Studio Plaza office building plan suspended in Silver Spring

Concerns about the Studio Plaza project follow the Planning Board’s decision in October to block a 383,000-square-foot mixed-use complex with offices and a grocery on the BB&T bank building site in Wheaton, because the property’s commercial zoning did not allow for plans to include 320 housing units. The board acted in accordance with a County Council vote in September against another developer who wants to build 371 apartments on land zoned commercial as part of the greater Shady Grove Executive Center.

In Silver Spring, Hillerson chose to abandon plans for a 146,000-square-foot office building and 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space because it did not comply with zoning rules related to public space usage, said project reviewer Elva Hisel-McCoy. The county is seeking a mix of public space, housing and commercial development in Fenton Village, a planned urban renewal zone stretching several blocks east from Georgia Avenue south of Thayer Avenue.

‘‘The staff and planning board are concerned with well-designed public space,” he said. ‘‘As originally submitted, the application was not in sync with the staff position, so he took the office building off the map.”

Hillerson could not be reached for comment but he presented his revised plan April 16 to a meeting of the Planning Board’s Development Review Committee. The new proposal calls for two condominium buildings on opposite sides of Silver Spring Avenue on the east side of Georgia Avenue. The future of the block fronting Georgia Avenue that Hillerson controls remains up in the air.

Zalco sells officesin Riverdale for $2.6M

Zalco Realty of Silver Spring sold a 20,500-square-foot office building in Riverdale to City Sites Inc. of New York for $2.6 million.

The 50-year-old property at 5801 Riverdale Road is vacant and will be developed for retail use, according to CoStar Group, a real estate information service in Bethesda.

First Potomaccompletes Virginia project

First Potomac Realty Trust of Bethesda has completed its first development project, a 112,300-square-foot expansion that almost doubles the size of an industrial-flex building it owns in Haymarket, Va.

The $8.3 million build-to-suit project was finished in nine months and ready for occupancy by Engineering Solutions & Products, an Eatontown, N.J., defense contractor that will continue to occupy 100 percent of 15395 John Marshall Highway under a new 10-year lease, according to First Potomac.

Designer begins design workfor Montgomery College building

Group Goetz Architects of Washington, D.C., has begun work on the design for a full-building renovation of Montgomery College’s two-story Germantown business incubator facility and classroom space.

Group Goetz will design a 70,000-square-foot building that will be used to facilitate the initiatives of the partnership between Montgomery College’s student learning center and Montgomery County’s biotechnology and information technology business incubator.

Baltimore company sells office building

Gilden Integrated, a Baltimore advertising company, sold its office building housed in a historic church for $2 million, according to Steve Johnston of The Shapiro Co., who brokered the deal for the seller.

The property, at 1014 W. 36th St., Hampden, was acquired by the Captain Stormfield Group, a limited liability company that was formed to own the building and was represented by Richard Blue of Blue & Obrecht Realty in Baltimore.

The 12,500-square-foot church was built in 1899 and is listed as a National Historic Landmark on The Avenue in Hampden. It was converted into an office building in 2001 after substantial damage due to a fire.

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