Large Rockville Residential Development Finally Complete

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Gables Upper Rock

Rockville’s Gables Upper Rock residential development is finally complete. Gables Residential, the project’s developer, announced that the last apartment building in the community is finished and ready to receive tenants.

The new property, located at 40 Upper Rock Circle, was officially finished in July. It features 149 luxury apartment homes and numerous amenities, including a second community pool, a fitness center, a club room, a cyber café and a 20-foot outdoor movie screen.

Gables Upper Rock is located just off Shady Grove Road and is the residential component of Rockville’s Upper Rock District, a mixed-use development that also includes office and retail space. In addition to 40 Upper Rock Circle, the community encompasses three other apartment buildings. Together, they offer a total of 551 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartment units.

Gables Residential finished the Gables Upper Rock project at just the right time. According to a third quarter report from Marcus & Millichap, employment in the Washington, D.C., metro area experienced dramatic improvement during 2015. Now, all of these new workers are seeking places to live, and because of the extreme cost of single-family housing, they’re looking at multifamily rentals.

The relative strength of the D.C. apartment market has led developers to finish more than 18,800 units in 2014, the highest number in more than 15 years. However, in spite of the robust pace of development, the average vacancy rate dropped by 0.2 percent, to 4.6 percent. Marcus & Millichap expects this number to climb to 5.8 percent by the end of the year, due to strong investment in new units. Average rents have increased in the past four quarters by 2.5 percent, to $1,605 per month.

Photo credit: Gables Residential