Fredericksburg office market is hot, moribund MoCo's is not

Fredericksburg is a boom town compared to moribund Montgomery County. While our County Council is fighting any attempt to build the roads necessary to jumpstart our lethargic private sector economy, and only talks about increasing MARC rail capacity and a White Flint station, Virginia is building Express Lanes down to Stafford County and more Virginia Railway Express stops and extensions. Along with the business-friendly policies of Virginia and Spotsylvania County, Fredericksburg is booming, while Montgomery County has suffered a net loss of jobs over the last decade, and a loss of over 2000 jobs in retail alone since 2000.

The latest evidence of the difference in business climate is the Liberty Place project in downtown Fredericksburg. Once conceived of as luxury condos, the project will now be an 86000 SF office building with ground floor retail and restaurants facing William Street. "We're responding to the market," Liberty Place developer Tom Wack told The Free Lance-Star of Frederickburg, which noted the "strong demand for commercial property" in the city. The developers will offer free parking for the public in a garage connected to the office building (imagine that in any urban center of Montgomery County!) as part of a deal with the city.

The Fredericksburg City Council is set to vote on a memorandum of understanding for the deal tonight. Very few office projects are being developed in Montgomery County. The JBG Companies is constructing a new office building on Bethesda Avenue, but could not find an anchor tenant, and will now move its own headquarters into the building from down the road in Friendship Heights to fill the vacancy.

"Downtown's gotten pretty hot," Wack said of Fredericksburg. The office market is heating up as home construction continues to explode around Fredericksburg, which recently scored the idX Corporation factory that fled Maryland and the Lidl distribution center with 200 jobs (Virginia also won the sweepstakes for the Lidl corporate headquarters).

Every imaginable restaurant can be found in Fredericksburg, as well as the kind of hip breweries our County Council likes to talk about. Stafford and Spotsylvania counties are adding the jobs that will put less cars on the roads into D.C. every morning. And new infrastructure to reduce congestion for the commuters and businesses who make the increasingly-smart choice to locate in the Fredericksburg area.

Meanwhile, the bedroom-community-building Montgomery County Council is - as usual - asleep at the switch.

Silver Spring construction update: Silver Strings (Photos)

Slow going, but some minimal progress at the future Silver Strings restaurant at 8630 Colesville Road in downtown Silver Spring. The signage and main purple awning left behind by a former beauty supply tenant have now been taken down. Not much going on with the interior yet, though.

Olney construction update: Chick-fil-A (Photos)

Construction is progressing on the future Chick-fil-A at 18115 Georgia Avenue in Olney. I believe this will be the first Chick-fil-A in Montgomery County to have a drive-thru, which would allow me to end my boycott of Chick-fil-A.

I almost ended it to try their special BBQ sandwich a couple of months ago, but turned the car around upon seeing a packed restaurant and parking lot at Montrose Crossing. Ridiculous. Went to Taco Bell instead. Most fast food restaurants make 40-60% of their revenue at the drive-thru window, so it's bizarre to see a pad site restaurant without one.

I believe that's the drive-thru
window opening just to the left
of that teal-colored dumpster

Wheaton redevelopment update

Contractor Allied Drilling has finished drilling 47% of the geothermal wells this week at the future site of a new Montgomery County government office building on Lot 13 in Wheaton. Grouting of the drilled wells is now underway. Based on mapping of the underground water table beneath the site, however, a separate set of wells must now also be drilled. These 16 wells, when completed, will pump groundwater out daily to prepare for the excavation currently scheduled for September.

Once the concrete foundation of the building is poured, pumping will cease, and the groundwater level will be allowed to return to its current volume.

MoCo has the Lockheed HQ, but didn't try to get the Lockheed "factory of the future"

"We don't need the Lockheed headquarters," Montgomery County Councilmember Nancy Floreen infamously declared at the Aspen Hill Library in 2010. Such a blase attitude about one of only 3 Fortune 500 headquarters in the County is indicative of why our private sector economy has been moribund for so many years. MoCo intentionally passed on the FBI headquarters; didn't even bother to pursue the idX factory that wound up going to Fredericksburg; and was soundly defeated by Virginia in the contests to woo the headquarters of Volkswagen, Hilton Hotels, Intelsat, Corporate Executive Board, and Lidl, to name just a few. As a result, we've suffered a net loss in jobs over the last decade.

Yesterday, we found out just how blase County officials' attitude toward Lockheed Martin was. While current elected officials inherited the Lockheed headquarters in Bethesda, they apparently have no ongoing dialogue or partnership with the defense and aerospace megafirm. In fact, they've even tried their best to push Lockheed out of the County. As a result, Lockheed is now building a $350 million, 266000 SF "satellite factory of the future" in Waterton Canyon, Colorado, not Montgomery County.

We have many, many vacant properties that could have easily accommodated this factory. Even the recently sold Comsat Building in Clarksburg and former IBM property in Gaithersburg could have been a good fit in terms of size. Montgomery County continues to have the potential aerospace advantages of being near Goddard Flight Center, the Wallops Island launch facility, and numerous airbases as well as the Pentagon - but has yet to take advantage of the advantages!

This is exactly the type of facility I've been arguing we need - aerospace corporate offices, research facilities and high-tech aerospace and defense manufacturing. Why were we not in the running for this factory, or even engaging Lockheed about how we could partner on future ventures? This was clearly in the planning stages early enough that we could have filled the Comsat or IBM site before they were sold. That could have put hundreds of high-wage jobs in the I-270 corridor, and enable Montgomery County residents to drive west or north to work, without leaving the County. Instead, the Comsat site will be residential, and dump hundreds more cars going south on 270 every morning.

Montgomery County is notorious across the country, and across the region, for its anti-business climate fostered by the County Council. In contrast, "State and local officials in Colorado have helped strengthen the aerospace industry and foster an environment that helps aerospace companies thrive and grow," according to a statement from Lockheed Wednesday. What a contrast. What a loss.

It takes a special kind of incompetence to get shut out by a company located in your own jurisdiction. A special kind of ignoramus, to not grab the lowest-hanging economic development fruit in the area you are elected to represent. It's "business"-as-usual for moribund Montgomery County.

Silver Spring construction update: United Therapeutics Unisphere (Photos)

The Unisphere, a 120000 SF expansion of United Therapeutics' downtown Silver Spring campus, is expected to deliver in 2018. It will include a six-story office building, retail space, and a parking garage. As you can see, construction is about 3 floors above ground level at this point.

New drug treatment facility proposed to replace current one at Avery Road

Montgomery County is proposing to demolish the existing drug treatment facility at 14703 Avery Road, and replace it with a new, 3-story, 64-bed treatment center, and a second 16-bed cottage. The new facility would be able to hold 20 more patients than the current one.

A public meeting regarding the proposal will be held on Thursday, August 24, 2017 at 7:00 PM, in the cafeteria of the current facility at 14703 Avery Road. The proposal will then be filed with the City of Rockville. Rockville's Planning Commission is expected to take up the project at its September 27, 2017 meeting, at City Hall at 7:00 PM.

Rendering courtesy Montgomery County