Montgomery County is entering into its first-ever tax increment financing plan with a private company to fund the $2.8 billion Viva White Oak redevelopment project, county officials announced Friday in a press release.
Viva White Oak — once named LifeSci Village — is a planned community near the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s White Oak campus and Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center. Located on 280 acres of land, the development will include up to 12.1 million square feet of commercial, residential, retail and public space. According to the county news release Friday, the development is expected to generate 17,000 construction jobs, 9,000 permanent jobs and an estimated $62 million in annual county revenue once completed.
Nearly 5,000 homes, including apartments, are expected to be built, along with new retail, hotel, and medical office space, according to the release. The plan also “reserves land for a new elementary school, active parks, bike lanes, and community trails, all while protecting more than 18 acres through forest conservation.”
The public-private partnership with Baltimore-based MCB Real Estate will allow the county to use tax increment financing to subsidize the project. According to the news release, local governments are able to use this type of funding mechanism “to pledge future property tax revenues from within the project area to fund core public infrastructure such as roads, utilities, and open space, without impacting existing County resources or services.”
“This deal represents a real investment in East County, an area that has waited far too long for this kind of attention and opportunity,” County Executive Marc Elrich (D) said in the press release. “This is what it looks like when we align economic growth with community needs — jobs, housing, infrastructure, and green space all in one place. This is the largest and most important real estate development for East County.”
The legislation will be introduced in the County Council, which must formally approve the financing plan.
MCB Real Estate entered into a contract with the county government to redevelop the Viva White Oak property in 2023. The redevelopment has faced a number of site plan hurdles as well as changing partnerships between developers and the county since 2021.
“The East County community deserves quality retail, quality housing, and public amenities that serve East County residents and serve as destinations for others,” councilmember Kristin Mink (D-Dist. 5), who represents White Oak, said in the release. “At the Viva White Oak property, we have an excellent development team coming to the County with a plan to get shovels in the ground and open up the new chapter in economic development that District 5 residents have been waiting for.”
Mink has been vocal about the need for more residential and retail development in her district. For example, Burtonsville only had one Giant Food grocery store until Sprouts Farmers Market opened in January 2024.
Elrich has praised Northern Virginia’s special taxing districts, which allow the collection of taxes in those districts to fund transportation projects. He has said he wants to emulate this taxing mechanism in order to invest in transportation infrastructure without relying on the county’s operating budget base. But Montgomery County leaders can’t implement similar taxes unless the Maryland General Assembly passes legislation that would enable them to do so.
The tax increment financing mechanism may be the closest Elrich can get to this type of funding method, unless state law changes. According to the news release, independent analysts have reviewed the proposal and confirmed that the financing plan does not affect the county’s general budget fund or bond rating.
