Montgomery County Planning Board to review property acquisition for Olney Community Building

Montgomery County's Department of General Services is - theoretically (more on that later) - poised to acquire a vacant bank building at a major crossroads in Olney to serve as a community building. The bank property is located at 17831 Georgia Avenue, on the southeast corner of the intersection of Georgia and Spartan Road. DGS has been authorized by the County Council to spend up to $5 million to purchase the 15,801-square-foot site and renovate the building, which was formerly home to a Capital One bank branch. The acquisition will be reviewed by the County Planning Board at its meeting this Thursday, June 12, 2025 at 9:00 AM. However, as it is a government project, this is a Mandatory Referral application by the County. This means commissioners can only provide comments and recommendations; they cannot reject the purchase or plans for the property.

Planning staff are recommending approval of the Mandatory Referral, and transmittal of Planning Board comments to DGS. The building is in a prominent location and has a unique architectural design. DGS will renovate and convert the interior for use as a community meeting center. It will retain the option to redevelop the property at any future date, which would entail its own approval process - but again under Mandatory Referral, unless the County were to sell the property to a private developer. 

Here's the interesting part: Montgomery County already purchased the property for $2,573,700. The sale closed on May 8, 2025, according to state property records. Yet the staff report refers to "the proposed property acquisition." This doesn't quite add up in terms of accuracy and transparency by the Montgomery County Planning Department or the County, and says much about the actual relevance of input from stakeholders beyond the seller and the County this coming Thursday. 

Also interesting: Just four years ago, Capital One sold the property to a shell company called "SpartanGeorgia, LLC" for only $1,306,000. Whoever is behind the shell company made a significant profit of over $1 million, thanks to you, the taxpayer. Public notice of the purchase was published in The Washington Times, meaning very few residents would have seen it.