VIVA White Oak Is Finally Moving Forward: Inside the $2.7 Billion “New Town” Coming to Montgomery County

After years of planning, delays and uncertainty, one of the largest development projects in the entire DMV is entering a much more consequential stage.

On August 28, 2026, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich signed legislation authorizing up to $420 million in Tax Increment Financing bonds for VIVA White Oak, a massive 280-acre mixed-use development planned in eastern Montgomery County near Silver Spring. The financing is intended to pay for roads, water and sewer infrastructure, utilities, soil remediation and site-access improvements needed to unlock the project. Developer MCB Real Estate says site work can now move forward, with an official groundbreaking planned later this year. (EBS Public Now)

And this isn't just another apartment complex. The current vision calls for a $2.7 billion community with up to roughly 12 million square feet of development, thousands of homes, a Costco-anchored retail district, a town center, medical and life-sciences space and an innovation campus. (EBS Public Now)

Above: VIVA White Oak development and master-plan imagery. Renderings illustrate the planned community and may evolve as individual phases move through design and construction.

First, Just How Big Is VIVA White Oak?

The numbers are enormous by suburban Maryland standards.

VIVA White Oak covers approximately 280 acres next to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's White Oak campus and Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center.

MCB's latest announcement describes a completed community spanning approximately 12.1 million square feet, including residential, retail, commercial, medical-office and public spaces. The plan allows for as many as 4,700 residential units and more than 3 million square feet of laboratory, medical-office, traditional office and retail uses. (EBS Public Now)

That's closer to building a new district than simply constructing a subdivision.

Phase One: Costco + 2,000-Plus Homes + A Town Center

This is where the project becomes particularly interesting for local residents and real estate watchers.

According to MCB, the first phase is planned to feature a Costco, more than 1,000 new townhomes, three major apartment buildings totaling more than 1,000 units, medical offices and a new town center anchored by another grocery store. (EBS Public Now)

That means more than 2,000 residences could eventually be concentrated in the opening phase alone.

Above: Renderings and conceptual imagery associated with VIVA White Oak's retail and town-center vision.

The Costco isn't speculation, either. MCB officially announced the retailer as VIVA's first anchor in March 2026. The planned warehouse is approximately 162,000 square feet. (MCB Real Estate)

That single announcement immediately gives the future community something many enormous master plans lack during their early stages: a recognizable retail anchor committed to the project.

Imagine an Entire Community Growing Around This

VIVA's concept goes well beyond placing houses behind a Costco parking lot.

The goal is to create interconnected residential neighborhoods, retail destinations, employment centers and public spaces across the property.

Residents could eventually have housing, grocery shopping, restaurants, retail and employment opportunities within the same broader district.

These images show VIVA White Oak planning imagery and examples of the development vision. Final buildings, streetscapes and amenities may differ.

The project's location is also important. VIVA has direct access to U.S. 29 and Cherry Hill Road and sits beside one of the region's most significant federal employment and research campuses.

Ryan Homes and NVHomes Are Joining the Project

There's another major development that could be particularly significant for prospective homebuyers.

Earlier this month, MCB announced that Ryan Homes and NVHomes will serve as homebuilders for VIVA's residential offerings. (MCB Real Estate)

That moves the housing component beyond simply showing residential blocks on a master plan.

MCB hasn't yet announced detailed floor plans, individual home pricing or the exact release schedule for those for-sale homes. Buyers should therefore be cautious about any social-media posts claiming specific starting prices right now.

But the involvement of two established regional builders makes the planned homeownership component much more tangible.

This Could Become a Major Life-Sciences District

VIVA isn't being designed solely as a residential and retail destination.

A 30-acre Innovation Campus is planned as part of the development, with space targeting life-sciences, biotech, laboratory, office and research users. (MCB Real Estate)

That strategy makes sense because of what's literally next door.

The massive FDA White Oak campus provides a major federal anchor, while Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center adds another healthcare institution nearby. MCB is positioning VIVA to capitalize on that concentration of scientific, medical and research activity. (EBS Public Now)

VIVA's location beside the FDA is a central part of the project's strategy to attract life-sciences, research and healthcare employers.

If that portion succeeds, VIVA could become more than a place where people commute elsewhere for work. It could develop its own employment base.

Why Did Montgomery County Authorize $420 Million?

The headline number understandably raises questions.

Montgomery County has authorized up to $420 million in Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, bonds. This is the county's first TIF district. (EBS Public Now)

The financing is designed to pay for public infrastructure required before the private development can fully proceed—including connector roads, utility extensions, water and sewer infrastructure, soil remediation and access improvements.

Under the TIF structure described by MCB, the bonds are repaid using new property-tax revenues generated as development occurs and property values within the district increase. (EBS Public Now)

In other words, the $420 million isn't simply the cost of constructing Costco or privately owned homes. It's financing intended to create much of the underlying infrastructure supporting the broader district.

