Carr Properties' plan to build 937k SF of office and residential on its Apex Building site in Bethesda has just cleared a major hurdle.

The Montgomery County Planning Board Thursday morning approved Carr's amended proposal, which adds 45 feet to the originally planned 250-foot building, UrbanTurf reports.

The development, rendered above, would include a 360k SF office tower and two connected residential towers with 480 units, plus 14,572 SF of retail space. It remains unclear whether the Regal Cinemas that occupies the site will return to the new development.

The project sits above the planned western terminus of the Purple Line. Carr hopes to clear the building this spring to stay on schedule for construction of the Purple Line station.

Carr's development has been floated as one of the potential landing spots for Marriott, which announced in October it had narrowed its HQ search to downtown Bethesda. The project is one of the only sites with enough density to fit Marriott's requirements, but it likely would force Carr to switch the residential components to office and build a 200-room hotel. [UT]