Montgomery County has selected a familiar developer for its second attempt at a new 2nd District Police station in downtown Bethesda.
Bethesda-based StonebridgeCarras will rebuild the station on Rugby Avenue, according to Department of General Services Deputy Director Greg Ossont.
The station has been located at 7359 Wisconsin Ave. for more than 50 years.
StonebridgeCarras is in the middle of another private-public partnership with the county at the Lot 31 site near Bethesda Row. The developer is building the county an underground parking garage to replace the surface parking lost from Lot 31. That site will be home to a mixed-use apartment building.
The new police station will be built on the gravel parking lot at Rugby Avenue and Del Ray Avenue, just south of the county’s Woodmont-Rugby Garage 35 and just west of the 8120 Woodmont office building.
The county’s first attempt at a public-private partnership to build a new 2nd District station came just a block away, at Cordell and Wisconsin Avenues. That effort fell through when developer JBG failed to acquire all of the property at the site.
The county put out a request for qualifications and development proposals earlier this year in an attempt to speed up the replacement process for the aging station, which serves as the police headquarters for the Bethesda, Chevy Chase and North Bethesda areas.
The existing facility is 21,700 square feet and, according to the county, too small to meet the requirements of the 24-hour police station. The building also requires major upgrades and faces security concerns.
The original project included a $9 million contribution from the county. That money has been kept in the budget as a placeholder amount, though a new cost and many of the other design details still must be assessed, Ossont said.
