The 17-story, 200-unit Bainbridge Bethesda apartment building held a ribbon cutting and grand opening celebration on Thursday, celebrating a project that was seven years (and one name change) in the making.
Move-ins started in August and about 40 units have been rented.
A number of activity rooms, an internet lounge, conference room, outdoor patios overlooking downtown Bethesda and a rooftop pool are all part of the building’s upscale pitch.
Studio apartments, at 540 square feet, start at $2,020 rent per month. (The studios are sold out, according to the Bainbridge Bethesda website.)
One-bedroom units range from $2,215-$2,390 a month, one-bedroom units with a den (849 square feet) start at $2,785 and two-bedroom units range from $3,590-$4,680.
Construction on the building (4918 St Elmo Ave.) began in 2011. Bainbridge President Thomas Keady told the crowd at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting that the developer bought the land back in 2007.
Once known as “The Monty,” the project was set to become the first of the new luxury apartment towers to hit the Woodmont Triangle section of Bethesda. Construction delays — including one because of construction-related structural damage to an existing set of buildings next door — slowed the process.
Next-door property owner Lenny Greenberg won $3.2 million and another $3.5 million in legal fees after a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge determined Bainbridge’s construction contractors continued sheeting and shoring practices that they knew didn’t work. Greenberg then sued Bainbridge and its contractors for damage he claimed happen to his buildings on the St. Elmo Avenue.
Jeffrey Kane, President and CEO of the National Real Estate Advisors firm that helped finance the project, thanked those who made the project happen, “despite the fact that our neighbor Lenny Greenberg likes to file lawsuits.”
A tour after the ceremony included looks at the building’s first-floor mezzanine and business areas, the 15th-floor party room and outdoor patio (complete with a table shuffleboard) and the 18th-floor rooftop pool.
