Details lacking for Silver Spring planning office

Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Rendering courtesy of The Bozzuto Group SilverPlace, a mixed-use development in downtown Silver Spring, will contain headquarters facilities for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in addition to 358 residential units, and 47,000 square feet of retail, including a grocery store. The developer is SilverPlace LLC, a joint venture of several area development companies.

However, the board still has lots of questions about the project, starting with the cost.

Also unknown is exactly where the agency’s new home will be on the site, which will include residential and retail development, and whether Park and Planning will have to find temporary space once construction begins in 2008.

Talk of a new headquarters building has circulated in county planning circles for at least seven years but no overall capital cost estimates have made it into the annual budget passed by the County Council. Planning costs alone have been estimated at almost $1.7 million through fiscal 2007. But the closest projection of capital requirements is a schedule graph included in a 2003 Planning Board staff report on the proposal, which estimated the project could cost $28 million to $33 million. That likely is out of date, however, because it was based on occupancy in 2008, two years before the current plan.

Questions of cost and details of the new mixed-use development — called SilverPlace — will be answered sometime this spring when the Planning Board completes negotiations with the development team of Bozzuto Group of Greenbelt, the Washington, D.C., office of Spaulding and Slye Investments and Harrison Development of Baltimore.

Depending on how those talks go, Park and Planning could end up moving right into a new building fronting Spring Street or it might find another temporary home and return to a new headquarters fronting Georgia Avenue, said spokeswoman Nancy Lineman.

‘‘That will all depend on the final design of the development project,” Lineman said. ‘‘We’re not sure whether the current building will be knocked down to build the new headquarters. We could be sitting here while the new headquarters is being built behind us.”

When the 3.24-acre project is completed in 2010, it will transform the corner that serves as Georgia Avenue’s northern gateway to downtown Silver Spring.

The current circa-1957 building will give way to a complex that will include a 120,000-square-foot Park and Planning headquarters, a 150,000-square-foot speculative office building; 47,000 square feet of retail anchored by a two-story grocery such as Harris Teeter or Trader Joe’s; and 358 residential units, 30 percent of which will be designated affordable or workforce housing. The winning bid also includes a public plaza with water features as well as exhibit and festival space.

The new headquarters won backing from the County Council in 2004 after years of complaints about dilapidated conditions, leakage serious staff overcrowding and offices scattered at different sites. SilverPlace was planned to resolve those problems and consolidate planning staff in one location.

‘‘We are an internationally recognized planning agency,” board Chairman Royce Hanson said in a statement. ‘‘However, our plan reviewers literally can’t even unroll a development proposal in their own work spaces. Our staff will improve their services to residents of Montgomery County when we improve their working spaces.”

The project will meet national Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards, meaning it will be a ‘‘green” building that is certified for efficient energy and water consumption and will limit harmful environmental and health impacts due to pollution.

‘‘The design represents a balance of inviting civic space; sustainability; pedestrian-friendly planning; and community-oriented features,” said Tom Bozzuto, CEO of The Bozzuto Group. ‘‘Our goal was to create an inviting sense of place that celebrates Silver Spring’s wonderfully diverse civic character.”

Forrester Constructionwins academy job

Forrester Construction of Rockville has been awarded the design-build job for Washington Christian Academy Phase I in Olney. The $18 million project will include a new 60,000-square-foot academic building, 10,000-square-foot gymnasium, three ball fields — for football, baseball and softball — and site infrastructure.

The school, an independent Christian K-12 school in Silver Spring, needed more space to accommodate growing enrollment.

The architectural firm is Grimm & Parker of Bethesda. Construction began this month and is scheduled to take 16 months.

More time for Mills Corp.to pay off $1 billion debt

The Mills Corp. of Chevy Chase, the financially troubled mall developer, secured more time to pay off the $1 billion debt that threatened bankruptcy and forced it to take a buyout deal from a Toronto investment company.

Mills said Tuesday that Goldman Sachs Mortgage Co. has extended its loan deadline until Jan. 30, 2008. Mills had warned that it might not be able to meet the previous deadline of March 31, which would force it to seek Chapter 11 protection. Mills announced last week it will be acquired by Brookfield Asset Management Inc. for $1.35 billion.

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