Planning Board Expected To Approve Sketch Plan of Proposed High-Rise for Former Steamers Site

by | Nov 7, 2016

As featured in Bethesda Magazine

Mixed-use building would include up to 58 dwelling units

Montgomery County planners are recommending approval of the sketch plan for the Claiborne, a 76,000-square-foot mixed-use high-rise planned for the former site of Steamers Seafood House, a Bethesda restaurant that closed in August 2015.

The Montgomery County Planning Board is expected to vote on the sketch plan Nov. 10.

Novo Properties of Washington, D.C., bought the site of the former restaurant this year for $4.65 million.

The staff report for the proposed building says it would sit on 0.30 acres on Norfolk Avenue and would have a maximum height of 110 feet. The building would  have 73,200 square feet of residential development for up to 58 apartments. Up to 2,800 square feet would be for nonresidential uses. At least 15 percent of the proposed residential units would be moderately priced, according to the project plans.

The report calls for the developer to set the building back 10 feet above the fourth floor across 70 feet of the facade to reduce the perceived mass of the upper stories.

Steamers had been at the site for 19 years. The restaurant’s roof collapsed after a significant snowfall in January and the county condemned the site.

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