Conceptual Plans Unveiled for Site at Battery, Wisconsin

Conceptual plans for the former Trillium site at 8300 Wisconsin Avenue were unveiled last week during a committee meeting of the Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board.

The condominium project originally planned for the site, known as the Trillium, would have brought three residential towers with more than 170 units to the site. But that project faltered in a sluggish economy, and in March, Bethesda-based StonebridgeCarras and Walton Street Capital, L.L.C., 

Conceptual plans for the new project at the 1.6-acre site include a nine-story, mixed-use residential and commercial building with a partially below-grade grocery store, StonebridgeCarras principal Ellen Miller told members of a Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board committee.

Developers have yet to file plans with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, though they hope to do within a month, Miller said. Pending approvals, tentative plans call for a groundbreaking in early 2013.

About 300-375 units are planned — all rentals — ranging from efficiencies to three-bedroom apartments, Miller said. Two-level townhomes are planned along Wisconsin Avenue. The building is planned to be nine stories at its height, but will slope to seven stories on the property’s northern edge.

A rooftop pool and a green roof are additional features of the site, Miller said.

Conceptual renderings weren’t yet available for publication.

At the committee meeting, Ken Hartman, director of the asked about an agreement with previous developer the Patrinely Group that would have brought artist studio space to the site.

Under the agreement, the studios would have been leased to the county and managed by the and community leaders have expressed an interest in seeing artist space as a part of the new project.

Miller said developers were beginning to look at the project's public amenity requirements. “Clearly a piece of that will be art — whether it will take its form as space, I don’t know at this point,” Miller said.