Hampden Lane Condos to Hit the Market This Month
The Hampden Row luxury condominiums under construction at 4912 Hampden Lane in downtown Bethesda are scheduled to go on sale later this month.
Developer Toll Brothers plans to list the units at prices ranging from about $450,000 for a one-bedroom, from $900,000 for a two-bedroom unit and from $3 million for a three-bedroom unit. The units range in size from 615 square feet to just under 3,000 square feet.
Toll Brothers expects the first condos to be move-in ready by the fall of 2016. Amenities at the building include a 24-hour concierge, a residents’ lounge, rooftop fitness center, 9-foot ceilings, open layouts, a rooftop terrace and on-site parking.
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The exterior of Hampden Row and the residents' terrace via Toll Brothers.
Glenstone Gets Big Tax Refund
Glenstone, the private art museum operated by billionaire Mitchell Rales and his wife Lyn, will get a $372,993 tax refund after the Montgomery County Council voted last week to reclassify the museum from a commercial establishment to an ancillary facility—in the same category as private schools. Glenstone will pay $72,426 in taxes under the new arrangement.
The Washington Post reported the details of the tax change, which council members said they supported because the art museum offers a social benefit. The vote happened without a public hearing or debate, a move criticized by council member Nancy Navarro, according to the report.
The 25,000-square-foot museum is located on a 200-acre property in Potomac. In April 2013, The New York Times reported that despite being open for seven years, “no more than 10,000 people have visited their eye-popping collection of contemporary art.” Currently, the museum is closed to the public while it undergoes an estimated $125 million expansion project. The museum’s website says it plans to reopen in early summer 2015.
Major Bethesda Land Tract for Sale
Cumulus Media, the owner of a 75-acre site in Bethesda, hinted last year it had plans to sell the valuable land. Now, according to the Sentinel Newspapers, the land is for sale. The parcel is at 7115 Greentree Road, near the 1-270 spur, just north of the Beltway’s outer loop.
The site is home to four massive WMAL radio station transmitters. Cumulus acquired WMAL, broadcast on AM 630, when it purchased the radio station’s parent company Citadel Broadcasting in 2011 for an estimated $2.4 billion. Since then, WMAL has been simulcast on 105.9 FM. The land is nestled among single-family residential neighborhoods and zoned R-90, which allows for residential detached homes to be built. A commercial real estate broker estimated the land could be worth hundreds of million of dollars and that there’s the potential to build “300 or more homes on the site,” according to the Sentinel report.
The radio towers and their location via Google Maps.
Bluemercury Purchased by Macy’s for $210 Million
Bethesda residents Marla and Barry Beck have sold their cosmetics company Bluemercury, which they founded in 1999, to Macy’s. The two companies announced the deal last week. Macy’s will acquire Bluemercury’s 60 stores in 18 states and provide additional funds for expansion of the brand. Marla Beck will stay on as Bluemercury’s chief executive officer and president while her husband, Barry, will continue as the company’s chief operating officer. Bluemercury first launched online, but after failing to grow initially, the company opened its first brick-and-mortar location in Georgetown in 1999, when Marla Beck was 29. The company operates stores in the Wildwood Shopping Center on Old Georgetown Road and on Bethesda Row in Bethesda.
