Federal Realty Investment Trust has landed an anchor tenant to kick off the second office building at the Pike & Rose development.

Choice Hotels International signed a 105K SF lease to relocate its headquarters from Rockville to a new 16-story office building at the North Bethesda mixed-use project, the two companies announced Monday.

The global hotel brand operator agreed to occupy 40% of the 276K SF office building planned at 915 Meeting St. The developer aims to break ground before year-end, and Choice Hotels plans to begin moving 400 corporate employees into the building by the end of 2023.

The lease represents a significant footprint reduction from Choice Hotels' current 198K SF office in Rockville, the Washington Business Journal reported. It moved in 2013 into the Rockville Metro Plaza II building, owned by Foulger-Pratt, and before that it had been based in Silver Spring for three decades.

JLL's Bernie McCarthy and Danny Sheridan represented Federal Realty in the deal, and Savills' Steve London represented Choice Hotels. The lodging franchiser has a portfolio totaling more than 600,000 rooms across 7,100 hotels in 40 countries.

The 915 Meeting building, designed by Gensler, is also planned to have 9,600 SF of retail and 700 parking spaces. Its amenities are slated to include a rooftop conference center and a fitness center, and the developer aims to achieve LEED Gold and WiredScore certifications.

The lease comes after Federal Realty signed a series of tenants for Pike & Rose's first office building, 909 Rose. That building landed its first tenant, United Solutions, in June 2020, top-floor tenant OneDigital in January and four smaller tenants in June. It is also home to an Industrious coworking space and Federal Realty's own headquarters.

"We are excited to add a company of the caliber of Choice Hotels to the growing list of leading firms that have chosen a Federal Realty office environment to help them attract quality talent and enhance their brands," Federal Realty East Region President Wendy Seher said in a release.

The Pike & Rose development also features a Canopy by Hilton hotel, 765 apartments, 99 condos, a host of retail including iPic, Pinstripes and REI, plus several restaurants. The project sits across Rockville Pike from the White Flint Metro station. Federal Realty has called for improvements to the pedestrian infrastructure on that corridor.