Metro authorities have reassumed control over land in North Bethesda after a developer let its rights to the site lapse, according to a letter sent in mid-July.
Officials with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority wrote that the expiration pertains to part of the roughly 32-acre site slated for the North Bethesda Center project. LCOR White Flint LLC entered an agreement with WMATA in 2001 to secure development rights to the land and has since built apartments, offices and a Harris Teeter grocery store near the White Flint Metro station.
The developer is also on track to construct a roughly 295-unit apartment complex and is planning to break ground by summer of 2018, LCOR representatives have said.
The expiration of the development rights affects a different portion of the property and won’t derail the housing project, the Washington Business Journal reported Tuesday.
“We look forward to continuing to work with you on the Remaining Blocks under the Joint Development Agreement,” Nina Albert, WMATA’s director of real estate and parking, wrote in the July 10 letter.
The location is near Pike & Rose and forms part of the Pike District, a 2.5-mile stretch of Rockville Pike that is being transformed by development.
Friends of White Flint, a community advocacy group, posted a copy of the WMATA letter on its website.
Amy Ginsburg, executive director for Friends of White Flint, said she hopes to see development plans brought forward for the empty site.
“We would like to see that land developed as quickly as possible with office, residential, retail and amazing community amenities because it’s such a central part of the Pike District,” she said.
Ginsburg said she’s not sure what WMATA intends to do with the land.