After reports in April that the $3B Viva White Oak project could fall through, the public-private partnership between Montgomery County and the Gudelsky family will go forward after county executive Isaiah Leggett stepped in to resolve legal and environmental issues.
The 12M SF, 300-acre project will have 5,000 residences and a combined 7M SF of hotels, retail and community spaces, Percontee's Jonathan Genn—snapped above in February at our Montgomery County event—tells Bisnow.
Percontee, the Gudelsky family's real estate firm, won the bid to develop the project in 2011, thanks to its ability to combine its 185 acres of land with the 115 the county bought for $10M in 2009 for a truly mammoth development, sitting right in between the FDA's campus and the under-construction Washington Adventist Hospital, planned for a 2019 delivery.
The community will have a life-sciences concentration, trying to build on Montgomery County's biggest industry.
Issues between Percontee, which is leading the development, and the county government arose this spring and put the project at risk. The issues involved environmental cleanup, existing covenants, money and letters of credit, Montgomery County spokesman Patrick Lacefield tells Bisnow.
“Just as with all large, long-term development projects, there were many development issues that were of concern to county staff and legal counsel," Jonathan says. "But once County Executive Leggett became personally involved and analyzed all the issues, he concluded that all of those issues are resolvable, and should not be any reason to keep this project from moving forward."
Leggett, who goes by Ike, has been an ally of the development community in recent years, and outlined the ways he wanted to further spur projects like Viva White Oak when Bob Buchanan interviewed him for Bisnow's Mongtomery County State of the Market earlier this year.
The next steps in the process include approval of a sketch plan and preliminary plan by the park and planning commission. Once those plans are crystallized, Jonathan says, they will have a clearer timeline for when construction will begin.
