UMD moves forward with redevelopment project

Foulger-Pratt, Argo Investments picked to expand property

The area to be developed is across Baltimore Avenue-Route 1 from the campus. Many of the details are still to be worked out.

Still, Foulger-Pratt and Argo demonstrated the clearest vision of what the university was looking for, said school spokesman Millree Williams in an e-mail. They have ‘‘great experience” in the Washington, D.C., area, including downtown Silver Spring, and have experience working closely with various community stakeholders, he said.

Key aspects of the project include relocating the university’s existing administrative facilities to the site, and construction of more than 2 million square feet of student housing, market-rate housing, office space and retail, according to a university statement.

‘‘Nothing is cast in concrete at this point,” said J. Frank Brewer, Maryland interim vice president for administrative affairs, in a statement. ‘‘We intend to work with the FP-Argo, the campus community and the local communities to create the redevelopment plans for this site.”

The developers have presented only a ‘‘starting point to formally discuss how this mixed-use community can be transformative,” Williams said.

Phase one of the project should be completed in about five years, with phase two finished in about a decade, Brewer said in an e-mail.

The details of what will be included in each phase will be decided based on a range of planning variables — including cost, stakeholders’ input and the university’s priorities, Williams said.

Bryant Foulger, a principal of Foulger-Pratt, shared some insight into the project.

The concept includes narrowing the perceived distance between M Square, the school’s 124-acre research park, and the College Park Metro station, he said. The project will provide an opportunity to create a ‘‘wonderful” pedestrian atmosphere, he said.

‘‘It won’t be a difficult place to walk through. It will be an attractive place to walk through,” he said.

A market study shows a demand for about 400,000 square feet of retail, well over 1,000 residential units, a 150- to 200-room hotel, and perhaps 100,000 square feet of office space with parking to support all of these elements, Foulger said.

‘‘All of that is to be determined and to be finalized,” he said.

Another stated goal for the project is to help influence and improve the quality of development along Route 1, he said.

Foulger-Pratt has worked on a range of projects in the Washington region and other areas, including a Loudoun, Va., medical office building, the Park Potomac Place condominium tower in Potomac and a 2 million-square-foot shopping mall in Salt Lake City.

‘‘I think our experience in Silver Spring was probably particularly relevant,” Foulger said.

Before its recent revitalization, downtown Silver Spring was known more for its failures than successes, he said. His company engaged the public in the planning process and the result was ‘‘fabulous,” he said.