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General Growth Properties has proposed transforming Columbia Town Center from a model suburb into something more resembling a city with almost 5 million square feet of new office space under a general plan amendment submitted Tuesday to Howard County.
The 30-year development plan released by the Chicago developer would also add 5,500 residential units, 1.25 million square feet of retail space, and as many as 1,000 hotel rooms, according to the amendment. The project, which requires Howard County Council approval, would massively increase commercial density to the town created more than 40 years ago by the Rouse Co., which General Growth acquired in 2004.
General Growth is touting its plan as a way to revitalize Columbia's downtown by establishing it as a walkable community that would attract defense contractors and others expected to add as many as 40,000 new jobs to areas near Fort Meade under the Pentagon's base realignment and closure program.
The company's town center master plan says, "The lack of any significant nearby comprehensively planned area with a walkable vertical mixed-use component provides an opportunity for downtown Columbia to regain its prominence as a major employment base. With Columbia optimally located between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., being relatively close to an international airport, and the additional jobs mentioned above as a result of BRAC, the demand for office product in Columbia should continue to increase into the future."
The proposal noted that there is a current vacancy of 25 percent in Columbia's 2.5 million square feet of office inventory. By comparison, the countywide rate is about 16 percent and the nearby Columbia Gateway complex has an 8 percent vacancy rate.
General Growth mapped out a three-phase development plan, with each step taking 10 years to complete. The first phase would include 1 million square feet of office space, almost 500,000 square feet of retail, 250 hotel rooms and more than 1,640 residential units.
The company began seeking zoning approval to redevelop Columbia soon after buying Rouse in 2004 but its recent rocky financial condition has put its plans and its future in doubt. Stock and bond analysts cite the $9 billion in debt the company took on to acquire Rouse for $12 billion. As if to underscore its uncertainty, its master plan notes that a foundation to aid affordable housing shall be funded by a $5 million contribution phased in as the company or another developer obtains building permits.
The company's shares have been in free fall under pressure from the general credit crunch, trading below $8 Thursday, down from $14.62 on Wednesday, on the New York Stock Exchange after Standard & Poor's downgraded the company's debt last week to BB from BB+.
General Growth announced last week that it is examining all options to raise cash to reduce its $27 billion in debt, including selling off its Columbia holdings and other property assets. In two new deals with First Potomac Realty Trust of Bethesda, General Growth sold six buildings in Rivers Corporate Park in Columbia for $42.3 million, plus Triangle Business Center, a four-building, 73,456-square-foot flex-office property in Baltimore, for $4.5 million.
White Flint groups warn that Pike fix is needed
The White Flint Advisory Group warned the Montgomery County Planning Board on Thursday that a redesign of Rockville Pike as a pedestrian-friendly boulevard must be the first step in creating a new town center with as much as 2 million square feet of new commercial space at its core.
The citizens group said that it generally supported plans to transform the area into an urban center, which planners have conceived as having as many as 14,000 residential units, doubling the current number of houses, condominiums and apartments. But members insisted that "fixing" Rockville Pike must come first, instead of waiting until a third phase of development, as county planning staff have proposed under a new sector plan.
"Rockville Pike has to be done first," said Suzanne Hudson, with the Garret Park Estates-White Flint Park Citizens Association. "Definitely, we do not want it to be completed in the third phase."
The sector plan draft would transform the pike into a tree-lined, walkable boulevard with a pedestrian refuge in the median that would connect residences to shops, restaurants and businesses built close to the street, as in downtown Bethesda and Silver Spring.
The road would be part of a transportation network that would make White Flint a destination spot and an urban center with lots of green space, said Evan Goldman of Federal Realty Investment Trust, which owns Mid-Pike Plaza.
"There is a desire to have a great sense of place and there is a desire to have a 'there' in White Flint, which it doesn't have today," he said.
But the task force members warned that they cannot give a final nod to the sector plan because planning staff have not shared details of its transit scheme.
"We cannot support something we have not seen," Hudson said.
The task force wants to ensure that White Flint gets the resources needed to make it an urban center, including better treatment from Metro, which runs a subway schedule that often leaves commuters stranded one stop south at Grosvenor.
"The Grosvenor Metro turnaround should be eliminated immediately," Hudson said. "White Flint is a major destination that is getting shortchanged."
The task force also wants a transit system that includes dedicated bus lanes that are not shared with traffic and a bus circulator system that runs in all directions to link the communities surrounding White Flint to provide access to the core.
What credit crunch? Bozzuto venture gets $75M in financing for project
A venture group led by the Bozzuto Group of Greenbelt has completed the financing and begun construction on The Fitzgerald at UB Midtown, a mixed-use development in Baltimore. The financing consists of a $52 million construction loan provided by Bank of America and RBS Citizens, plus $23 million in equity funded primarily by New York State Teachers' Retirement System.
The Fitzgerald is a joint venture between The Bozzuto Group, Gould Property Co., the teachers' retirement system and former Baltimore Ravens star Michael McCrary. The project sits on 4.6 acres of land owned by the University of Baltimore and is part of a large redevelopment effort by the university and the surrounding community, according to Bozzuto information. The Fitzgerald is to include 280 luxury apartments, 14,000 square feet of street-level retail and a 1,245-space parking garage. The development is expected to be completed in 2010.
"To secure this level of financing during the current economic environment is a momentous accomplishment for all involved," said CEO Thomas Bozzuto in a statement. "We give credit to our lenders, to the University of Baltimore and to the city of Baltimore for their confidence in, and commitment to, The Fitzgerald at UB Midtown."
