North Bethesda’s Strathmore Square, a big mixed-used development that recently delivered its first buildings at the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro station, will soon see its next phase, a senior living tower, break ground. It’s the next evolution in an endeavor embodying a somewhat atypical take on suburban placemaking.
Strathmore Square, spearheaded by master developer Fivesquares Development LLC out of D.C., is a seven-building mixed-use project on Metro-owned land just north of the Capital Beltway, which at buildout will weigh in at about 2.2 million square feet, including some 2,200 dwelling units. Its second phase is underway, and its third phase, a 20-story, 250-unit senior independent living building called The Reserve, by Denver’s Experience Senior Living LLC, is on track to break ground in 2025.
I sat down virtually with Fivesquares principal and co-founder Ron Kaplan — who’s been in real estate for over 25 years, previously as Federal Realty Investment Trust’s chief investment officer — to discuss the moment. To him, it’s the next piece in a placemaking puzzle he described as the “green stop on the Red Line,” referring primarily to Strathmore Square’s adjacency to Rock Creek Stream Valley Park, which connects to D.C.’s Rock Creek Park, together representing nearly 3,600 acres of parkland.
That access is a big part of the master developer’s overall philosophy for the project, which differs notably from standard suburban placemaking orthodoxy. Rather than creating a retail-heavy, urban-dense island in the ‘burbs, Strathmore Square seeks to create something of a suburban island in the otherwise urban-esque, dense corridor as you head north up Rockville Pike — epitomized by Federal Realty’s Pike & Rose or, catty-cornered from that, the massive mixed-use development the county and transit authority hope to spark at the North Bethesda Metro station.
“Strathmore Square offers a fresh perspective on placemaking, shifting the focus from retail-driven development to a thoughtful balance of nature, culture and connectivity,” Kaplan said. “By emphasizing green space and cultural partnerships alongside unmatched transit access, we’ve created a neighborhood that feels both welcoming and connected.”
The Strathmore Music Center, run by an arts nonprofit, sits just across the street. Behind the Kennedy Center in D.C., that’s the second most frequented arts venue in the region, of which you automatically become a member if you live in Strathmore Square, Kaplan said.
Kaplan’s thinking is in the same vein as Rock Creek Park being “an oasis in the city,” as the National Park Service’s website describes it. Not everyone wants to live in the congestion of Bethesda, Kaplan told me, pointing to older folks who are downsizing, or dual-income couples at the National Institutes of Health, who want the ample green, their own space, a reason to keep their bikes in their apartments.
That thinking is expressed architecturally, for example, in the first-phase buildings that Fivesquares and Apartment Investment and Management Co., with financing from Amazon.com Inc.’s Housing Equity Fund, opened Oct. 21 — Ravel and Royale, together comprising 220 apartments. Most of those units have balconies overlooking the park, Kaplan said, and, owing to the buildings’ terracing, some even have private outdoor spaces akin to back yards.
Strathmore Square’s second phase, incorporating 400 residential units and 10,000 square feet of retail, is slated to deliver in 2027. Subsequent phases after The Reserve would add 1,500 additional units and 51,000 square feet of retail.
All of the various buildings will sit on long-term ground leases from Metro — a common arrangement through which the transit authority pursues development on land it owns region-wide, with the goal of generating revenue and additional ridership.
Placemaking is an overused buzzword, in some ways, but also a prevalent planning and design philosophy that drives most big private mixed-use projects and local government economic development incentives/investments you hear about. Almost always, turning a suburban place into a suburban “place” means creating bustle with lots of retail and entertainment.
Think of Reston Town Center, the success of which BXP Inc.’s Jake Stroman has told me owes largely to its massive mix of retail uses (and lots of parking); or of Alexandria’s Potomac Yard, where master developer JBG Smith Properties’ badly wanted a professional sports arena, and now, having lost the arena to D.C., might not build anything new there at all; or of how Federal Realty CEO Don Wood told me placemaking magic is often created with a dense mix of restaurants (and sometimes lots of parking).
Kaplan’s familiar with that thinking, earlier in his career having created Federal Realty’s retail division, responsible for Bethesda Row (Bethesda), Pentagon Row (Arlington), since rebranded Westpost at National Landing, and Santana Row (San Jose, California).
Not that Strathmore Square lacks a strong entertainment anchor. On the contrary, the Strathmore Music Center, run by an arts nonprofit, sits just across the street. Behind the Kennedy Center in D.C., that’s the second most frequented arts venue in the region, of which you automatically become a member if you live in Strathmore Square, Kaplan said.
But the site presented a unique opportunity, being so near far more permanent green space than most comparable projects, enabling it to be much less retail-focused approach, Kaplan said.