Another one of Bethesda's old garden apartment buildings is lined up for the wrecking ball, and the replacement is a big one.
On Thursday, Oct. 8, the Montgomery County Planning Board voted unanimously to approve preliminary, site and forest conservation plans to replace the 84-unit Battery Lane Apartments at 4861 Battery Lane with a 120-foot-tall residential building that could hold up to 446 units. The site is 2.12 acres, just south of the National Institutes of Health campus and north of Woodmont Triangle.
The developers are Kossow Management of Rockville and The Gelman Cos. of Washington, D.C. According to Bethesda Magazine, the plans have been in the works for several years and first won board approval in 2023, followed by a series of reviews with the Bethesda Downtown Advisory Panel.
"It's a very attractive project. A very large project that will create lots of housing that's greatly needed," Planning Board Chair Artie Harris said before the vote.
What's planned
The existing building is a three-story, garden-style complex built in the 1950s. All 84 of its apartments are considered "market-rate affordable," according to planning documents, but none are county-regulated affordable units.
The new building flips that. Plans call for 67 moderately priced dwelling units, or MPDUs, plus 17 more affordable units through rental agreements with the county's Department of Housing and Community Affairs.
Chris Ruhlen, who represented the development team, told the board the old building "does not represent the modern amenities and design standards that are expected in a modern apartment development in Bethesda."
The new one is designed to check those boxes. Planning documents describe an underground garage, a rooftop with cooking areas and a pool, bicycle storage, an indoor fitness space and a pet spa. The plans also include 6,000 square feet of public open space, with a through-block connection facing the NIH campus and a space along Battery Lane.
One note on the unit count: Bethesda Magazine reported the approval as "up to 446 units," and that's the number we're using. You may see the project described elsewhere with a slightly higher round number.
No start date yet
Here's the catch. Ruhlen told the magazine after the vote that the project's timeline is still being determined, and he said current market conditions and economic "headwinds" can make financing projects like this tricky.
Michael Miller, a principal at The Gelman Cos., pointed to the challenges facing housing development in the county, particularly rent stabilization, but said the team is pushing ahead. Gelman has owned Battery Lane Apartments for more than 50 years.
No general contractor has been named, and no construction cost was disclosed.
The public hearing drew no speakers. Planners said they had received one letter from a community member raising concerns about construction noise, traffic volume and safety.
The approval is part of a bigger wave on Battery Lane. Montgomery Planning's Adam Bossi told the board there has been high interest for years in redeveloping the aging apartment buildings in the neighborhood, many of them built in the 1950s and '60s. Six properties along Battery Lane are slated for redevelopment and have reached various levels of approval.
Right next door, at 4901 Battery Lane, developer WC Smith has already been approved to replace a pair of apartment buildings with a 12-story, 372-unit residential building.
Kossow and Gelman have another redevelopment in the pipeline, too. Last November, the team won preliminary and site plan approval to replace a two-story, 32-unit garden apartment complex on Strathmore Street, next to Bethesda Row, with a seven-story, 172-unit building.
Why it matters for Contractors
A 120-foot building with up to 446 units and an underground garage is a large, multi-year job: excavation and shoring, concrete, structure, a full MEP package, elevators, a rooftop pool and amenity deck, and a lot of interior finish work. Add WC Smith's 372 units next door and the other Battery Lane properties working through approvals, and this short street could keep demolition, site, concrete and finish contractors busy for years. The honest caveat is timing. With no start date and the developers openly worried about financing and rent stabilization, contractors should treat this as a pipeline project to watch, not a near-term bid. When Kossow and Gelman do pick a builder, that's the name to get in front of.