Developer Will Build New Bethesda Police Station in Land Swap

From Montgomery Community Media:

A new county police station will be built in Bethesda under a public-private partnership agreement Montgomery County executed with StonebridgeCarras, LLC, a Bethesda-based real estate firm.

The new police station will be located at 4823 Rugby Ave. and will replace the current station at 7359 Wisconsin Ave. The station serves Bethesda, Chevy Chase, and portions of Potomac and Silver Spring included in the 2nd Police District.

“This is just another example of creative county partnerships with the private sector, leveraging underutilized county property to deliver new county facilities at little or no cost to the county, while returning higher value publicly owned property to the county tax base,” said County Executive Ike Leggett.

According to county officials, the current police station was built in 1961. Because of its age and size, officials said the station no longer meets modern operational requirements and would require extensive renovation to be reused. However, since the station site is a prime location in the heart of downtown Bethesda, the county plans to leverage the value of the land in exchange for a new facility at a different Bethesda location.

Under the terms of this public-private partnership, StonebridgeCarras will construct the new police station for the county. In return, the county will transfer ownership of the current site on Wisconsin Avenue to StonebridgeCarras, which will redevelop that property in the downtown Bethesda business district.

“We are very excited to expand our public private partnerships with Montgomery County,” said Douglas M. Firstenberg, a principal with StonebridgeCarras, which is part of the team working on the development of Lot 31 in Bethesda. “This project allows us to provide the county with a great new station in a location that meets its operational needs, while allowing us to re-develop a prime corner in Bethesda.”

The new four-story station will be a state-of-the-art facility that uses existing parking at an adjacent public garage, located at 8216 Woodmont Ave. The design work for the station has already begun, with a target to start construction of the new station in late 2015. The 2nd District Police is projected to move to its new location by year end 2016.