Foulger-Pratt Breaks Ground On Next Phase Of Park Potomac Project
Jeff Storck
10/18/2007

Washington area General Contractor, Foulger-Pratt broke ground on the latest phase of their Park Potomac mixed use project last Thursday, and the Storck Report was there. A large crowd turned out on a cool blustery day in Potomac for the event complete with local Politicians touting the "Smart Growth" aspects of this project. We were there to celebrate the start of construction on "Building E", a 160,000 sf Class A premium office building that also boasts 14,000 sf of ground floor retail space. The building is to be set in the midst of a beautiful neighborhood of $1,000,000.00 brownstone town homes, two large Condo buildings, and a host of amenities including a 156 room hotel, a Harris Teeter grocery store, and a vibrant Town Center. The event was catered, as you might expect, by Harris Teeter and they outdid themselves: The buffet luncheon was superb. A large portion of the new building is already leased to Shulman, Rogers, Gandal, Pordy & Ecker, P.A. , one of the largest and most prestigious law firms doing business in Montgomery County, and they were on hand to help turn the first shovelful of dirt.

From lef to right: Cameron Pratt (Foulger-Pratt), Tim Firestine (Mont Co. Chief Admin Officer), David Pordy (Shulman, Rogers...), Dan Marrett (Harris Teeter), Sid Foulger (Foulger-Pratt), Brent Pratt (Foulger-Pratt), Sam Spiritos (Shulman, Rogers...), and Bryant Foulger (Foulger-Pratt).

One of the more interesting conversations I had while having lunch was with the sales manager of the team charged with selling the many Condo units in the two buildings on site - one complete and one still under construction. Now I know we are all used to reading and hearing about how poor the condo sales market is (the word "tanked" comes to mind), so you can imagine my surprise when I found out that the completed building has available units only in the low single digits left, and the building still under construction is almost 1/3 filled, and won't even be delivered until summer '08 . That is an amazing record of success in a very tough market, although if you saw the models of what is available, as I did, you would understand immediately. These are large, upscale and beautifully built and appointed living spaces. The common areas are striking in appearance, and one can easily understand the attraction. It goes to show you that a project that is well thought out, designed, and built to the highest standards will sell well even in the most difficult of times.

All in all, from what I could see, Foulger-Pratt has a real winner here, and I look forward to watching it come out of the ground over the coming months.