JBG Retail, Bozzuto Prep for Gaithersburg Development

(Save the date: RealShare Apartments comes to the Westin Bonaventure, Los Angeles, October 24.)

GAITHERSBURG, MD-JBG Rosenfeld Retail and The Bozzuto Group have acquired 20-acres of land here with plans to build a mixed-use development consisting of retail and multifamily units. The land traded for $28 million.

JBG Rosenfeld Retail plans to build 260,000 square feet of retail. The Bozzuto Group acquired the multifamily development rights with plans of building 538 apartments above the retail. The property is located in Crown—a new 182-acre master-planned community located just west of Interstate-270 and the Intercounty Connector. Downtown Crown, what the two companies plan to develop, will be the retail heart of the community, which will eventually consist of more than 2,200 homes and apartments, and a future transit stop for the Corridor City Transitway.

Other demographics key to this project are the 32,000 nearby businesses and their 361,000 workers. Thus far, these people have been underserved by local retail, said Krista Di Iaconi, a principal at JBG Rosenfeld, in a prepared statement. "Downtown Crown is arriving at just the right time to deliver new retail and housing opportunities at a time of growing need," she said.

The development JBG Rosenfeld Retail and Bozzuto have in mind for Downtown Crown will consist of build two mixed-use buildings with retail on the bottom and residential units on top. There will also be two free-standing restaurants, a bank and a grocery store. So far the companies have inked a 53,000-square foot lease with Harris Teeter and a 40,000-square foot lease with LA Fitness. Ground will break later this summer. The apartments will be called the Cadence at Crown and the first ones will be available in the summer of 2014. Northwestern Mutual is providing both equity and a construction and permanent loan to Bozzuto.