If there’s anything Montgomery County officials learned in 15 years of trying to build atop a series of parking lots off of Georgia Avenue in the center of Wheaton it’s that it was possible to think too big.

The last iteration called for developer B.F. Saul to turn the lots and a Metro bus depot into a town center featuring two private office buildings, a hotel and 250 high-rise apartments. The project required a subsidy of $40 million, but that might have been palatable had residents and small business owners not harbored fears — stoked by the arrival of a Costco nearby — that the development would invite chain restaurants and stores that could threaten local outfits.

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When it couldn’t come to terms on a deal with the county, B.F. Saul walked away.

Now Leggett and the Montgomery County Council finally have their deal to build a town square in the center of Wheaton. It’s a smaller plan and one that is much more expensive but it provides the county government much more control.

In the arrangement, announced by Leggett Oct. 24 after approval by the council, the county will pay $119 million — three times the investment required of the previous plan — to developers StonebridgeCarras of Bethesda and the Bozzuto Group of Greenbelt. The companies will build a town plaza with a performance stage and water feature, a 400-space underground parking garage and a 12-story office building. Next door the developers will build a 200-unit apartment building, parking and retail.

In the deal — unlike the one it considered with B.F. Saul — the county will own almost everything that gets built. It will own the town plaza. It will own the parking garage. It will own the office building, where it plans to relocate the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the county Department of Permitting Services, the county Department of Environmental Protection, the Mid-County Regional Services Center and Wheaton Urban District.

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The county will even own all the retail space, in the office building and the apartment building. Once the park and planning commission leaves its headquarters at 8787 Georgia Ave. in Silver Spring, the county has agreed as part of the redevelopment plan to sell the current headquarters building (built in 1953) to StonebridgeCarras and Bozzuto for $17 million, where they will build a second apartment building.

Not every county government would be comfortable owning and operating so much real estate but Ana L. van Balen, mid-county regional director, said she was confident the county had negotiated a deal that met the community’s requests.

“I think there has been a general sense particularly from community members that they wanted an open space in the heart of Wheaton. Having seen the development in Silver Spring with the civic plaza down there, there was an interest to see something similar,” she said.

An important difference, she said, was that Wheaton residents wanted to be sure their local retailers would be protected. By owning all of the retail space, she said the “idea would be to have retail on both sides of the street and be mindful not to bring in anything that would be in competition to those existing businesses.”

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Al Roshdieh, deputy director at the county department of transportation, also defended the cost of the deal, particularly because at least 20 percent of the units in the apartment building would be made affordable to households making 50 percent or less of the area median income (AMI).

He said construction could start in 2016 and the county offices could relocate in 2018. “We wanted to make sure we get the right project in this area and activate downtown Wheaton,” he said.

StonebridgeCarras principal Doug Firstenberg said it didn’t make sense for the county to lease office space when it could own it. The risks to his company and Bozzuto are that construction proves more expensive than they budgeted or the market rate apartments don’t attract high enough rents.

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Despite the costs, he said his success in getting the project approved came down to a simple reason, and it wasn’t naming the right price.

“Here’s the big difference between us and all the predecessors that tried to make the town center work,” he said. “We came up with a plan that meshed with what the community wanted.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Al Roshdieh’s last name.