American Dream

Commercial Real Estate Report

Moving Up the Corridor
Frederick County Enjoys a Boom in Office-Building Development

By Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 15, 2006; D01

Wearing black sunglasses, a starched white shirt and purple-striped necktie, Mickey Abrams drove his silver Mercedes convertible onto the freshly paved parking lot of his latest real estate venture in Frederick County one recent morning and surveyed the results.

He'd gotten a good deal on farmland just off Interstate 270 and Route 85, and put $9 million into building two one-story brick
office buildings with space adding up to the size of a football field. This spring -- five months after completion -- his brokers found two tenants -- Western Services Corp., a nearby software company that was expanding, and a Kaiser Permanente Inc. branch. They agreed to pay the going rate of about $16 a square foot.

Not bad, Abrams thought.

Just behind the two buildings, Abrams can see a source of more tenants: a steady stream of brake lights from cars and trucks heading south along Interstate 270 during the morning rush hour.

"All those employees spend an hour or more in the car instead of 10 minutes from their home to their office," Abrams said as the traffic crept past his office buildings.


It's importat to note that this segment of I-270 has not been widened or upgraded since the freeway was built - in the 1950's - and some proposals to widen have been rejected for the usual reasons.