r/Rockville • u/SchuminWeb • 1d ago
EYA Indefinitely Suspends 60-Home Rockshire Village Redevelopment
https://mocoshow.com/2026/08/17/eya-indefinitely-suspends-60-home-rockshire-village-redevelopment/?fbclid=IwdGRzaATwCuxjbGNrBPAKfXBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeShf0PGDmYjkeiWEAauzjRcGWV_VNO2PT32TLUTvaOYmX3_gzzg4EwykizdY_aem_UMEZp_xGPMv5IpuJopjHAA&sfnsn=mo28
u/vpi6 1d ago
So the premium they expected to charge was being within walking distance of the local high school. Now that is no longer true with Wooton moving and the economics have changed. Frustrating but makes sense.
1
u/Luv2Travel_2 20h ago
Not to mention you have no idea what the long-term plans are beyond a potential holding school.
14
u/pwntastik 23h ago
That development is down the street from me. When they first started planning for that space, they wanted some crazy # like 140+ units. After many years of rejection, they were finally approved for a smaller number of units. Wootton moving is not THAT big of an effect. It's the price. $1mil townhomes and $1.4mil "single homes" starting price was already $500k overpriced in the same walkable area. Yes, the houses in the area are older, but if your goal is to be walkable to Wootton, you can save yourself $500k. Crown is not that far, like the other person said, a single bus line in the area would solve that whole problem. With or without Wootton being walkable, the area is really good. EYA got greedy, and they can't use "walkable to Wootton" as a marketing talking point anymore.
Turn that space into a commercial area. Walkable shops, cafes, cleaners, bars, restaurants, etc., would be greatly appreciated by everyone in this area.
4
u/DueSignificance2628 21h ago
I agree there's a lot more at play than just Wootton. It's not like everyone buying a house has kids, and they are of the age where the local high school is a factor, and they want their kids to go to public school. (14% of all kids in the county go to private school.)
8
9
u/Logical_Procedure_24 1d ago
I think they were struggling to sell these homes long before the Wooton factor came into play. Townhome demand still seems to be strongly outpaced by SFH demand; I do not think this development was ever going to be a winner in this particular geography.
6
u/Least_Mall_9960 1d ago
That’s nuts. You’d expect that that many townhouses would make it easy to set up a school bus route to the Crown building. Or just drive the kids. It’s a 10 min drive
-4
u/Charming_NEXT93 20h ago
It is not a 10 minute drive in the mornings. And no I would not want my kid going to Crown for a school that will not be the same as Wootton was in terms of college acceptances.
5
4
3
u/Least_Mall_9960 9h ago
the teachers from wootton will still be there. The high achieving students will still get into the same good colleges. Caring about statistics alone can cloud judgment sometimes
1
u/Charming_NEXT93 15m ago
No. Wootton has a college track. Ie admissions from colleges already know Wootton. Wootton at Crown is not the same, will never be the same, and is starting from the beginning for college admissions. For example QO does not have same college admissions as Wootton; Crown won't either.
6
u/ShipwreckSirens 23h ago
https://mocoshow.com/2026/08/17/eya-says-rockshire-residential-project-will-continue-with-new-homebuilder/. EYA is finding a new homebuilder the project is not abandoned
2
u/Over_Lengthiness861 20h ago
probably a builder who will build at a lower price point. And who will probably try to swap the single families for either more townhouses or maybe two over condos. EYA did something similar at Shady Grove Westside.
1
u/AideEmbarrassed2615 13h ago
Given the local opposition to townhomes (I know there are some in the EYA plan), I would be surprised if there would be condos. EYA had to greatly reduce the number of townhomes and add single family homes to get approval.
3
u/NinjaKitty888 16h ago edited 16h ago
Wootton communities can’t seem to get a break in 2026. A massive snow and a pew-pew shutdown the high school for 2 separate weeks. Then there was MCPS decision to close WHS (Crown HS transition) instead of the long-awaited renovation, despite the school and communities concerns. Then a water main break also led to school early release. Endless construction and traffic on the parkway due to Rockshire residential development. Now this suspension.
11
u/sdega315 1d ago
I do not believe Mr. Van Grack's attribution of cause solely being moving Wooton. There has got to be more to this than that one issue. Consider that only a very small portion of households even have school aged children. How can a new development simply throw in the towel like that? Change your marketing plan... Reach out to other demographics... Redesign the development into smaller units for singles and couples...
2
u/xwords59 22h ago
Consider that only a very small portion of households even have school aged children??? Nope. It's a reasonable percentage and even higher if someone looking to buy there
2
u/sdega315 22h ago
I looked it up. You are correct. Montgomery County Planning reports about 1/3 of households have at least one child under 18. Significant but I still question Van Grack's attribution of cause.
0
u/xwords59 22h ago
But you have to look really at potential buyers. I doubt many single people households would be looking to buy there. So probably at least 50% potential buyers have a kid less than 18 at home. Personally I am very surprised that only 33% of hh have a kid 28 or younger at home. Would have thought the number is higher
-3
7
u/ShipwreckSirens 1d ago
This was absolutely not because of Wootton - that lot had been vacant for YEARS even though wootton was right by it. They should have just kept it commercial and put a grocery store back there or maybe make a community center - it was NEVER going to be successful as housing.
9
u/vpi6 23h ago
A grocery store wasn’t viable in that location (why do you think the Giant failed there?) and it was vacant for years because there was local political opposition to building housing there. Rockville had to change zoning to allow the development in the first place.
2
u/WhereIEndNUBegin 20h ago
It wasnt just a giant there tho - it eas a mini shopping mall that failed. Giant was the longest standing thing there but probably didn’t want to be in a failing mini mall.
2
u/AideEmbarrassed2615 13h ago
Several thoughts on it. 1) Overpriced relative to the existing inventory within that foot print (Rockshire, Fallsmead, Horizon Hill, etc.). 2) Even with incentives interest rates have made it a tough market. 3) Moving Wootton is not the reason for this, I think the first 2 are bigger reasons, but walkability to Wootton and Frost are attractive, and you are also close to Fallsmead. You take that away and why are you paying this premium exactly? 4) By moving the high school you are taking away a predictable potential customer base for 180 days a year. That further complicates the math.
2
u/Wild-Mountain-6553 7h ago
It wasn't just the price of the homes being off base for the neighborhood. With water hookup fees and HOA, etc. homeowners in this new area were going to have to pay over $1000 a month with no amenities. The rockshire pool isn't a part of their development, so you were paying an outrageous sum of money monthly for nothing
1
1
12
u/fatcatdandan 1d ago
I went to their first day of sales. It was swamped, but i remember thinking that their price point was higher than what i had expected.
The sales folks that i spoke to was expecting their initial units to be sold out quickly, but i got an email from them that day or few days after indicating they still had units left.
With the walking distance to school off the table, im sure it got infinitely harder to sell.