PLAZA TAKING SHAPE AT NEW CLASS A OFFICE BUILDING IN BETHESDA (PHOTOS)

Carr Properties' 4500 East-West Highway Class A office building was designed to include a public plaza at the corner of East-West and Pearl Street. That plaza is now beginning to take shape. It could help not only as an amenity for future workers there, but also to attract a restaurant tenant to the building's ground floor.

The nearly-finished office project remains without any tenants as of this writing. I actually found an old story which revealed that one of Montgomery County's most recent fumbles in attracting a major corporation involved this building. Instelsat S.A. was scouting potential new homes for its headquarters, then located in the District off of Connecticut Avenue. According to the article, the firm  seriously considered the 4500 East-West building, but ultimately opted to go to Northern Virginia. Instelsat is now the anchor tenant in Macerich's impressive Tysons Tower, Fairfax County's first billion dollar property.

Other tenants at Tysons Tower include Deloitte Consulting, which leased 88,000 SF.

In addition to the higher cost, and less-friendly business environment of Montgomery County, traffic congestion and lack of direct access to Dulles Airport were obviously factors, as well. Intelsat's CEO, David McGlade, specifically cited "a first-class transportation system" as one of the company's must-haves in choosing a new headquarters. Tysons Tower has direct access to the Capital Beltway, the new 495 Express Lanes (which are only on the Virginia side of the Beltway), and the Tysons Corner Metro station. In the near future, the building will have direct rail access to Dulles Airport, when the Silver Line is extended there.

Access to the Bethesda Metro station is one of the major advantages 4500 East-West has going for it. But as anyone who drives in downtown Bethesda knows, traffic is a nightmare, as is trying to reach the Beltway from here during rush hour. Driving to here from Dulles Airport or vice-versa? Fuhgeddaboudit!

BETHESDA CONSTRUCTION UPDATE: 4500 EAST-WEST HIGHWAY OFFICE BUILDING

4500 East-West Highway, a gleaming new Class A office building in what some are calling the future "Pearl District" of downtown Bethesda, is nearing completion. One minor detail - the building still has no tenants, reflecting more upon the moribund office space market in Montgomery County than on the building itself. Viewed from different angles, the glass facade has a very modern look, while other sides of the building echo some of the more traditional office towers of the downtown area. Carr Properties redeveloped this former home of the Bethesda McDonald's, and the project is being constructed by Bethesda's own Clark Construction.

Click on photos to enlarge for greater detail: