GAITHERSBURG, MD-Monument Realty and investment partner Lionstone U.S. Two announced last week they closed on the purchase of Montgomery Village Golf Club, a 147-acre, 18-hole golf course, located at 19550 Montgomery Village Ave. Monument was unable to speak with GlobeSt.com about the acquisition but according to its official statement it plans to continue to operate the golf club and will upgrade the facility. In the longer run, it said, Monument plans to work with the Montgomery Village community to create a development plan for the property. It will be reaching out to the community, including the Montgomery Village Foundation and other nearby homeowner associations, for input.
One guess is that Monument has its eye on a homebuilder play. The timing is ripe for a move into homebuilding in the DC area, according to Paul Norman and Jorge Rosa from Cushman & Wakefield's Multifamily Advisory Group. "We are seeing a shift back to home ownership versus renting," says Norman. It is time for that, he tells GlobeSt.com. "That ratio has gotten severely out of whack during the recession."
Cushman & Wakerfield has become very active on the homebuilder side of the business in the last year, he adds. "We have completed more than $60 million in raw land transactions to homebuilders in the last year," according to Norman.
Home builders are starting to fill their pipelines for delivery over the next couple of years, Rosa adds, primarily town homes and single family lots. "That will become an increasingly larger component of overall development activity, especially in the Northern Virginia market," he predicts.
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