376 Units, Three Buildings: New Details on Gaithersburg's Missile Site Redevelopment

• August 17th

by UrbanTurf Staff

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A revised residential plan is in the works for a Cold War-era missile site in Gaithersburg. 

Pleasants Development has filed plans with the City of Gaithersburg for the redevelopment of 770 Muddy Branch Road into  376 multifamily units across three four-story buildings on the 13.7-acre parcel. This would be slightly different plan than the 380-unit, four-building, five-story sketch plan the city approved back in 2023. 

The site has an unusual pedigree for a DC-area apartment project: it operated as a U.S. Army Nike missile launch site (known as the W-92 facility) from 1956 to 1974, then passed to the National Institute of Standards and Technology for storage and testing use until 2012. Pleasants picked up the vacant property via a GSA auction in 2022 for just over $12 million, and the former military and NIST structures have since been razed. In a nod to that history, the current proposal includes a commemorative feature marking the site's missile-defense past.

In addition to the new residences, the development plans include a playground, a dog park, internal private streets, and a mix of surface and garage parking. A pedestrian connection to the adjacent Muddy Branch Square Shopping Center is planned, though — consistent with the 2023 approval and neighborhood feedback — there will be no direct pedestrian link to the Lakelands Ridge community to the south. 

Gaithersburg's planning department is now reviewing the proposal.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/376_units_three_buildings_new_details_on_gaithersburgs_missile_site_redevel/24902.