The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has selected a Providence, Rhode Island-based developer to transform a surface parking lot by the College Park Metro station into a 400-plus unit apartment project.
The WMATA board on Thursday is expected to approve a motion to negotiate and execute a term sheet with Gilbane Development Co., the firm chosen over three other bidders to develop the lot sandwiched between the Metro tracks and River Road.
Gilbane’s specific proposal calls for 430 units over 11,900 square feet of retail. A neighboring parcel will be improved as open space fronting a pedestrian plaza, while the project will leave room for the incoming Purple Line tracks and station. The developer has offered a $14.2 million payment for the site in addition.
“This is a great opportunity for transit-oriented development and particularly on this WMATA site, just steps from the College Park station as well as the future Purple Line stop right there,” said Eric Olson, executive director of the College Park City-University Partnership. “We feel like it will cater to people who work at the university but also work downtown. It’s perfectly positioned.”
The 530-space surface lot will obviously be replaced by the new development, but no additional parking is planned, as the nearby Metro garage built in 2005 to replace the lot has enough capacity to absorb its regular users, according to a Metro staff report.
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Metro issued the solicitation for the parcel in July 2015 and selected Gilbane in April. With the board’s approval, the plan is to negotiate the term sheet within 60 days, then negotiate a joint development agreement, before finally seeking the board’s OK to execute it and get construction underway.
College Park is buzzing with development, either planned or underway.
On Tuesday, Wood Partners broke ground on 4700 Berwyn House Road, a 275-unit building — 60 percent of which will be studios and one bedroom. Monument Realty recently delivered Monument Village at College Park, with 235 apartments and 4,800 square feet of retail. A 150-key Cambria Hotel is under construction at 8321 Baltimore Ave. The $140 million Hotel at the University of Maryland, a nine-story, 297-room luxury hotel and conference center, is expected to open next spring, while Toll Brothers’ Terrapin Row, a 1,500-bed student housing complex with retail, will open in time for the fall semester.
Among projects in the pipeline: the $110 million mixed-use redevelopment of properties along Route 1, by a joint venture of the Bozzuto Group and Willard Retail Group and the University of Maryland Foundation; Corporate Office Properties Trust’s 75,000-square-foot spec office building at MSquare, UMd.’s 126-acre research park; and a $6 million arts, entertainment and culinary venue from Scott Plank, a former Under Armour Inc. executive and brother of Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank.
