Jordy Kane and Julia Gutierrez were looking for a new home that would offer a downtown vibe in a suburban environment. That’s what led them to Crown, a new, mixed-use development of homes, shops and restaurants on a former dairy farm just off I-270, Sam Eig Highway and the Intercounty Connector (ICC) in Gaithersburg.
Kane, 28, and Gutierrez, 31, both accountants who had been renting an apartment in North Bethesda, bought a 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom town house for $618,000 and moved in last October. They say almost everything they need is within walking distance, and they can hop on the Metro at Shady Grove to get to work in Bethesda.
“We really believe in the community,” Gutierrez says of Crown, which is being developed by Westbrook Properties and JBG Rosenfeld Retail. “We think it’s going to be very popular with a lot of people who are kind of like us. It has the best of both worlds: a suburban feel, with all the amenities you get from living in a city.”
With Bethesda Row, Rockville Town Center and downtown Silver Spring now firmly established as gathering spots in Montgomery County’s southern half, Crown’s developers hope to fulfill the same need for people living in the northwest part of the county by offering plenty of housing options, shopping and upscale restaurants such as Ruth’s Chris Steak House, seafood-themed Coastal Flats and the Asian-fusion eatery Asia Nine. The restaurants are expected to open this summer; LA Fitness and Starbucks opened last fall, and Harris Teeter opened in January.
Similarly, Pike & Rose in Rockville is designed to be a throwback neighborhood where residents can walk to restaurants, grocery stores and fitness and entertainment centers. Under development by Federal Realty Investment Trust, the mixed-use project is now rising where Rockville Pike, Montrose Parkway and Old Georgetown Road come together. Pike & Rose will focus more on entertainment, however, offering the area’s first eight-screen iPic theater, where filmgoers can be served a gourmet meal while watching first-run movies; a 250-seat music venue operated in conjunction with The Music Center at Strathmore; and such trendy restaurants as the California-influenced Summer House Santa Monica and Stella Barra Pizzeria. Other features will include a Sport & Health fitness club, which will offer an outdoor workout area with a third-floor view, and Muse Alley, a garden-style pedestrian walkway that will be lined with restaurants. The development is expected to include 1,500 residences, including apartments with rents as high as $4,000 per month for a two-bedroom unit, according to Federal Realty.
Both Crown and Pike & Rose will offer the mix of urban and suburban lifestyles that developers are counting on to attract people who want a downtown atmosphere, but don’t want to live in Washington, D.C., or its increasingly urban neighbors.
“As the county’s population has grown further north, Bethesda has become almost part of D.C. It’s very urban,” explains Evan Goldman, vice president of development for Federal Realty, whose holdings include Bethesda Row, Rockville Town Square and several shopping centers on Rockville Pike.
“The White Flint/Twinbrook area is really the center of the county,” he adds. “…In 10 years, people will view this area very differently. They’re already shopping there. Then they’ll decide it’s where they can live and enjoy entertainment.”
David and Karen Axelrod, both in their early 50s, decided to move from Rockville’s Fallsgrove community to Crown after their daughter graduated from Richard Montgomery High School last June. The couple paid $584,000 for a three-bedroom townhome with three full baths and two half-baths and moved in last October.
“We love this area,” says Karen Axelrod, a financial analyst who works at home. She says she and her husband, an assistant manager at a Potomac supermarket, considered other more established developments nearby, but decided on Crown because they could walk to stores and restaurants and because I-270 is easily accessible.
“We’ve been very happy here, and everyone we’ve met so far—while walking our dog—is very happy,” she says. “We’re just looking forward to the construction moving away.”
Krista Di Iaconi, who oversees development of the shopping and dining district called Downtown Crown for JBG Rosenfeld Retail, says the 260,000 square feet of upscale dining and shopping is what Gaithersburg and the county’s life sciences and technology corridor had been missing. The nearby Washingtonian Center, a Gaithersburg shopping and dining complex that includes Rio Entertainment Center, has long been the big draw for area residents.
“Rio has been very successful for the past 20-odd years, but there hasn’t been a place in this part of central Montgomery County—which is very affluent and very well-educated—for people to gather,” Di Iaconi says. “Bethesda evolved organically over time, and we believe Crown will do the same thing. Strip centers are wonderful…but you also need places to dine, hang out and have a mix of services and entertainment with pedestrian-oriented retail.”
When completed in about a decade, Crown will include about 1,200 townhomes, 60 single-family homes and 70 condominiums, expected to range in price from roughly $500,000 to $1 million. It also will offer more than 500 apartments in Downtown Crown with monthly rents ranging from $1,400 for a studio to $2,600 for a three-bedroom, plus 73 rent-controlled units, according to the developer.
