Tower Cos. put Silver Spring’s Blairs complex on the market

‘‘It’s time for it to undergo a whole redevelopment,” Collins said. ‘‘You could double the size.”

A sales flier says that new development capacity includes 1,402 apartments units and 297,329 square feet of commercial space.

Named after the founding family of Silver Spring, The Blairs have served as a marquee dividing line for Maryland and the District. The complex is a block from the Metro station and is bounded by major transit routes, including Colesville Road, East West Highway and Eastern Avenue.

‘‘It’s just a fabulous project,” Collins said. ‘‘It’s very rare that something like this comes available that is so close to downtown, on the Metro and situated to take advantage of the Silver Spring renaissance.”

The Blairs have significant competition for high-profile redevelopment plans around the Metro station. Home Properties of Rochester, N.Y., has proposed the demolition of the portion of the Falklands apartments located north of East West Highway and the construction of new more than 1,000 high-rise apartments and 60,000 square feet of retail. That could all depend on whether the 1930-era Falklands are added to the Montgomery County master plan for historic preservation.

The Blairs have stayed up-to-date, completing $30 million in environmental and other capital upgrades during the past five years, as well as adding a 78-unit townhouse complex that is the first apartment community certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. The recently renovated retail space is anchored by a Giant Food grocery and a CVS pharmacy. The complex also includes 1,053 high-rise apartments in three buildings and 266 garden-style units.

Argent condosbreak ground

Another major Silver Spring residential development, the Argent, a 96-unit luxury condominium complex, had its groundbreaking last week.

Perseus Realty of Washington, D.C., is building the nine-story, 108,000-square-foot project on a three-quarter-acre plot bounded by East West Highway, Blair Mill Road, and Newell Street. Completion is expected in mid-2008, with prices starting in the $400,000s. Units will have up to 1,435 square feet of living space, and most will have one or two bedrooms.

‘‘The Argent will be a new Silver Spring landmark, offering contemporary living in a prime location within walking distance of nearly everything,” Perseus president Robert L. Cohen said.

Perseus also announced that it plans a 360,000-square-foot office complex in Shady Grove, where the company plans to develop a pair of buildings with 360,000 square feet of office space at a cost of about $109 million.

The 10-acre complex will be called the Redlands, located at the intersection of Redlands and Gaither roads. The company plans a nine-story building, plus a six-story building with a 1,200-space garage.

First Potomac buys Annapolis complex

First Potomac Realty Trust of Bethesda bought Annapolis Commerce Park East in for $19.25 million from the Bernstein Cos. of Washington.

The two-building project is at the western edge of Annapolis, across from Westfield Annapolis on 7.25 acres near the intersection of Commerce Park Drive and Bestgate Road. The 101,302-square-foot property is fully occupied with four tenants, including the state of Maryland, which occupies 82 percent of the space.

Building supplier movesits Frederick location

L&L Co., which provides flooring and window products to residential builders, has moved its Frederick division office and showroom to 15,000 square feet at 5123 Pegasus Court at The Center@Monocacy. The 423,000-square-foot business community was developed and is owned by St. John Properties Inc.

L&L, headquartered in Manassas, Va., and founded in 1964, has 12 divisions in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.

‘‘Frederick is among our most active markets, and this new location provides consumers with a central and convenient spot to review our array of product lines,” division manager Tim Kelley said in a statement.

Mixed-use plannedfor Comsat site

The Clarksburg community got its first look at the development plan for the Comsat campus recently via a presentation by the property owner LCOR of Berwyn, Pa.

LCOR is committed to saving the important portions of the iconic Comsat building along Interstate 270, Michael Smith, LCOR vice president, said.

Architect Gary Maule of RTKL in Washington, D.C. gave a slide show presentation to the Clarksburg Civic Association planning committee of how he envisions the campus turning into a mixed-use development of single-family homes, townhouses, apartments, stores and offices.

LCOR will ask the county to rezone the property for mixed use. It is currently zoned industrial, but the master plan envisioned the possible rezoning, Smith said. At the rezoning, the maximum development level will be set, said lawyer Stephen P. Elmendorf of Linowes and Blocher.

The plan will preserve the four main wings of the building designed by world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli, as well as the building’s two spines, interior courtyard and portico.

The development will build on Pelli’s concept of seeing the building as an engine in the garden. Large areas of green space will preserve the view of the building from I-270.

The bucolic rolling topography, vistas and views of the Comsat building were important considerations, Maule said. He plans a large area of open space around the building.

‘‘It’s a unique piece of architecture and it really needs to stand alone,” he said.

LCOR resisted all attempts to have the building declared historic. After it won its case before the county Planning Board, quiet discussions between the Clarksburg community and the owner of the Comsat property led to an announcement in January that the building would be saved.

The 230-acre campus will resemble a village, with about 180,000 square feet of retail, 1.5 million square feet of office space and up to 1,575 homes in a mix of 30 single-family houses, 160 townhouses, low- and mid-rise apartment buildings, and apartments above first-floor stores or offices.

The number and the mix of units are still being refined, Smith said.

‘‘Diversity will provide synergy and sustainability,” Maule said.

Kathie Hulley, president of the Clarksburg Civic Association, pointed out that planners did not expect homes on the Comsat campus when they planned roads and schools for the town.

Development will be in six phases over an approximate 10-year period, Smith said.

Ideally, several architects will design buildings to mix styles within the development, he said.

A Corridor Cities Transitway station will be on the south end of the campus, near the Comsat building and Observation Drive.

Staff Writer Susan Singer-Bart contributed to this report.

Commercial real estatenews items may be mailed to: Steve Monroe, The Business Gazette, 1200 Quince Orchard Blvd., Gaithersburg, MD 20878; e-mailed to smonroe@gazette.net; or faxed to301-670-7183.