White Oak Apartments construction update

White Oak Apartments have been under construction for a year now and the progress since I last posted about them in November is considerable.
 

This is the entrance to the construction site on Broadbirch Drive.  Two rows of two-over-two units are visible, plus a 5 story apartment building.

The view of the units facing Broadbirch Drive.  The front units have a staircase leading up to each one.

 This will be a residential development with 359 units in a 5 story building and two buildings with two-over-two development that contain 28 units. There will also be some public open space on the left side of the lot. You can view the planning board submission for White Oak Apartments here.

This is the back of the development, taken from Whitehorn Court looking across the Darcars parking lot.

 This is on the site of the old Gannett USA Today National Customer Service Center located at 2240 Broadbirch Drive in Calverton, MD. This area is one of those ambiguous edge cases that isn't clearly in one location or another.  I (and Google) call it Calverton, the developer is clearly considering it White Oak, and it is, like most of Montgomery County, in the greater Silver Spring area. I posted about the demolition of that building in February of last year.

This is the 5 story apartment building, you can see the front part of it (further away in this photos) has the Tyvek wrap, but towards the back (closer to the camera) they are still putting up the plywood exterior walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Java Nation is open in Silver Spring!

 

 Java Nation has opened at 1010 Wayne Ave in Silver Spring and it is a bit different than I was expecting.  I'm used to the White Flint / North Bethesda location which has a full menu and alcohol but you order at the counter.  The Silver Spring location is a full restaurant where you sit down and they take your order at the table.

 It is really nice with a good bit of outdoor seating.  I went there on Wednesday and tried a few of their appetizers, the Spinach & Artichoke dip (good, but needs more baguette pieces), Vegetable Empanadas, and a Margherita flatbread.  All very tasty.  They also have salads and burgers and entrees.  Another neat thing they have is a Margarita flight with four different flavors of margaritas. I really liked the spicy watermelon one.  None of the margaritas were sweet, so if you like sweet ones this is not the place.

 They also have lots of bakery items and a brunch menu.  Of course, they also sell coffee.