Silver Spring's newest parking garage enters final phase of construction (Photos)

Construction of the new public parking garage at 8615 Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring is entering the final phase. The structure has been designed to have retail space on the ground floor, and it's a nice touch that the corner stairwell echoes the corner window design of the building next door. When Montgomery County's moribund economy scuppered a planned office building on this site, United Therapeutics stepped in to save the day, making a deal with the County. Under the agreement, the biotech firm has constructed this public parking garage on this site, and the County, in turn, is handing over the Cameron Street Garage property at 8700 Cameron Street to UT for future expansion. UT is also providing a fiber hub to the County, a parcel of land for future affordable housing, and a new County Department of Transportation parking operations facility at 9150 Brookville Road in Forest Glen. 

Crane assisting parking garage construction in Silver Spring (Photos)

Construction is slowly advancing on a new parking garage at 8615 Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring. A tower crane has been erected to assist with the heavy lifting. When Montgomery County's moribund economy scuppered a planned office building on this site, United Therapeutics stepped in to save the day, making a deal with the County. Under the agreement, the biotech firm is constructing a public parking garage on this site, and the County, in turn, will hand over the Cameron Street Garage property at 8700 Cameron Street to UT for future expansion. UT is also providing a fiber hub to the County, a parcel of land for future affordable housing, and a new County Department of Transportation parking operations facility at 9150 Brookville Road in Forest Glen. 

Construction underway on new downtown Silver Spring parking garage (Photos)

A parking lot at 8615 Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring has been demolished to make way for a new public parking garage with ground floor retail space. The property had been expected to host a new office building, but the moribund Montgomery County economy determined otherwise. One of the county's few economic development bright spots - life sciences - ended up saving the day, however. 

Montgomery County entered into a deal with United Therapeutics, by which the biotech firm would construct a public parking garage on this site, and the County would then give them the Cameron Street Garage property at 8700 Cameron Street for future expansion. UT is also providing a fiber hub to the County, a parcel of land for future affordable housing, and a new County Department of Transportation parking operations facility at 9150 Brookville Road in Forest Glen. Construction at 8615 Georgia is now in the early stage of removing debris and grading the site.

Silver Spring hotel being demolished (Photos)

Demolition of the former Hampton Inn hotel at 8728 Colesville Road in downtown Silver Spring is underway. The building has a history of great change, having started life as an office property before its conversion to a hotel. Next-door neighbor United Therapeutics acquired the building in 2021, and is now removing it to allow for the continued expansion of its biotech campus. The controlled mechanical structural demolition is scheduled to continue through the end of May 2024. A noise suppression plan for the demolition was approved by Montgomery County on January 3, 2024.

Silver Spring Hampton Inn closes

The lights are on, but nobody's home at the Hampton Inn/Homewood Suites hotel at 8728 Colesville Road. Well, they're on in the lobby, at least. Guest rooms upstairs are blacked out, and signage has been removed from the hotel.

What's going on here? A search of Maryland property records indicates the building was purchased by United Therapeutics in October for an incredible $48,700,000. The property was previously acquired by Civitas Capital Group in 2019.

United Therapeutics installs more lighting, landscaping at Unisphere (Photos)

Some impressive new lighting has been added to the Unisphere expansion at United Therapeutics' downtown Silver Spring campus. Landscaping has also been done around the new addition to the property. Now that Discovery has decamped for more business-friendly, lower-cost, and infrastructure-accessible Knoxville, United Therapeutics is the bright spot in downtown Silver Spring, pun intended.

New animated lights installed at United Therapeutics in Silver Spring

Check out these new lights at the campus of United Therapeutics in downtown Silver Spring. Their Unisphere expansion project is nearly finished.