Construction Update: Safeway, Apartments in Wheaton

"The views from up there are spectacular."

That's Jerry Ricciardi, president of real estate development at Patriot Realty, speaking about the towering building at the corner of Reedie Drive and Georgia Avenue in Wheaton that his company is developing.

When finished, the 17-story apartment building, named The Exchange at Wheaton Station, will feature a Safeway on the ground floor, with a Starbucks, Bergmann's dry cleaners and Suntrust bank inside.

"Safeway hasn't set a date yet," Ricciardi said, "but I suspect it's still going to be early fall."

Ricciardi anticipates that the 486 residential units on the floors above the Safeway will also be ready in early fall.

A pre-leasing office, off-site but near the building, will probably open in May, Ricciardi said. 

Some extra retail space is available in the building—"about several hundred square feet," Ricciardi said—but no determination has been made yet on what businesses will set up shop there.

The general contractor on the project, Rockville-based Foulger-Pratt, has been the subject of much scrutiny lately for its work on the Silver Spring Transit Center. But Ricciardi dismissed concerns that the issues surrounding the Silver Spring Transit Center would negatively affect the Safeway and apartment complex still under construction in Wheaton. There will be no impact since the two are separate projects, Ricciardi said.