Development companies Foulger-Pratt and Willco broke ground Wednesday morning on Core, the newly named 16-story, 292-unit apartment building coming to the middle of Silver Spring’s central business district.
“This is an important step in the progress and the reclaiming of downtown Silver Spring for the wonderful, wonderful community that is Silver Spring,” said Bryant Foulger, managing principal of the Rockville-based developer that also helped build the Silver Spring Transit Center and the Downtown Silver Spring restaurant and retail project.
“This project will be yet another step in that same type of development,” Foulger said.
The project, at 8621 Georgia Ave., is schedule to be completed by spring 2017 and will be the latest new apartment project in fast-changing downtown Silver Spring. The building will include 52 affordable units and about 1,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space on a surface parking lot just north of the Lee Office Building, a well-known Silver Spring landmark at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road.
The spot is a few blocks from the Silver Spring Transit Center, the Downtown Silver Spring project and the county’s new Silver Spring Library.
“This block is ready, that’s for sure,” County Council President Nancy Floreen said. “We’ve been parking here but now, oh well. Now, it’s going to serve the purpose it’s intended to serve, which is contributing to the vitality and excitement of Silver Spring.”
County Executive Ike Leggett joined Floreen, council member Tom Hucker, who represents Silver Spring, and Richard Cohen, a Silver Spring native and chairman of Potomac-based Willco, for the ceremony.
From left to right: Bryant Foulger, Richard Cohen, Nancy Floreen and Tom Hucker at the Wednesday groundbreaking ceremony for Core. Credit: Aaron Kraut
Mediterranean villa in Chevy Chase hits the market for $1.8 million
The five-bedroom, four-and-a-half bathroom home at 4001 Virgilia Street was originally built in 1923, though it has been extensively renovated over the years to include Spanish Revival-style architecture, a sunroom and a dining room with skylights and vaulted ceilings.
Bethesda-based Long & Foster agent Phyllis Wiesenfelder has the listing. The home is priced at $1.795 million.
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4001 Virgilia Street, via MRIS
Montgomery County’s earliest known ranch-style home
Local historian David Rotenstein found the earliest known ranch-style home in Montgomery County in the Northwood Park neighborhood of Silver Spring.
The home was built in 1939 and billed as a “California Type Home” in a brief Washington Post article published that year. At the time, the one-story home was viewed as innovative and stuck out amid the neighborhood of mostly Cape Cod and English Cottage-style homes.
By the 1960s, the ranch style home was the most popular house style in the country.
Solaire Bethesda tops out
Rendering of the Solaire Bethesda, via Washington Property Company
Construction has topped out on Solaire Bethesda, the 12-story, 139-unit apartment at 7100 Wisconsin Ave. in Bethesda.
The project, from Bethesda-based developer Washington Property Co., is the third apartment project branded Solaire from the company, following Solaire Wheaton and Solaire Silver Spring.
Solaire Bethesda, on the former site of the Eastham’s Exxon Servicenter, is still on track for completion in June 2016.
True Food Kitchen, the already announced restaurant set to take one of the building’s ground-floor retail spots, is expected to open in fall 2016.
