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D.C. suburb enjoys revival with infusion of public, private funds

The new Discovery Communications Inc. world headquarters in Silver Spring, Md. The D.C. suburb is thriving with public funds and private development. U.S. Newswire photo by Robin Weiner

ROBIN WEINER/U.S. NEWSWIRE/STF The new Discovery Communications Inc. world headquarters in Silver Spring, Md. The D.C. suburb is thriving with public funds and private development. U.S. Newswire photo by Robin Weiner

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The 8,000-seat Huntington Arena in downtown Toledo, shown here in 2009, cost $98 million to build and was financed by hotel-motel taxes, bonds and some public funds. The Blade photo by Amy E. Voigt

The Blade/Amy E. Voigt/Staff Photographer The 8,000-seat Huntington Arena in downtown Toledo, shown here in 2009, cost $98 million to build and was financed by hotel-motel taxes, bonds and some public funds. The Blade photo by Amy E. Voigt

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By Jack Torry, Washington Bureau Updated 1:23 AM Monday, July 5, 2010

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Back in the 1980s when he worked in this town jammed next to the District of Columbia, Douglas M. Duncan left his office one day in search of a few Christmas presents.

The future chief executive of Montgomery County in Maryland couldn’t find a department store, because the last one had closed. He couldn’t walk into most of the shops, because they all seemed to be boarded up. Finally, he gave up.

Fast forward to last Thursday morning as people sipped coffee in a sun-splashed outdoor cafe at Starbucks, munched on eggs and sausage at comfortable outdoor tables at Eggspectation, browsed through books and magazines at a roomy Borders Books and Music, or joined a large crowd near a water fountain to listen to a campaign speech by Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob Ehrlich.

“It’s a great place to work, said Jonathan Feldman, who bikes to his job in one of Silver Spring’s office towers. “And there are lots of restaurants.’’

Liz Rubin, an attorney from nearby Potomac who recalls Silver Spring from its heyday in the 1960s, said the city fell into hard times. “Nobody came here. (But now) it looks even more beautiful then when I came here in the ‘60s,” she said.

The transformation of Silver Spring — “sleepy is kind’’ said one county official of its previous condition — is nothing short of remarkable.

Since 2000, more than $1.5 billion of private money has been invested in a downtown that features 2,500 residential units, 130 restaurants, an outdoor shopping plaza, an indoor mall, and the American Film Institute’s Silver Theatre, which offers such silent masterpieces as King Vidor’s “The Crowd,’’ or more modern classics as “The Godfather.’’

It is home to Discovery Communications, whose blue sign atop a massive white building dominates a skyline of steel, concrete and glass structures. And even though it does not have such chic stores as Tiffany’s and Saks Fifth Avenue, which dot nearby Chevy Chase, it offers a wide range of modestly priced shops such as Payless Shoes, Marshall’s and Ann Taylor Loft.

Silver Spring’s resurgence piqued so much interest from Dayton officials that during a trip to Washington last April they listened to briefings from some of the major architects of the city’s revival, particularly Duncan, the man most people say is responsible.

“It can be duplicated,’’ said Duncan. “It really takes political will to invest the kind of public money to get the private sector involved.’’

Not everyone was enthralled with the changes. New shops meant more cars and more cars meant horrific traffic jams. (Imagine that in downtown Dayton). When Duncan stepped down as county executive in 2006, his successor was Isiah Leggett, who made clear his belief that the relationship between county government and developers was too chummy.

“The anti-growth forces in the area have not only become louder, but they are having more impact,’’ complained Jane Redicker, president of the Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce. “They forget that the value of their property has probably gone up several-fold. They want it like the old days when there was no traffic and no people.’’

Silver Spring and Dayton have few parallels. While both have a sizable minority population — 28 percent of Silver Spring is black — the Maryland city of 80,000 benefits from its location, a short subway ride to Capitol Hill in Washington and a 40-minute drive to downtown Baltimore.

But development experts say good ideas are good ideas, and successful urban revivals often borrow from cities very different than their own.

Much of what Duncan and his allies did has been tried in scores of other cities. They made taxpayer money available for developers willing to build, providing $150 million of the $400 million price tag to develop the outdoor plaza where Ehrlich campaigned.

They seized advantage of a state law creating enterprise zones in blighted areas, offering Discovery in 2003 the lure of low property taxes to move their headquarters from Bethesda, a Maryland suburb just a few miles away.

They also poured $25 million in 1999 into refurbishing the Silver Theatre, an art deco film house originally opened in 1938. By 1984, it was so hopelessly decayed it had shut down and was threatened with demolition.

“For 15 years, this huge facility stood like a reminder of what happened in Silver Spring,’’ said Murray Horwitz, a Dayton native and former director of the theatre. “People would go up and down Colesville Road and they would pass this big hulk.’’

The theater reopened in 2003 with Clint Eastwood cutting a splice of film. Today, it attracts 200,000 a people a year to watch films on its three state-of-the-art screens. A documentary festival has gained international notoriety.

“It was symbolically by far the most important thing that happened there,’’ Horwitz said. It has become so well-known that a few years ago Ray Barry, the theatre’s director, was in Amsterdam for its International Documentary Festival and he heard one man ask, “Are you going to Silver Spring next year?’’

With a median income of $51,653, Silver Spring is much wealthier than Dayton. The city center is just a short walk from some of the area’s wealthiest suburbs. But none of that means Dayton can’t pay attention to what happened here.

“You have to look at what you have that is positive and attractive and build on it,’’ said Gary Stith, deputy director of the Department of General Services in Maryland’s Montgomery County. “I would never write off any place. I wouldn’t consider Dayton, from what I know about it, as being on life support.’’

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