Foulger-Pratt is expected to break ground in 2017 on its East Village at North Bethesda Gateway, its entry into the evolving concept for White Flint as walkable mixed-use.

The Potomac-based developer, with partner ProMark Real Estate, first received concept approval from Montgomery County for the development in 2013. But it returned to county planning office in the fall for tweaks that included more residential and retail but smaller massing for the 557,918-square-foot project.

East Village will be located in the southeast quadrant of Nicholson Lane and Huff Court, to the north of the White Flint Mall and within a half mile of the White Flint Metro station. It will later connect to Rockville Pike via the Fitzgerald Auto Mall property.

Foulger-Pratt plans 614 multifamily units (built in two phases) and 38,000 square feet of retail on what is today mostly low-density 1970s office buildings and surface lots.

Dick Knapp, senior vice president of Foulger-Pratt, said the company is going for an “intimate, village feel” with moderately scaled buildings designed by BKV Group.

Phase 1 will include 382 units in a six-story building arranged around a central courtyard, as well as 24,000 square feet of retail along Nicholson Lane. Phase 2 will follow with 232 units, situated in an L-shape building above 14,000 SF of retail, and additional public areas and retail.

The project also includes three levels of underground parking for 701 cars and 100 bicycles.

East Village is part of the larger North Bethesda Gateway, an area planned for roughly 1 million square feet of non-residential (office, hotel, and retail) and 666,110 square feet of residential development. And North Bethesda Gateway is part of the even larger White Flint Sector Plan, which was approved by Montgomery County in 2011 for 9,800 new residential units and 5.69 million square feet of nonresidential development in an area bounded by Montrose Parkway, Old Georgetown Road, White Flint Mall and the CSX train tracks.

Federal Realty Investment Trust is already well underway in turning the 24.5-acre Mid-Pike Plaza into Pike & Rose, but other development plans in the area have been slow to start, partly due to staging requirements and the long-running legal dispute between Lerner Enterprises and the Tower Cos. (the owners of the shuttered mall) and Lord & Taylor.

White Flint-area development is planned to occur over several decades in three phases — with 3,000 dwelling units and about 2 million square feet of nonresidential per phase.