Design and Timeline Presented for New Marriott Headquarters in Bethesda

• August 11th 2017

by Nena Perry-Brown

Last night, Marriott and Bernstein Companies presented the preliminary plans and timeline for a new headquarters in downtown Bethesda, revealing that groundbreaking is slated for the third quarter of 2018.

Robert Dyer reports that while the new headquarters will be constructed at 7750 Wisconsin Avenue (map), an agreement to purchase the Tastee Diner fell through as the development team was unable to come to terms with the Woodmont Grill. Consequently, the Grill will lose its parking lot to the new development, but the new building (and its widened sidewalks) will not extend to the corner where the diner sits.

The site plan will deliver a 21-story, L-shaped office building for the headquarters and a 12-story, 238-key hotel across a public plaza. The hotel is slated to deliver in October 2021 and the office in July 2022.

The interior of the hotel will include a restaurant on the ground floor opening into the plaza, an 8,000 square-foot meeting space and an “innovation lab” on the third floor for Marriott to test out concepts and furniture for replication at other hotel outposts.

Marriott has reached a 10-year lease agreement with Montgomery County to have full use of the garage across the street during business hours — a sore spot for some in the neighborhood. Currently, 2,500 of Marriott’s employees drive to headquarters; the company anticipates that more will switch to using Metro after the new building opens.

Marriott will have a 20-year lease on the property with the option to extend for another 20 years after expiration. The site is co-owned by Bernstein and Boston Properties.

The development team intends to file the sketch, preliminary and site plans soon; the county’s Planning Board is scheduled to consider the proposed design in mid-December.

Correction: The captions of the first and last renderings have been updated to more accurately reflect the perspectives.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/design_and_timeline_released_for_new_marriott_headquarters/12904.