There's a 10-story office building on Montrose Road in North Bethesda that's been boarded up and fenced off, and the developer's own filing calls it a "ghost building." It won't be standing much longer.
As MoCo360's Bethesda Today reported, the Montgomery County Planning Board voted unanimously on Thursday, Oct. 15, to approve Pulte Homes' plan to replace the building with a 106-unit community of townhomes and condominiums. The board signed off on the expedited approval plan, the forest conservation plan and the administrative subdivision plan in one meeting in Wheaton.
What's going up
The site is 3.38 acres at 6001 Montrose Road. Right now it holds the office building, put up around 1980, and a parking garage. Pulte plans to demolish both.
In their place, according to planning documents, will be 23 townhomes and two condo buildings with 83 units between them. The condo buildings will be five and six stories, each with structured parking on the first floor, and each townhome is planned with two parking spaces. Every unit will be for sale. Fifteen percent of them, or 16 homes, will be moderately priced dwelling units under the county's affordable housing program.
The plans also include an urban plaza that planning documents describe as an "outdoor living room," plus a central park between a row of townhomes and one of the condo buildings with a flexible lawn, recreation amenities, landscaping and seating.
Planning Board Chair Artie Harris called the project "attractive" before the vote and praised the park. "I'm hoping the project moves forward as quickly as possible," he said.
The timeline
David DeMarco, a vice president with Pulte, told Bethesda Today the next steps are demolition and building permits from the county. He estimated demolition could start in early 2027, construction of the townhomes and condo buildings could begin by that summer, and sales could start in 2028.
DeMarco said Pulte has had good luck with this kind of product, pointing to similar completed projects in the county: The Flats at Northside in Potomac, Tower Oaks in Rockville and Crown in Gaithersburg.
"These condo flats have been very successful for us," he said. "It allows people to downsize because they're large condos, and it's a secure environment."
There's one loose end. A large metal sculpture by Bethesda artist Mark Kramer stands outside the building, and DeMarco said plans to move or remove it haven't been settled. "It would be great to honor that work if we can find a spot for it, and we are trying to figure that out as we speak," he said.
A faster track for empty offices
DeMarco said using the county's expedited approval process for office-to-residential projects helped speed up Pulte's timeline. The county enacted the zoning change creating that process in April 2025. To qualify, a building has to be more than 50% vacant.
According to Montgomery Planning, this kind of plan takes the place of the sketch plan and site plan a project would otherwise need, and the Planning Board hearing has to happen within 60 days of the application being accepted. The board approves the plan before building permits can be issued.
Developers are using it. Pulte's plan was one of two office-to-residential projects the board approved that same day. The other, from The Pinkard Group, is a 450-unit, 26-story apartment building at Wisconsin Avenue and Willow Lane in downtown Bethesda. Bethesda Today said other recent projects on the expedited track include a 148-unit building on University Boulevard East in Silver Spring and a 29-story mixed-use building at Wisconsin Avenue and East West Highway in downtown Bethesda.
The Montrose site sits near the Pike & Rose development, and Tri Pointe Homes' Northpark Townhomes are right across Montrose Road.
Why it matters for Contractors
This one has work for a lot of trades, starting with demolition of a 10-story building and a parking garage on a tight suburban site. After that come townhomes, two midrise condo buildings with podium parking, and site work for a plaza and park. If DeMarco's dates hold, demolition bids would be needed early in 2027 and vertical construction by that summer, so subs who want in should be talking to Pulte's purchasing folks well before then. The bigger story is the pipeline behind it. Montgomery County has a fast lane for empty office buildings, and it's producing a steady line of approvals that end in demolition and new housing. For contractors in the Washington suburbs, that's a kind of work worth watching.