North Bethesda’s Vacant “Ghost” Office Building Is Approved to Become 106 For-Sale Homes

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The Montgomery County Planning Board has approved Pulte Homes’ plan to replace a vacant 10-story office building at 6001 Montrose Road in North Bethesda with 106 homes, according to Bethesda Today. The board acted at its Oct. 15 meeting. Every home in the project will be for sale.

What Was Approved

The plan calls for 23 townhomes and 83 condominiums in two buildings. Sixteen of the 106 homes will be moderately priced dwelling units. The condo buildings are five and six stories, with parking on the ground floor, and the Planning Board agenda lists the residential project at 229,212 square feet.

Public space is part of the plan. Pulte is proposing a central park between a row of townhomes and one of the condo buildings, along with a shared-use path, seating and new trees along Montrose Road. UrbanTurf reported that the plan includes 170 parking spaces and at least 42 bicycle spaces.

The Building Coming Down

The site holds a 10-story office building built around 1980 and a parking garage, both boarded up and fenced off. Pulte’s own filing described the property as a vacant “ghost building.” Patch reports that demolition is expected by early next year.

A For-Sale Project in a Rental Market

Most of the office conversions moving through the county are rental apartments. This one is ownership housing. The site sits near Pike & Rose, the Arrive North Bethesda apartments and the Bender Jewish Community Center, and across Montrose Road from Tri Pointe Homes’ Northpark Townhomes.

Pricing has not been announced. Once the homes begin to close, those sales will become comparable sales that buyers and appraisers use when pricing nearby townhomes and condos.

Part of a Larger Shift

The same planning committee reviewed two other office to residential projects in September: a 26-story, 450-unit tower at 7201 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda and a 220-townhome plan on a 15.7-acre office park in Rockville, according to Bethesda Today. We covered a similar plan in Rock Spring, where a vacant office building could become 285 apartments.

Across Bethesda, North Bethesda and Rockville, owners of aging suburban office buildings are filing housing plans, and the county is approving them. What gets built on those sites will shape the inventory in the Potomac, Bethesda and Rockville corridor for years.