Federal Realty Breaks Ground on 3.4 MSF Mixed-Use TOD in Rockville

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Federal Realty Investment Trust broke ground Monday morning on Pike & Rose, a 3.4 million-square-foot transit-oriented, mixed-use development, in Rockville, Md. The REIT is investing $250 million in the project’s first phase, a Federal Realty spokesperson told Commercial Property Executive.

Eventually, Pike & Rose is to consist of 450,000 square feet of retail, 1.1 million square feet of office space, 1,500 residential units and 250,000 square feet of hotel space, on a 24-acre site at the intersection of Rockville Pike and Montrose Parkway. The location is about a quarter-mile from the White Flint station on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Red line.

The project reportedly will feature ground-floor retail with apartments, offices and hotel space above with nearby open plaza parks, common areas and a farm market.

The mixed-use development’s first phase, scheduled to open in 2014, apparently will include residential and retail components at minimum. The Federal Realty spokesperson told CPE that the developer anticipates two retail anchors in phase one and has already announced iPic Theaters as a part of the first phase.

Although the first two residential buildings will be apartments, according to the spokesperson, and future phases will be determined later, Pike & Rose will likely have a mix of rentals and condos eventually.

The existing shopping center on the site, Mid-Pike Plaza, will be demolished as development moves into the second phase. Phase two will also include a 250,000-square-foot boutique hotel and is projected to break ground in first quarter 2014 and deliver in 2016.

All office buildings within Pike & Rose will be LEED-certified, and the development overall will be certified as a LEED Neighborhood Development.

Designed by Streetworks, WDG Architecture and Design Collective, Pike & Rose reportedly is the first major project to break ground in the designated White Flint District since the approval of the master plan. The White Flint Sector Plan rezoned much of the area surrounding the Metrorail station to encourage more development there.

In May, Federal Realty vp/development Evan Goldman received the 2012 Livable Communities Leadership Award from the Washington region’s Coalition for Smarter Growth for “outstanding leadership in the creation of the White Flint Transit-Oriented Development … plan and the White Flint Partnership in Montgomery County.”

Last November, Lerner Enterprises and Tower Cos., both of Rockville, announced plans to redevelop their 850,000-square-foot, 30-year-old White Flint Mall and replace it with a town-like assemblage of 21 buildings totaling about 5 million square feet of apartments, shops and office buildings. The 45-acre property, less than a mile south from Pike & Rose along Rockville Pike, is to be redeveloped over a 25-year period, beginning in roughly two years, following approvals.

Of the current White Flint Mall, only the Lord & Taylor and Bloomingdale’s stores would remain in the new development. The rest of the redevelopment would include four new office buildings, a 300-room hotel, 1 million square feet of shopping and restaurant space, more than a dozen apartment complexes totaling 2,500 bedrooms and a 2.1-acre city square at the MXD’s center.

Plans also include donating a 4-acre tract to Montgomery County for use as an elementary school, to accommodate the expected population growth generated by the project.