What VIVA Could Eventually Look Like

The master plan illustrates the project's extraordinary scale better than almost any statistic.

Instead of a single shopping center surrounded by subdivisions, VIVA is envisioned as multiple connected districts.

Residential areas occupy significant portions of the plan, while larger commercial and research buildings form employment centers. Retail and gathering spaces are concentrated around the town-center portions of the development.

Roads, landscaped corridors and open spaces connect those areas.

That mixed-use arrangement is becoming increasingly common across the DMV, but the 280-acre scale puts VIVA in a different category from most suburban redevelopment projects.

And There Will Be Green Space

The vision isn't supposed to consist entirely of buildings and parking lots.

Planning materials for VIVA have incorporated parks, trails, landscaped corridors and public gathering spaces throughout the development.

These spaces will be particularly important if VIVA is going to function as a genuine community rather than simply a collection of residential and commercial projects sharing the same address.

Transportation May Be the Biggest Question

There is, however, one issue almost guaranteed to dominate local conversations:

traffic.

Thousands of additional homes, a Costco, grocery store, retail, medical facilities and potentially thousands of workers will generate significant transportation demand.

VIVA has strong highway connectivity through the broader U.S. 29/I-495/I-95 network, and MCB also highlights planned Bus Rapid Transit as part of the area's future regional connectivity. (MCB Real Estate)

But unlike developments directly surrounding Bethesda, Silver Spring or North Bethesda Metro stations, VIVA isn't being built around an existing Metrorail station.

That makes successful road improvements and transit connections especially important as the community grows.

The Development Could Create Thousands of Jobs

The project's economic impact could also be significant.

MCB projects approximately 19,000 construction jobs over the development process and roughly 9,000 permanent positions once VIVA is built out. (EBS Public Now)

Those permanent jobs could eventually span retail, healthcare, research, laboratory, office and other commercial uses.

That employment component is a major reason the FDA adjacency matters so much. If the Innovation Campus attracts research and biotech employers, VIVA could potentially strengthen eastern Montgomery County as an employment center rather than functioning solely as another bedroom community.

What Could VIVA Mean for Nearby Real Estate?

For homeowners and buyers in White Oak, eastern Silver Spring and surrounding Montgomery County communities, this is one to watch closely.

Large-scale development can fundamentally change how buyers perceive an area.

New restaurants and retail can improve convenience. New parks and public spaces can create amenities. Major employers can increase demand for nearby housing. New construction can also introduce housing products that simply didn't exist previously in the immediate area.

At the same time, thousands of new residences create additional housing supply and additional competition among sellers.

And the project's effect on traffic, schools and infrastructure will matter enormously.

The result won't happen overnight. This is a multi-phase project that will unfold over many years.

Don't Expect the Entire Community Tomorrow

The August 28 signing is significant because it addresses one of the fundamental infrastructure-financing obstacles preventing development from proceeding.

It doesn't mean 4,700 homes and a Costco suddenly appear next year.

MCB says site work will move forward immediately, with an official groundbreaking expected later in 2026. (EBS Public Now)

A local report citing county information says Phase One is expected to reach completion around 2033, while full development could extend to approximately 2044. (The MoCo Show)

Those dates help illustrate the enormous scale of what's being attempted.

VIVA White Oak is essentially a new piece of Montgomery County that could be built incrementally over nearly two decades.

From Long-Delayed Vision to Construction

Perhaps the biggest reason the August announcement matters is VIVA's history.

Plans for enormous mixed-use development around White Oak have existed for many years. As far back as 2017, developers were discussing millions of square feet of housing, commercial development and research facilities on the site.

For local residents who have heard variations of this proposal for years, skepticism is understandable.

What's different now is the accumulation of concrete steps: MCB took leadership of the development, Costco committed as the first anchor, Montgomery County approved the TIF financing, Ryan Homes and NVHomes were announced as residential builders, and the County Executive has now signed the financing legislation into law. (EBS Public Now)

That's a substantially different position from simply having a master plan and renderings.

The Bottom Line

VIVA White Oak could become one of the most consequential developments in suburban Maryland.

The current vision encompasses 280 acres, approximately $2.7 billion in investment, up to roughly 12 million square feet of development, as many as 4,700 homes, a Costco-anchored retail district, a town center and a 30-acre Innovation Campus next to the FDA. (EBS Public Now)

And after years of waiting, the project has now crossed a major financing milestone.

The question is no longer simply whether someone has drawn an ambitious new community on a rendering.

The question is what happens to White Oak when they actually start building it?

DMV: Would you live in a community where Costco, restaurants, shopping, housing and potentially your workplace were all part of the same massive neighborhood—or are you already thinking about the traffic on Route 29? 👀

References

The best source for readers who want to explore the project and see additional official renderings is the official VIVA White Oak project website. MCB's August 28 financing announcement provides the latest construction and financing details, while its homebuilder announcement confirms Ryan Homes and NVHomes' involvement.