Silver Spring Airbnbs generate the third most money in the state
It’s a good thing the Montgomery County Council last year legalized Airbnb rentals in Montgomery County—they were racking up a lot of money for homeowners.
The Baltimore Business Journal reported this week that Silver Spring rentals on the website generated about $3.6 million from 16,000 guest arrivals. That number ranked just behind Annapolis in the state, which generated $3.8 million from 23,100 guests, and well behind Baltimore, which had the most rentals in Maryland with $11.3 million generated from 75,800 guests.
Bethesda came in sixth in the state—behind Hyattsville, Fort Washington and the three others—with $1.5 million in Airbnb rental income from about 5,100 guests.
County’s Wheaton development project is moving forward
A rendering showing what the completed building will look like. Via Montgomery County website
Construction on Montgomery County’s new government office building in downtown Wheaton is well underway. An initial crane that will be used to build the 14-story, 308,000-square-foot structure was installed on the weekend of Jan. 13 and 14 and a second crane is scheduled to be installed this weekend.
The cranes come after crews completed excavating space for the underground parking garage at the site following a June groundbreaking.
The current state of the building site on Jan. 26 via county’s website
The building is scheduled to be completed in 2020. Once completed, it will house the county’s Planning Department, Mid-County Regional Services Center, Department of Recreation, Department of Permitting Services and a variety of smaller county government offices.
A 400-space underground garage will be constructed below the structure. Next to the building, a 35,000-square-foot town square will be built at the site of the current regional services center at 2424 Reedie Drive. Crews are scheduled to begin demolishing the existing services center building later this month.
The government building will include 11,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.
Developer StonebridgeCarras and The Bozzuto Group partnered with the county to develop the estimated $170 million project, which is being built by Clark Construction.
State loses 20,200 jobs in December
Maryland lost 20,200 jobs last month, which increased the state’s unemployment rate from 3.9 percent at the end of November to 4 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
While the monthly jobs report showed a decrease, overall the state gained 31,400 jobs in 2017, according to the state’s Department of Labor.
The department reported Tuesday that several job sectors experienced job losses last month, with the professional and business services sector seeing the greatest decline.
After last month’s job losses, the state’s unemployment rate inched closer to the national average of 4.1 percent.