In the News...Newest North Bethesda Apartment Building Calls on Hotel-Style Services to Distinguish Itself from the Pack

By: Aaron Kraut

Pallas, the newest apartment building in the Pike & Rose project in North Bethesda, offers an in-house concierge service, resort-style pool and garden plots for residents.

Just don’t call it luxury.

“We’re taking a new approach to the way that we’re selling these as residences,” said Mike Ennes, vice president of residential branding for developer Federal Realty.

Federal Realty hired Ennes from Hilton Hotels & Resorts, where he worked on the hotel chain’s new Canopy lifestyle brand.

Instead of luxury, Ennes said the focus at Pallas is on hospitality, “personal well-being” and the building’s location among the retail, restaurants and entertainment venues popping up at Pike & Rose.

“Everyone’s luxury,” Ennes said. “We asked ourselves, ‘What does it mean to be luxury?’ Time is really the only universal luxury.

Federal Realty also brought in Abigail Michaels, a New York-based concierge service, to save residents time. Among other perks, the concierge service can set up private tours of the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., call a resident’s utility companies during move-ins and plan events with chefs from Pike & Rose restaurants and other perks.

Move-ins at the 19-floor, 319-unit building will start in the middle of June. The top floors, which contain the larger penthouse units, will be finished by November or December.

Monthly rents start in the $2,000 range and go up to almost $8,000 for the largest penthouse units. There are 74 different layouts, with the average unit coming in around 900 square feet. There will be about 20 penthouse units.

Ennes said about a dozen of the units have been sold, but Federal Realty thinks sales will pick up after a preview and opening party for potential tenants Thursday night.

Amenities inside the building include a fitness center, exercise studio and solarium, and a garden on a sixth-floor terrace space. There will also be a few individual garden plots available to residents on the terrace.

Overlooking the terrace will be the pool and the sky lounge, complete with a kitchen and bar. Residents can park in an underground garage accessed on Old Georgetown Road.

There will also be access from Hoya Street (the future Towne Road) once it's connected to Old Georgetown Road.

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/Newest-North-Bethesda-Apartment-Building-Calls-on-Hotel-Style-Services-to-Distinguish-Itself-From-the-Pack/