Another Montgomery County job center lost

Montgomery County continues

to become the bedroom community

for job centers elsewhere in region

The developer of 1800 Research Boulevard in Rockville, a property approved for an office development, is requesting a master plan amendment to flip it to residential. FG Office Group, LLC, a Lerner shell company, is seeking to build a 350-unit residential building with courtyards and two "amenity spaces." One will be a pool, and the other a green space with patio and picnic areas.

Previously, the site had been designated for a 210,981 SF office building. The site would seem ideal for a biotech or medical research company, given its proximity to the I-270 biotech corridor, Shady Grove Hospital and The Universities at Shady Grove. But Lerner says it has concluded there is no market demand for office presently. Lerner adds that it has been unable to find tenants for their existing Fallsgrove office building on Shady Grove Road.

The moribund Montgomery County economy continues to stymie the office market. Some developers have been forced to move their own headquarters into their new office buildings because they are unable to sign an anchor tenant. Montgomery County hasn't attracted a major corporate headquarters in over twenty years. The end result is that a planned job center at Fallsgrove, similar to changes at King Farm, Bethesda, Wheaton, Silver Spring, and elsewhere in the County, will now be permanently lost. So even if the County changes leadership and policies to be more business-friendly down the road, those new jobs can't be placed here to reduce the number of County residents driving to job centers in Northern Virginia and the District.