Hines Picked for Big D.C.-Area District Development

Officials in Washington, D.C., have selected Hines, the Houston-based investment and development giant, to quarterback a major mixed-use district project in the northern outskirts of the nation’s capital. 

The Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro) picked Hines as master developer to build up the transit-oriented project, adjacent to the North Bethesda Metro Station, in North Bethesda, Md., on 13.9 acres of Metro-owned land. The Business Journals first reported the news. 

Specific details of the development are still in the works, but Metro envisions the project as a hub for life sciences, accompanied by new residential buildings with ground-floor retail space, anchored by a new campus for the University of Maryland’s Institute for Health Computing. Hines’ conceptual renderings for the project include three life sciences buildings, four multifamily buildings, and green park space.

Metro and Montgomery County, Md., officials last summer inked a memorandum of understanding that included more than $36.6 in million in public funding for on-site infrastructure, as well as a new entrance to the North Bethesda Metro station, and a commitment from the University of Maryland to anchor the site.

“North Bethesda will be a model for life sciences-anchored, transit-oriented development around the world, creating new transit users and connecting people to economic opportunities,” Randy Clarke, Metro’s general manager and CEO, said in a statement. 

The project is part of Metro’s 10-year Strategic Plan for Joint Development launched in 2022. That plan aims to develop up to 31 million square feet of mixed-use, transit-oriented districts across 550 acres of Metro-owned land. Since April 2022, Metro and its development partners have completed six projects totaling some 1,500 units and 325,000 square feet of office space. Five more projects, totaling 1,300 units and 422,000 square feet of office, are expected to begin construction by the end of this year.

“This project has been a long time coming. … The Institute for Health Computing will anchor this development as an attractor of companies, entrepreneurs and researchers, and drive growth and add high-quality jobs in a sector that’s critical to the future of our county and state economy,” Marc Elrich, Montgomery County executive, said in a statement. “North Bethesda has enormous potential, and we’re doing the work to make sure that potential is realized in a way that serves our residents and strengthens the region.”

Before the project can begin in earnest, Hines must finalize its joint development contract with Montgomery County. Both Hines and the county will recommend project details and construction timelines later this year to Metro’s Board of Directors for approval. 

Hines is no stranger to developing big mixed-use projects in the DMV. The firm in 2019 completed CityCenterDC, a 10-acre, 2.5 million-square-foot complex in Downtown D.C., just a few blocks from the White House. It’s also one of the master developers of the Parks at Walter Reed, a 66-acre redevelopment of the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Northeast D.C.

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.