Mike Smith Unopposed for FoWF Board of Directors Property Owners Seat

Michael J. Smith is the representative to Friends of White Flint from LCOR White Flint, which is building the North Bethesda Center at the White Flint Metro station. North Bethesda Center, which includes the new Harris Teeter grocery store, is one of the White Flint projects which is already approved for development and construction is underway. LCOR is one of the few major property owners in White Flint which has not joined the White Flint Partnership, the principal group of property owners working on the redevelopment of White Flint. Mike has been active in the White Flint planning process since the beginning, including participating on the 2006-2008 White Flint Advisory Group and the 2008-09 White Flint Steering Committee. He has been an active member of Friends of White Flint.

Mike currently serves as a member of the FoWF Board, representing the Property Owners/Developers class of members, and his term expires this year. He is the only nominee for the open PO/D class seat. Since he is unopposed for the nomination, there will be no circulation of ballots to PO/D members for this year’s election.

He wrote in his nomination statement: 

I have been a member of the Friends of White Flint since its 2008 expansion to include property owners as members, currently serve on the Board of Directors, and have been a consistent voice for the past ten years for a more urbanized transit-oriented evolution of North Bethesda.

My company, LCOR, controls the second largest parcel of land in the White Flint sector plan area. This 32.5 acre site also enjoys the closest proximity of any parcel in the sector plan area to the White Flint Metro Station.

I am the Project Executive for the North Bethesda Center project and have been actively engaged in advocating and shaping an urban, transit-oriented, mixed-use vision for the White Flint area since 2000 when I joined LCOR. I have been actively engaged in all land use, zoning and infrastructure financing discussions related to the proposed White Flint Master Plan since these discussions started several years ago.

North Bethesda Center is currently zoned for 2,700,000 square feet of development comprised of approximately 1,350,000 square feet of commercial uses (office and retail space) and 1,250 apartment units. The proposed White Flint Master Plan adds another 1,700,000 square feet of development to the North Bethesda Center site, bringing this site up to a potential total of 4,400,000 square feet of development.

To date, we have delivered a 312 unit apartment building and a 65,000 square foot Harris Teeter grocery store. We are breaking ground in April 2010 on a 362,000 square foot office building for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This building represents the largest single tenant lease signed in the State of Maryland in the past ten or more years and represents a significant validation of the vision of the proposed White Flint Master Plan.

Barnaby Zall