At 1455 Research Boulevard, off I-270, sits a 228,221-square-foot office building from 1998. According to the developer's own filing with the city, it was 57 percent vacant. The company under contract to buy it is Pulte Home Company, a homebuilder, not an office landlord. On July 22, 2026, Rockville's Planning Commission approved a plan to replace the building with 206 homes: 78 townhomes, 56 two-over-two stacked units, and two condominium buildings of 36 units each.
The same approval included a waiver, listed on the city's project page. It lets homes sit between 6 and 45 feet from a gas transmission line easement, where the city's code requires a 50-foot minimum. That waiver shows up in the city record before most buyers have heard of the project, and it says a lot about how Rockville's next wave of for-sale housing is being built. The land is coming out of office parks that are no longer worth more as offices. Each site keeps the quirks of its office-park past, and the homes are arriving years from now, not this season.
The Buyer for an Empty Office Is Now a Homebuilder
Pulte is buying more than one campus in this corridor. It is also the contract purchaser and applicant at 1 Curie Court and 1395 Piccard Drive. Those are two office buildings, one with 133,846 square feet built in 1983 and one with 52,500 square feet built in 1979. The plan there calls for 110 townhomes and a five-story condominium building with 32 units. All 142 homes would be for sale, and 22 would be moderately priced dwelling units. As of October 2026, the city's project page still listed that site's Planning Commission review as pending.
The filings explain why a homebuilder can outbid office use for this land. Pulte's statement for 1455 Research Boulevard says the need for suburban office space "decreased dramatically since 2020 and is not expected to rebound." It describes the building as having reached the end of its useful life, while "the demand for housing continues to increase." The same document points to a planning gap. The nearby Research Row commercial center is zoned for a mix of office, commercial and residential uses, but it holds only office and commercial space, and the filing notes that "there are no other residential uses in the neighborhood."
That means the first buyers at these sites would be moving into what is, today, an office district. Shops and restaurants that depend on daytime office workers would gain residents who are there in the evenings and on weekends. That is the case the developer is making to the city.
Why the Office Numbers Look Better Than the Offices Do
Rockville's office market looks fairly steady in the quarterly reports. Here is how the sources describe it:
| Source, period | What it measured | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Colliers, Q3 2026 | Suburban Maryland office vacancy | 19.1% |
| Newmark, Q3 2026 | Suburban Maryland office vacancy | 20.1%, unchanged from Q2 |
| Avison Young, Q3 2026 | Rockville total office availability | 24.7% |
| Avison Young, Q3 2026 | Shady Grove total office availability | 23.8% |
The two firms measure vacancy differently, which is why Colliers and Newmark don't match. Avison Young reports availability, a related but separate measure. Suburban Maryland vacancy did dip by 10 basis points in the third quarter of 2026, but Colliers attributes the drop to more than 500,000 square feet of office space being taken off the market for demolition or redevelopment. The drop came from buildings leaving the office count, with no new tenants filling space. In the I-270 corridor, a growing share of that removed space is being rezoned and redrawn as townhouses.
Where the Former Offices Are Headed
The two Pulte sites are part of a larger group of conversions within a few miles of Research Boulevard and Shady Grove Road:
| Site | Builder or developer | Planned homes | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1455 Research Blvd | Pulte Home Company | 206: townhomes, two-over-twos, condos | Approved July 22, 2026 |
| 1 Curie Ct / 1395 Piccard Dr | Pulte Home Company | 142 for-sale: 110 townhomes, 32 condos | Planning Commission pending |
| Corporate Blvd campus, about 23 acres | Buchanan Partners | Up to 810: townhouses, two-over-twos, multifamily | Under county review |
| Decoverly, Key West Ave and Omega Dr | EYA with Bernstein Management | More than 200 townhomes | Offices slated for demolition early 2028 |
UrbanTurf reported that Buchanan Partners bought the five-building Corporate Boulevard cluster for $47 million in March 2025 and filed its plan under Montgomery County's new Commercial to Residential Reconstruction expedited approval process. For the Decoverly site, Bethesda Magazine reported that EYA expects to open townhome sales in late 2028.
