Montgomery County Exec Marc Elrich and County Councilmember Kristin Mink trekked up to the White Oak area of eastern Silver Spring, MD last week to take photos with a giant check of “Maryland State Legislative Bond” money (see photo below, courtesy of MontgomeryCountyMD.gov). Doling out other people’s money is a past-time of politicians – but who is really going to benefit from the taxpayer’s largesse to a subset of businesses in the White Oak area? According to a press release by the County, the “public-private partnership” breaks out like this:
Montgomery County: $1,983,333 (53%)
State Legislative Bond: $500,000 (14%)
Property/Business Owners: $1,244,667 (33%)
That last part is key. “Property / Business Owners” are chipping in $1.24 million but are getting a nice haul back in state and county taxpayer-funded improvements adjacent to, or presumably on their parcels. These improvements mean their property values rise, allowing them higher resale value or to extract higher rents. Who are the “property” owners that line this area of Lockwood Drive in Silver Spring? The glowing press release doesn’t say. You have to dig. And dig some more. The press release by the County mentions small business owners, and includes a photo, such as the one below (lifted from Google Maps / Street View) of a small Beauty Supply business and supermarket, as well as a Public Storage franchise, which you can see to the right:
But what I found in some research was that there appears to be an entity called “Hutchison Family LLC” that owns a lot of the land / commercial building parcels where these highlighted businesses reside and will stand to benefit from the taxpayer sponsored “improvement” of their properties. I found out about Hutchison Family LLC via the following on a document uploaded by the Montgomery County Planning Board in December, 2022:
It was hard to research “Hutchison Family LLC” but I traced it to a lawyer’s office in Bethesda, MD. Additional details seem to indicate:
Hutchison Family Limited Liability Company company type is Domestic LLC. Company Number assigned to this business is W07084833 and state of formation is Maryland.
This company business address is Suite 650 8120 Woodmont Avenue Bethesda Md 20814. Mailing address is Hutchison Family Limited Liability Company, 3020 Gateway Foothills Road, Gallatin Gateway, Mt 59730
I could not find anything else on this LLC despite multiple attempts. Regardless, this landlord / land owner stands to gain nicely from the infusion of Maryland taxpayer cash. Why? Who is behind it? Does it have “general partners” we can find out about and trace? Often in real estate, there are general partners in the wings. After what was just witnessed in Burtonsville, MD with the taxpayer infusion for multi-million dollar EDENS Development Corporation, we definitely need to be skeptical of any tax dollar give-away to a presumably well-off land / shopping center owner. We can’t believe in coincidences anymore with MoCo politicians, no matter the stated intentions.
More to come.
