October 4, 2013 | by Staff Writer

Meet Crown’s First Residents (Photos)

Crown is officially a neighborhood. The long-awaited community recently welcomed its first residents, and with 50 homes sold to date the new neighbors will keep coming.

Rolando and Millie Estrada will be among Crown’s first residents and are looking forward to moving in. They close on their home new townhome in Crown West in just a few weeks.

“We like the concept of urban living,” Rolando said. “The ability to walk around the community to the things we want to do, and to not have to get in the car to drive everywhere, is very appealing. It fits our lifestyle.” The couple, who has an adult son, currently live in Germantown.

The first retail, the Downtown Crown Starbucks, opened on Friday and is currently open 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. LA Fitness is expected to be open by year’s end, and Harris Teeter will open in early January.

Downtown Crown’s 260,000-square-foot retail center will celebrate its grand opening in the spring. To date, about 70 percent of the retail space is leased or under negotiation and expected to be leased.

The Cadence at Crown, the apartment community in the mixed-use Downtown Crown neighborhood, will open its leasing office in January.

Crown is an urban-style community on 182 acres adjacent to the Washingtonian Center off Interstate 270. The Crown West neighborhood is currently selling townhomes from three builders; Pulte Homes and KB Home have had three models since spring, and M/I Homes opened its two models last week.

All three builders were asked to create floor plans for Crown that are unique to Montgomery County. Pulte and M/I both offer outdoor living spaces with rooftop terraces, and KB Home’s 24-foot wide townhome has open floor plan exclusively for Crown that lives like a detached single-family home.

“It’s very exciting to see Crown coming to life,” said Kristine Warner, a spokeswoman for Crown. “We broke ground about a year ago and now have five model homes open, dozens of sales and residents living in the community. Crown is really taking shape.”

To learn more, visit www.SmartUrbanLiving.com.

Some photos are included, below: