Builders Take Wait-and-See Approach to Purple Line
Completion Is Too Distant For Strapped Developers

By Katherine Shaver
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 23, 2009

When Maryland officials promote plans to build a $1.68 billion Purple Line between Bethesda and New Carrollton, they often tout the power of light rail lines to transform older, struggling areas into thriving new hubs of transit-focused development.

They visualize worn, 1950s-era strip malls in places such as Langley Park being replaced with pedestrian-friendly communities of high-rise homes, offices, restaurants and shops clustered around train stations.

But missing from such visions have been the developers who would have to carry them out. With a few exceptions, they have remained conspicuously quiet as Maryland officials begin this fall to seek critical federal funding for the 16-mile project.

In Northern Virginia, developers and business groups helped lead the charge to clinch $900 million in competitive federal money to build the first phase of a 23-mile Metrorail extension through Tysons Corner and the Dulles corridor. One-fifth of the Silver Line's $5.2 billion total construction cost will be funded through an extra tax that commercial property owners volunteered to pay.

Some Maryland developers said that although they would welcome the line, they are too busy trying to survive the recession to spend time or money pushing a transit plan with an uncertain future. Those with property along the proposed Purple Line route are not offering to help pay for it. The most optimistic projections would have construction start in 2013 and service begin by 2016.

"It's not to say developers with land don't see the benefits of a Purple Line -- they clearly see them," said Robert Wulff, senior vice president of development for Bethesda-based B.F. Saul Co., which owns a shopping center across the street from a station planned for Langley Park. "It just may be a little too distant in the future for them to really get excited."

A key problem: The pro-Purple Line movement has been rooted in Montgomery County, where stations would primarily be in residential areas and near Bethesda and Silver Spring, whose downtowns have already boomed around Metro stations. Yet the greatest demand for renewal is in Prince George's County, where commercial developers have historically been slow to invest.

A Purple Line would be the Washington region's first light rail system, running trains along local streets. Although light rail lines have been credited with rejuvenating parts of Portland, San Diego and other cities, some local developers say they will not line up any architects until they see how many people would actually ride the line. Many of the stations would be tucked into neighborhoods. Most would not have parking, and people would arrive mainly by bus or foot. County planners noted that it took a decade or two for development to follow in places such as Wheaton and Silver Spring after Metro stations opened there.

Maryland planners estimate that the Purple Line would draw 64,800 trips daily by 2030. However, some stations, such as one on Riverdale Road in Prince George's, are predicted to have as few as 500 daily boardings.

Thomas S. Farasy, president of Burtonsville-based developer Terra Verde Communities, said a new pro-Purple Line coalition of developers, real estate specialists, builders and other businesses is devising a campaign for federal construction funds. Still, he said, his company's plans to build a six-story residential building about a quarter-mile from one of the line's potential College Park stations as soon as it can get financing don't rely on trains running anytime soon.

"We're excited about [the Purple Line], but it's a long ways out yet," said Farasy, who is also president of the Maryland-National Capital Building Industry Association. "Look how long it took to get the ICC going. That took what, 50 years? While these projects are good, they take a long time to come to fruition."

Maryland officials have cited light rail's greater potential for sparking development as a chief reason Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) endorsed it this month over less-expensive busway options for both the Purple Line and a 14-mile Red Line planned for Baltimore. Even so, state transit planners say, their first argument for federal help will be the Purple Line's ability to provide faster, more direct and environmentally friendly commutes between suburbs, as well as a vital connection among Amtrak, MARC and Metrorail stations.

"We're not building it just for development at all," said Michael D. Madden, the state's Purple Line study project manager. "Those things will come in time. Hopefully, when developers see how light rail can bring people to jobs, they'll start with their redevelopment plans and make the investment."

Chevy Chase Land Co. is one developer that has taken the lead. The firm owns about 36 acres, including townhouses and a shopping center, where the Purple Line would cross Connecticut Avenue near Chevy Chase Lake Drive, just south of the Capital Beltway. Top company officials have served on the board of Purple Line NOW, the project's largest booster group. Purple Line NOW's Web site lists the company as contributing "$1,000-plus" for a 2007 fundraiser, making it a top donor.

Some residents opposed to running trains along the nearby Georgetown Branch walking and biking trail say the company's interests won out at the expense of the trail's wooded tranquillity. They say they also worry that new construction inspired by a Purple Line would further snarl traffic and overcrowd downtown Bethesda and Silver Spring.

"It's clear that a majority of resident groups in Bethesda and Chevy Chase are against putting it along the trail," said Pat Burda, a council member for the Town of Chevy Chase, which is considering whether to file a lawsuit alleging flaws in the state's Purple Line study. "There's always been a sense that the development community wants light rail on the trail," she said, referring to the Chevy Chase Land Co.

Michele Horwitz Cornwell, senior vice president for the Chevy Chase Land Co., said the Maryland Transit Administration approached the company several years ago about building a Purple Line station on its property. If the station is approved, she said, the company would seek higher-density zoning there to build "some very good transit-oriented housing, office and retail" space.

The existing buildings "are now 50, 60 years old and need redevelopment, but that's certainly not the impetus for a Purple Line," Cornwell said. "Moving people east-west through Montgomery and Prince George's is the purpose of a Purple Line. One company couldn't push the state to move a project this size."

State transit officials say the trail route has been set aside since the 1980s for a rail link between Silver Spring and Bethesda.

Some Silver Spring residents question whether the state's eagerness to lure developers to street-level stations motivated the governor to reject their calls to tunnel the line beneath their congested downtown. But Madden, of the MTA, said planners found that a street-level station downtown would be less expensive and closer to a new library planned for the area and new homes slated to be built nearby.

Erwin Mack, executive director of the Takoma/Langley Crossroads Development Authority, a nonprofit group of 158 Montgomery businesses, said local property and business owners would welcome renewal but worry it could alter the community.

"We don't want gentrification to happen to the degree that some folks fear it will," Mack said. "We need low-rent housing to serve the people who are here."

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.