The way these projects come together explains the timing. A builder signs a contract on an office property, files a site plan, waits for public meetings and approvals, then demolishes the building before construction starts. The 1455 Research Boulevard application went in on July 14, 2025, and was approved a year later. Neither Pulte filing gives a construction start or completion date, and neither project has announced pricing. More projects are likely. Rockville's rewritten zoning code took effect on August 1, 2026. It allows multiplexes and cottage courts, raises allowable heights near transit, and cuts or removes minimum parking requirements in those areas.
The Easement Is the Kind of Detail a Site Plan Keeps
Office parks were laid out around parking lots, highway access and utility corridors, not backyards. The 1455 Research Boulevard filing describes a 92-foot-wide Transcontinental Gas Pipeline easement in the southeast corner of the property. No structures or trees are allowed inside it, and it leaves part of the eastern edge of the site open toward I-270. The approved waiver is what allows some homes to sit closer to that easement than the standard 50 feet. The Curie Court and Piccard Drive filing deals with a different constraint, a stream-valley buffer, where the plan removes existing parking and reduces how far buildings extend into the buffer.
Every one of these documents is public on the City of Rockville's development pages, including revised site plans. Whenever these homes reach the market, a buyer comparing two townhomes in the same community can open the approved site plan and see which lots back onto an easement, a buffer, or the highway edge, a detail a model home tour will not reveal.
The Market You Buy Into While the Drawings Become Houses
Someone buying in Rockville next spring will be shopping in Montgomery County's resale market, not choosing among Pulte floor plans. That market loosened through September 2026. Data from Maryland REALTORS for September 2026 show a countywide median sale price of $610,000, up 1.8 percent from a year earlier. Active listings rose 27.2 percent to 2,447, and pending sales fell 17.7 percent. Months of inventory reached 3.0, up 25.5 percent, while median days on market held at 22. The Greater Capital Area Association of REALTORS' September 2026 county report shows the same $610,000 median.
Taken together, buyers have more listings to choose from and are signing fewer contracts, while prices are still edging up. The office-to-townhome conversions do nothing to change that today. They add to supply in 2028 and after, if builders keep to the schedules they have described. For a buyer who wants a townhouse within the next year, the real comparison is between existing homes, including older ones that need work. That makes condition and renovation cost part of the price conversation.
The City Layer on Top of the County Bill
Homes inside Rockville city limits pay a city tax on top of the county one, and whoever buys at these new communities will pay it too. The city's FY27 budget announcement puts Rockville's real property tax rate at $0.292 per $100 of assessed value, unchanged. The city also charges a separate stormwater fee. Under Resolution 08-26, it is $169 per equivalent residential unit for FY2027, up $10, collected the same way as property taxes, and it becomes a lien if unpaid. The city's stormwater fee page explains that each property's charge is based on its impervious area, measured from aerial photography. Montgomery County notes that the homestead assessment cap does not apply in the first year after a purchase, so a buyer's taxable assessment can come in higher than the seller's.
Buyers who might rent the home out later should know that Rockville requires a city rental license for single-family rentals, including townhouses and condominiums, and the application requires a lead-compliance certificate. All of this is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, so please confirm how these rules apply to your purchase with the right professional.
A Few Straight Answers
Can I buy one of the Research Boulevard townhomes now? No sales have been announced. 1455 Research Boulevard has its site plan approval, but its filings give no construction dates or pricing, and the Curie Court and Piccard Drive plan was still waiting on the Planning Commission in October 2026.
Will some of these homes be priced below market? The Curie Court and Piccard Drive plan includes 22 moderately priced dwelling units. Pulte's 1455 Research Boulevard filing listed 30 for a 198-home version of the plan, which was later approved at 206 units. Those units are sold through the county program, not on the open market.
Is Rockville still building rentals too? Yes. Twinbrook Quarter Phase 2 proposes up to 413 multifamily units, and a plan for 255 Rockville Pike would convert an office property into 550 multifamily units. Both were under city review as of October 2026.
If you're comparing an existing Rockville townhouse that needs work with waiting for one of these office-park communities, Sproost Properties can walk through both with you. We can scope the renovation on the existing home, price it with renovation financing included, and set that number next to a new home that may not open sales until 2028. Let's Get You Started.
