, saying the county took too long to revise the Wheaton Retail Preservation Overlay Zone.

Instead, Greenhill went with a small-scale retail redevelopment of the Anchor Inn, which stands half-empty.

Other major developments are in the works, including the Safeway project, a 17-story building that will include a 58,000-square-foot grocery store and 486 apartments across the street from the Metro station, and two more apartment complexes north and south of the station.

But the relatively lackluster success of mixed-use development in Wheaton remains a matter of frustration, as county planning Director Rollin Stanley noted last month in a blog on creating new transit-oriented development where people can live and work. He emphasized the need for developers to design street-level space with maximum flexibility to attract small retailers, but warned even that might not work everywhere.

"As we explore bus rapid transit along the arterial corridors and consider if transit can be a catalyst to improve those corridors, the community should consider how the at-grade frontages are used,” Stanley wrote. “The market for retail will not exist in many of these places and we cannot force it. The experience of the Metro Pointe project on top of the Wheaton Metro is a good example where despite being right on top of a Metro stop, the retail storefronts remain empty several years after construction."

Rolls dealer opens new showroom in Bethesda

EuroMotorcars of Bethesda has been selling Rolls-Royces and Bentleys since 1976. Last month, it opened a new showroom dedicated to the luxury autos.

The former furniture store on Woodmont Avenue, near Wisconsin Avenue, is a few blocks from the dealership on Arlington Road. It has 4,000 square feet for each brand. The company spent upward of $1 million on the renovations, where were handled by general contractor Therrien Waddell Construction Group of Gaithersburg, according to Gil Hofheimer, general manager.

It’s the only Rolls-Royce and Bentley dealership in the Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. This year, the company was named Rolls-Royce Dealer of the Year for the Americas.

The company expects to sell 25 new Rolls-Royces and 42 new Bentleys this year, plus a total of 60 used Rolls-Royces and Bentleys, Hofheimer said.

“Our new state-of-the-art showrooms will allow EuroMotorcars to present these magnificent automobiles in the most elegant and relaxing purchase environment ever created,” he said in a statement.

Rolls-Royces start at about $246,000, with some models listing for almost a half-million dollars, according to Edmund.com, an online vehicle sales information service.

First Potomac Realty Trust pays $16.2M for office buildings

First Potomac Realty Trust of Bethesda announced that it bought a pair of fully leased office buildings in Columbia for $16.15 million.

Hillside Center I and II, Class A properties totaling 86,189 square feet, are home to six tenants, with BAE Systems occupying about 60 percent of the complex. Built in phases from 2001 to 2005, the buildings benefit from their proximity to Fort Meade, which is undergoing major expansion under the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure program.

"Hillside Center presents an opportunity for us to purchase two stabilized office buildings with quality tenancy in a strong sub-market that we know well and where we already have a significant presence," Nicholas R. Smith, First Potomac's chief investment officer, said in a news release

The deal included First Potomac’s assumption of a first mortgage loan on the property with a balance of $13.25 million. The company expects the property to generate an initial unlevered yield of 8.4 percent on both a cash and accrual basis.

First Potomac also bought Metro Place III and IV, two Class A office buildings totaling 325,328 square feet in Merrifield, Va. The company holds a 51 percent share in the properties in a joint venture. The implied value of the property is $105 million, and the transaction included the assumption of a first mortgage loan with a balance of approximately $51.5 million.

Hunt Valley property sells for $3.45 million

Corporate Office Property Trust sold a 57,500-square-foot, Class B office building in Hunt Valley for $3.45 million, according to state records.

The two-story property, at 11011 McCormick Road, was acquired by Brawner Builders.

State pays $6.8M for Bon Secours medical campus

The state of Maryland bought a four-building medical campus in Baltimore for $6.8 million, according to Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, which represented the seller, Bon Secours Liberty Medical Center.

The property, at 2600 Liberty Heights Ave., totals 117,000 square feet, which will be used for expansion of the neighboring Baltimore City Community College.

Gary L. Hooper of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer handled negotiations on behalf of Bon Secours.

Boeing signs lease at Aberdeen Proving Ground

Boeing has signed a lease for 26,000 square feet at the Government and Technology Enterprise project, a 416-acre business community within Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County, according to developer St. John Properties of Baltimore.

Boeing's Electronic and Mission Systems Division will occupy a full floor at 6200 Guardian Gateway. More than 100 new employees are expected to locate to the recently completed building early next year. Boeing will support the Army's Command, Control, Computer, Communication, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command operations, a two-phase, 2.5 million-square-foot campus that opened last month at the installation.

With more than 7,200 employee positions, 120 laboratories and 80,000 pieces of equipment already moved to Aberdeen, the center is the largest driver of demand for office space in and near Aberdeen under BRAC.

"This latest expansion by The Boeing Company continues the leasing momentum generated by defense contracting firms and related companies that require immediate access to C4ISR," Matt Holbrook, regional partner for St. John, said in a news release.

The 75,000-square-foot building is designed for silver certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Battelle downsizes at COPT property in Frederick

Corporate Office Properties Trust of Columbia has leased 11,719 square feet at 110 Thomas Johnson Drive in Frederick for four years to the Battelle National Biodefense Institute, which downsized from 29,462 square feet.

The 122,401-square-foot Class B office building is 95 percent. Rick Farren of McShea & Co. in Gaithersburg represented COPT.

Commercial real estate news items may be mailed to Robert Rand, The Business Gazette, 9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD 20877; emailed to rrand@gazette.net; or faxed to 301-670-7183.