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Percontee is in preliminary discussions to convert its 185-acre property off Cherry Hill Road from a concrete recycling plant into 2 million square feet of office, research and laboratory space, and 2,000 housing units, of which 500 would be classified as affordable. Shops, restaurants and a hotel and conference center are also planned, Genn said.

The land would have to be rezoned to accommodate what Percontee would like to build. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2010 at the earliest, Genn said.

‘‘The mix of uses creates all of the vitality and the smart growth and opportunities for people to live where they work and they shop,” Genn said.

The Percontee property would be bordered by Washington Adventist Hospital’s proposed 50-acre site off Plum Orchard Road and a planned 115-acre East County Center for Science and Technology off Industrial Parkway, a Montgomery County Office of Economic Development incubator for fledgling information technology and life sciences firms. The center would be built on the site of a former Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission sewage treatment facility.

The Percontee property’s southern edge abuts the FDA’s 130-acre White Oak campus, where nearly 8,000 federal employees are expected to work once a $945 million consolidation is completed in 2011.

‘‘There’s definitely some potential for synergy,” said Tina Benjamin, chief of staff for the Office of Economic Development. ‘‘This is such an opportunity to create an economic center that would be beneficial to the eastern county.”

The Percontee development would work with all of the projects to create a college campus-like atmosphere for life sciences, with low-cost housing for researchers and hospital employees and leisure opportunities for the immediate and surrounding community, Genn said.

‘‘We want this to be a great source of community pride,” he said.

Genn is a member of Labquest, a community partnership that worked to bring the FDA to the area, and has solicited community input for the project. Mike Levin, vice chairman of Labquest, said Percontee has considered the community’s suggestions. The project would not only provide more amenities to residents, he said, but an upscale hotel and convention center would attract people visiting the area to meet with the FDA to stay in the area.

‘‘We think it will be a very useful development,” Levin said.

The Gudelsky family, which owns Percontee, was planning to eventually turn its property into a mixed-use area when it heard about plans for the county’s incubator project three years ago, Genn said. Additionally, part of the FDA consolidation calls for a road that runs through the Percontee property, so the life sciences focus was a natural fit for the site, Genn said.

The combined development plans could create a ‘‘mirror image” in eastern Montgomery County to the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center in the west along Interstate 270 in Rockville, said Geoffrey Morgan, vice president for expanded access at Washington Adventist, whose sister hospital, Shady Grove Adventist, is located in the center.

Representatives from Washington Adventist and Percontee have met to discuss their plans, Morgan said, mentioning transportation and access to the sites as issues for collaboration.

Levin said he has asked for a study on how all of the development will affect the area’s roads. A similar request has been made by members of the East County Citizens Advisory Board.

‘‘I think it will fit together but it has to be done correctly,” Levin said. ‘‘We have to make sure the infrastructure is there and that we didn’t just build something you can’t get into or out of.”

While the Gudelskys have built similar, mixed-use sites across the region, including Traville in Rockville, the Percontee property holds special significance to the family. The Gudelskys grew up off Colesville Road and consider the property a legacy to leave in eastern Montgomery County, Genn said.

‘‘This is home,” he said. ‘‘That’s why this is so important to them.”