White Oak Apartments construction

I last mentioned the White Oak Apartments back in February. At that time they were in the process of demolishing the building.  Here it is November and they have made rapid progress.

 

 The building closest to the road is at it's full height and the roof is being put on. The buildings behind it have a ways to go.

This is on the site of the old Gannett USA Today National Customer Service Center located at 2240 Broadbirch Drive in Calverton, MD, though it sounds like the developers are optimistically considering it part of White Oak.

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 presentation for White Oak Apartments here.

This is either a maximum security prison, or it is the parking garage of the 5 story building. If it is the latter, I would expect them to build the apartments around this core. I have seen that done in other places.

White Oak Town Center construction update

 

White Oak Town Center is a new strip mall / shopping center going in on the corner of Prosperity Drive and Industrial Parkway just off US 29 (Colombia Pike / Colesville Road) at the border of White Oak and Calverton in our fair state of Maryland.  I last posted about the White Oak Town Center development in March and a lot has changed since then.

If you are driving north on Columbia Pike, this is your first view. It is the corner of Industrial Parkway and Prosperity Drive (which is the access road that runs parallel to US-29). The tower in the center will be the shopping center sign and will have a clock at the top and the base will hide dumpsters for the development.

 

This space is for a grocery store. I don't know if one has signed up yet.  Originally it was going to be Trader Joes, then Amazon Fresh, but both have backed out.

 

On the side of the grocery store building is a large mural and a sign with the shopping center name.  The strip mall is arguably in Calverton, depending on where you put the fluid boarders of White Oak and Calverton, White Oak isn't a town, it is unincorporated, and in any case it is no where near the center of White Oak, so, every single word in the name of this strip mall could be considered wrong.

Here's a view of the parking lot and an access road. You can see that all the curbs are in, most of the decorative trees have been planted, and everything is ready to be paved.  This is close to being done.

 

 

A streetlight in a precarious position

 

This streetlight is leaning heavily and looks like a strong gust of wind could knock it over.  I saw this on Plum Orchard Drive in Calverton.  Back in 2016 there was a spate of falling streetlights on Plum Orchard Dr between Broadbirch Dr and Cherry Hill Rd. Those got fixed as part of the Adventist Healthcare White Oak Medical Center development. 

This little stub of Plum Orchard was ignored however, and the streetlights are really looking worse for the wear.  I really thing if someone leaned against this pole it would fall over.  It is also worth noting that the access panel looks to be held on with electrical tape.

When I took these pictures on Thursday, there was a van from an electrical company parked near one of the street  lights so it is possible these will be fixed soon. It is also possible that they will just fall to the ground before they get fixed.  I'll update as more information becomes available.

White Oak Town Center construction

White Oak Town Center (staff report here, it has the best overview) is a new strip mall being built on the site of a former industrial building at the corner of Industrial Parkway and Prosperity Drive in the White Oak / Calverton area of the half of the county called Silver Spring.
 

 The full development, with the one-story building in the background that is reported to be the future location of an Amazon Grocery store. in the center you can see the steel skeleton of what will become a monumental sign/clocktower/dumpster at the southwest corner of the development.  Next to it is a plaza with seating area where visitors to the shopping center can have a variety of experiences and enjoy the sights and sounds of Columbia Pike / U.S. Route 29. Closer to the camera where there is currently just a pile of dirt, there will be an accent wall.

 

White Oak Town Center as seen from Industrial Parkway

The view of the new construction from across Industrial Parkway near U.s. 29. The intersection with Prosperity Drive is immediately to the left and is very close to the intersection of Industrial Pkwy and Columbia Pike. This isn't an issue now since Prosperity Dr near the site is lightly used, however, with additional traffic this is likely to become a point of contention between users of the two roads both trying to enter Columbia Pike.

Future Grocery store

This is the northwestern end of the site, Prosperity drive is in the foreground and in the distance on the left you can see the sign for the Westech Corner strip mall at Tech Road. The building under construction will house a grocery store.

I'm not sure we need another strip mall when Westech Corner is within sight and has over half a dozen restaurants, and Orchard Center is only a mile away with Giant, Aldi, Target, and Kohl's. But, I'm not the planning board, and if they think we need another shopping center with a big parking lot instead of affordable housing a short walk away from a Flash bus stop, who am I to disagree.

development from the "spine" road

This is the low, one-story building that will have space for 3 retail stores. The road in the foreground is the "spine" road that will connect Industrial Parkway to Tech Road.

The view of the new construction from across Industrial Parkway near U.s. 29. The intersection with Prosperity Drive is immediately to the left and is very close to the intersection of Industrial Pkwy and Columbia Pike. This isn't an issue now since Prosperity Dr near the site is lightly used, however, with additional traffic this is likely to become a point of contention between users of the two roads both trying to enter Columbia Pike.

 

White Oak Apartments construction, 2240 Broadbirch Dr

 

Demolition of the old Gannett USA Today National Customer Service Center located at 2240 Broadbirch Drive in Calverton, MD (or Silver Spring for those of you who insist on calling half of Montgomery County that) has begun. This is the building that is set back from the road and has four giant satellite dishes in front of it.

This will be replaced by a residential development with 359 unites 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 presentation for White Oak Apartments here.

The property being developed is across the street where the entrance is.

Blocked sidewalk

Even though the demolition is nowhere near the sidewalk, the construction site has blocked the public sidewalk forcing you to either walk through the heavy grass between trees or walk on the busy road.

More blocked sidwalk

A good view of how the sidewalk is blocked without any notice part way down the block. There is no good reason for them to have disrupted pedestrian traffic in this way.

The existing satellite dishes with the building partly demolished behind them

Watch for falling streetlights

 Several times now I have gone down Plum Orchard Drive (behind the shopping center with the Target, Babies R Us, and Shop-Rite in Calverton, MD) and seen a fallen street light.  At first I assumed that someone had run into them, but I got a close look at a recently fallen one.

You can see the base of the pole just rusted through and the whole thing fell over.  Along the street you can see that some have been replaced, but some are very old and rusty, I expect more will fall in the future.