In surprising news for the city of Bowie, one of the nation’s leading homebuilding companies has signed a lease to relocate its regional headquarters from Silver Spring to the Prince George’s County community, company executives announced Tuesday.
In November, the Lennar Corp. will move 110 associates to the top floor of the recently completed Melford Plaza I, located at the intersection of Route 50 and MD Route 3.
Roughly 500 acres, the plaza is a four-story Class A office building that has fast become “an imposing new landmark” on the county’s landscape, according to Jerry Wit, senior vice president of marketing for St. John Properties, which manages the building.
“Landing a national company like Lennar is a big deal,” Witt said Tuesday. “We made a $22 million bet in building this plaza, and the market is responding nicely.”
In a news release,Lennar Division President Bruce Harvey said his firm considered a number of locations in the Washington-Baltimore area before settling on the burgeoning Prince George’s business center. In the end, he cited Bowie’s location at the “virtual midpoint of the corridor positions within easy reach of our housing developments” as the deal-breaker.
Founded in 1954, Lennar is based in Miami and builds affordable move-up and retirement homes in 20 states throughout the nation, including Maryland.
The company is currently involved in housing development in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.
