Demolition of Clarksburg’s COMSAT building underway, advancing plans for a mixed-use community

April 20, 2026 5:54 p.m.

Demolition work on the former COMSAT Laboratories building in Clarksburg. Photo credit: Courtesy of River Falls Investments

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Demolition work is underway on the former home of Communications Satellite Corp. (COMSAT) Laboratories in Clarksburg, a research facility that helped modernize communications technology, setting the stage for a major development project to come to northern Montgomery County.

River Falls Investments (formerly Lantian Development), a real estate investment and development company based in Bethesda, owns the 204-acre property and is planning a mixed-use development for the site. Demolition of the COMSAT laboratories began April 13, according to CEO Bob Elliott.

“We’re just excited to get going, to start being able to tell a very different story about the property,” Elliott told Bethesda Today on April 15. “After 10 years of ownership under our watch and 10 years under the prior owner, we’re anxious to … really start seeing what we might be able to get accomplished here.”

The COMSAT Laboratories building sits on property to the east of I-270, about 1 mile from the Clarksburg Premium Outlets. Several residential communities, including The Meadows at Hurley Ridge and Gallery Park, border the site to the east.

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COMSAT Laboratories opened in 1969 as the research division of the COMSAT corporation, which was created as a result of the Communications Satellite Act of 1962, according to Montgomery Planning’s Historic Preservation Division Chief Rebeccah Ballo. The research facility was responsible for major scientific breakthroughs such as the invention of real-time international phone communication and live television broadcasts, including the 1969 moon landing, according to the planning department. In 1997, the COMSAT Laboratories building closed its doors following a merger with Lockheed-Martin and the site has been largely vacant since 2005.

Clarksburg’s COMSAT building was designed by the late Cesar Pelli, an Argentine American architect who designed some of the most iconic skyscrapers in the world. Photo credit: Courtesy of River Falls Investments

Elliott views the COMSAT site as the county’s next big opportunity for a new mixed-use community in the Upcounty area. Project details haven’t been finalized, but Elliott said a proposed development is expected to include several million square feet of housing and commercial and retail space.

“This is the last, in our opinion, great property in this part of the county,” Elliott said.

County planners agree with Elliott.

The question of historic designation

River Falls Investments purchased the property at 22300 Comsat Drive in 2015 with the intent of developing a mixed-use community. Until mid-April, significant development or construction had not occurred on the site for nearly 20 years, according to Elliott. For many of those years, the site’s future remained uncertain due to whether the county would designate the COMSAT building as a historic site.

What made the 500,000-square-foot building historically significant was its role in the advancement of communication technology, including a global satellite communications system. The building was also designed by the late Cesar Pelli, an Argentine American architect who designed some of the most iconic skyscrapers in the world. His work spans buildings ranging from the World Financial Center in New York City to the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia.

“Since 1969, the COMSAT laboratories stands as an icon of avant-garde local research and the harbinger of the ‘high technology corridor’ that came to define upper Montgomery County,” Montgomery Planning said on its website. “This building’s architectural and historical significance make it one of the purest ‘high technology’ statements in Maryland.”

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Eileen McGuckian, president of advocacy group Montgomery Preservation Inc., was among dozens of residents who argued for the site’s preservation and told planners they would “not regret saving COMSAT.”

However, despite recognizing the site met several criteria for designation outlined in the county code and a recommendation by the Historic Preservation Commission, the Clarksburg Sector Plan team and the planning department’s Historic Preservation Division recommended against the designation. In October, the county Planning Board agreed not to recommend that the County Council designate the COMSAT building as a historic site.

Sartori said the decision was “not an easy one by any means.” However, the decision allowed the site to “better advance” the sector plan’s core goals, he said. Those goals include fostering a better-connected community with new housing, businesses, amenities and improved transportation.

The 500,000-square-foot COMSAT building in Clarksburg will be demolished. Photo credit: Courtesy of River Falls Investments

In a statement to Bethesda Today, Planning Board Chair Artie Harris said Friday the board acknowledges and respects the COMSAT building’s historic significance. However, technical and financial analyses “showed that, even with incentives, preserving and reusing the building was not financially feasible under current and foreseeable conditions,” Harris said.

“Balancing historic value with long-term sustainability and responsible planning is never easy,” Harris said.

The lack of a historic designation has helped pave the way for redevelopment to occur, beginning with the demolition of the building, with its aluminum cladding and metal-glass walls – a process that Elliott said will take several months.

“A significant portion of it will be razed in the near term,” he said. “Ultimately, we believe that everything on the property in the near- to medium- term will be removed.”

The start of demolition is a win for River Falls Investments. According to Elliott, over the years, companies looking to move to the region had shown interest in the COMSAT property, but in many cases, the site was overlooked due to the uncertainty of the historic designation of the building.

“Nobody wanted to invest billions of dollars in a property with that level of uncertainty,” he said.

What’s next?

With the sector plan approved by the council, the next steps are for the Planning Board and Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission to adopt the plan and to complete the zoning of the property with a map amendment.

Elliott said he does not anticipate the map amendment to be approved until late summer or early fall.

“In the meantime, we continue to start moving those plans forward so that we’ll have a concept plan ready to meet that head on. And then from concepts, hopefully we’ll start moving forward into more detailed site plans,” Elliott said.

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine