More than 560 new parking spots will be available at Pike & Rose starting Thursday, some shaded by an array of solar panels the developer of the project says is the biggest on a retail garage in Maryland.
Rockville-based developer Federal Realty Investment Trust held a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday for the solar canopy on top of the seven-level, 566-space garage.
The 855 photovoltaic solar panels arranged in three arrays will produce 265 kilowatts of electricity a year to power lights and electric vehicle charging stations in the garage and to connect into the surrounding electric grid.
Federal Realty partnered with Rockville-based Standard Solar to engineer, build and operate the solar system.
The new Pike & Rose garage (left) is across from the future Carluccio's Italian restaurant and market, which is under construction in the space behind the purple boards. Credit: Aaron Kraut
Empty space that will one day be home to a 177-room hotel and condo building (left) and the view from the new Pike & Rose garage to the entrance to the Phase 1 garage (right). Credit: Aaron Kraut
The new garage is officially part of Phase 2 of Pike & Rose, the mixed-use residential, retail and office project Federal Realty is building at Old Georgetown Road and Rockville Pike. Patrons of Phase 1 businesses and restaurants will be able use the new garage.
The Phase 1 garage, which has been providing parking for the iPic Theaters multiplex, AMP by Strathmore music venue and other restaurants and retailers, has about 400 parking spaces.
A 177-room hotel with condominiums will wrap around two sides of the new garage. Across a pedestrian walkway from the new garage, in the first floor of the PerSei apartment building, will be the Carluccio’s Italian market and a beer garden concept from the Neighborhood Restaurant Group.
Pike & Rose General Manager Aj Coffee said Carluccio’s is under construction and aiming to open in March 2016. The Neighborhood Restaurant Group is hoping to open its beer garden restaurant around the same time, Coffee said.
