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The Glenmont Office Market

Summary findings and recommendations, 1995

I. Introduction

The Glenmont Sector Plan area constitutes the immediate vicinity of the final Metrorail station currently planned for Montgomery County. Although Glenmont is an established community with very little vacant land, the area contains a number of properties that may be suitable for redevelopment. As a transit station locale with major redevelopment potential, Glenmont offers an important opportunity to implement County policies for transit station areas. These policies call for substantial land use intensity to achieve the greatest possible benefit from transit, while leaving it to the individual master or sector plans to determine how intense those uses should be.

Glenmont is primarily a residential community with a sizable, local retail component. Non-retail employment is limited but includes the police district office, the fire station, and Metrorail itself. One possible future for the area is to retain and enhance its residential character. This study evaluates the demand for housing in the Glenmont area if this future is selected, and assesses the market potential for various housing types. This study does not attempt to assess the ability of the infrastructure in Glenmont to support specific uses or densities.

Retailing is the primary commercial activity in Glenmont and will likely remain the predominant use for the foreseeable future. For the purposes of this study, the local office market includes the commercial areas of Aspen Hill, Colesville, Glenmont, Kensington, and Wheaton.

Over the next several years, the local market could support a single, high-quality office building ranging in size from 50,000 - 70,000 square feet. The type of tenanants attracted to a new multi-tenant office building would be local office professionals, similar to those already in the area.

While it appears that the local market could support additional office space, it is not likely to occur in the Glenmont commercial area. The potential for office space in Glenmont is limited by its proximity to Wheaton, by unmet demand for retail space, and by weak financial feasibility for office development.

The Research and Technology Center completed a market analysis for office space in the Glenmont Commercial Area. To evaluate the likelihood of office development, state evaluated both the local and regional office market, surveyed office space tenent lists in the local office market, reviewed the existing character of the area and evaluated the overall financial freasibility of an office development in Glenmont.