A portion of a Rockville site that BXP was once planning to turn into a 1.3M SF life sciences-heavy mixed-use district has sold to homebuilder Toll Brothers.

BXP sold three of seven buildings at a 31-acre office campus, bordered by Shady Grove Road to the west and Gaither Road to the north, to the Fort Washington, Pennsylvania-based developer last month for $24.7M, Maryland property records show.

BXP had purchased the office park in 2021 for $116.5M with plans to develop what it was calling the Shady Grove Innovation District, a lab and research and development-focused project, also planned to include 315 apartment units.

But in mid-2023, amid the post-pandemic life sciences downturn, BXP pivoted its plans, slating about half the site — the western portion — for townhome development, Pete Otteni, co-head of the Washington, D.C., region for BXP, told the Washington Business Journal in September 2024.

At the time, Otteni said the northwest portion of the site was under contract to a townhome developer for a 136-home project. That sale was expected to close in mid-2025, and he said another phase of townhomes would follow.

“Toll Brothers will build 136 new homes at the Village at Upper Rock community, which is expected to open for sale this fall,” Nimita Shah, Toll Brothers's D.C. Metro division president, said in a statement.

Toll Brothers put the three sites under contract in July 2024, according to a declaration filed last month in Maryland land records.

“We can confirm that the recent sale is the same transaction previously referenced by Pete Otteni,” a BXP spokesperson said. “We don’t have any additional details to share at this time.”

Last year, another residential developer, DRB Group Mid-Atlantic LLC, put a separate site in the office park under contract.

BXP agreed to demolish the buildings on that site, known as Parcel 3, by August, according to the declaration.

Otteni said in 2024 that BXP still planned to build a 360-unit residential building, a 145K SF lab building and a 620-space parking garage while leaving space open for future development.

The Rockville sale comes after BXP in September unveiled plans to offload $1.9B in noncore assets across nearly 30 properties over three years.

It is already more than halfway to that goal, selling properties for a combined $1.1B in net proceeds, the REIT said in a press release on Monday.

Those sales include eight suburban land parcels in the Boston, San Francisco and D.C. regions, BXP disclosed, which brought in around $250M. It also sold the 508-unit Signature apartment building at Reston Town Center for $236M, Bisnow reported last month.

UPDATE, MARCH 6, 3:40 P.M. ET: This story has been updated to include statements from BXP and Toll Brothers.