May Wheaton Redevelopment Update

There's been a lot of movement on Wheaton redevelopment in the past few weeks.

Here's the latest:

• Wondering when the Safeway construction is going to begin? Patriot Realty submitted permits for both demolition and construction in November 2010, and is awaiting on approval. According to Pete McGinnity, of the Wheaton Redevelopment Program, the permits have to be reviewed by the permitting office (several times), State Highway Administration and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. Patriot anticipates it will have the permits in hand by mid-summer. Once the construction does get going though, it’s going to happen quickly: the store is expected to be finished 18 months from the groundbreaking, with the residential part above 6 months after that.
• B.F. Saul’s last public update included  of their development plan to the Wheaton Redevelopment Advisory Committee. The video of the presentation can be found here. 
• Behind the scenes in early May, Saul presented a pro forma statement to the County and WMATA. The document shows, from B.F. Saul’s perspective, what anticipated costs and estimated rate of returns on the project. The County and WMATA have brought in Jones, Lang, LaSalle-- a commercial real estate services firm--to provide an independent review of the pro forma. From here, the process moves forward if both the public and private sides can agree on who is responsible for each portion of redevelopment and who pays for it.
• The County Council the $4 million subsidy to Westfield for the construction of Costco at the Westfield Wheaton mall in the end. The council ended up putting in language that is supposed to encourage Westfield to talk with adjacent communities - most likely Kensington Heights - about their concerns with the project.
• The residential project is currently working its way through the Planning department. The preliminary plan’s hearing is scheduled for late July 2011.