Commercial Real Estate : Development News

Grocery stores and casual restaurants in Greater Baltimore gobbled up empty storefronts during the third quarter, helping landlords fill space that might have otherwise gone empty in a tough environment.

That’s according to a retail report from MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate.

ShopRite and SuperValu Corp.’s Shoppers Food & Pharmacy have taken up spots in former Superfresh locations in the walk of the grocer’s store closures and bankruptcy. ShopRite took over Superfresh stores in Timonium, North Baltimore and Parkville while Shoppers opened in Ellicott City.

A handful of quick-service restaurants, including Gino's Burgers & Chicken, Miss Shirley's, and the Green Turtle, have expanded with new locations.

Retail vacancy remained largely flat at 6.19 percent.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate

The Maryland Wineries Association is toasting a move into a larger space that will give it the room it needs to store supplies to host more events.

The group moved into a 1,200-square-foot warehouse space at 1940 Greenspring Dr. in Timonium. That’s double the size of its former Timonium office, which had been getting cramped for  the three-person staff, Executive Director Kevin Atticks says. 

The new office is located in a warehouse building with a loading dock that makes it easier to bring supplies into the office.
“We’re excited to have more space to be productive,” Atticks says.

The association is hosting more marketing events and needs the room to hold inventory. It just wrapped an event series called Eat, Drink, Go Local that pairs chefs with local wineries.

“The motivation was to connect local wine to the local food movement to bring more chefs and wineries together so they all got to know each other,” Atticks says.

The association is celebrating a major win in Annapolis. It lobbied hard for the recent change in wine shipping laws that allows Maryland consumers to order wine online.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Kevin Atticks, Maryland Wineries Association

Howard County’s is debuting its largest branch next month — a $29 million new building in Ellicott City expected to bring in one million visitors per year.

Opening mid-December, the new Miller branch will replace an aging building with three times the space and, hopefully, a LEED Gold certification.

The 63,000-square-foot library will include a stone bridge, a garden to hold science and technology education and a terrace that will serve as an outdoor classroom or a spot where guests can listen to acoustic guitar concerts.

Yes, you just read library and acoustic guitar in the same sentence.

The site will house the Howard County Historical Society and a history education center, including genealogy resources, says Valerie Gross, CEO of the Howard County Library System.

A 3,000-square-foot meeting room will allow it to hold best-selling authors like Jodi Picoult, who will make an appearance March 16. Gross says she expects up to 600 visitors for the event, some coming as far away as New York.

A garden located in a quarter-acre park will be the setting for health, science and environmental education. It will include a pizza garden – a garden growing tomatoes, onions, green peppers and other vegetables to encourage kids to order vegetables on their pizza.

Howard County, and a $2 million grant from the Maryland State Department of Education, provided funding for the building.

Widening Route 1, enhancing libraries and other services, and including more affordable housing could all be part of a new Howard County master plan that will be adopted next year.

The county devises a new master plan every 10 years to ensure that zoning and other regulations can accommodate new jobs and housing.

A task force is currently weighing several changes to the master plan and will put together a draft by the end of the year, says Marsha McLaughlin, the county’s director of planning and zoning. After getting input from the public, the proposal will go before the planning board, followed by the Howard County Council.

Widening Route 1 to include bike lanes, sidewalks and trees will likely be part of the plan, though the county has to determine how to pay for this, McLaughlin says. Offering more affordable housing is also on the map for the county, which has many of the state’s wealthiest zip codes.

County officials will also examine whether the Route 1 corridor needs more schools, senior centers, libraries and other services.

The county will need to look at how it can sustain its quality of life while accommodating future population growth, McLaughlin says.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Marsha McLaughlin, Howard County Planning and Zoning

A growing neighborhood medical center is opening its third Anne Arundel County location.

Patient First will open a walk-in clinic in Odenton next year at 405 Gateway Blvd., its 14th center in Maryland.

The Glen Allen, Va., company also opened a medical facility in Catonsville this month. The 6,350-square-foot office has 12 examination rooms, emergency care, X-ray machines and an on-site lab.

“We talked to a lot of people in the area and a lot of them have gone to our Owing Mills or Glen Burnie location,” says Patient First spokesman David Clark.

Patient First operates 37 medical centers in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Maryland facilities include locations in Aberdeen, Bel Air, Perry Hall, White Marsh, Baltimore, Lutherville, Owings Mills, Columbia, Catonsville, Glen Burnie and Pasadena.

Writer:Julekha Dash
Source: David Clark, Patient First

Baltimore’s Harbor East neighborhood just got a little sweeter.

Candy shop the Best of Luck, opened this month at 612 S. Exeter St. in the former Amaryllis jewelry store space. The shop sells nostalgic candies – think pop rocks and Charleston Chews — gift baskets, chocolate-covered pretzels, gummy bears and saltwater taffy. It also features sugar-free concoctions.

After a career in the sports and entertainment industries, store owner Alexis Thompson wanted to start her own business.

“I always had a sweet tooth and a love for different kinds of candies,” Thompson says.

It’s a bit of a career change for the Baltimore-born Thompson, who represented Serena Williams, Boston Celtics’ Kevin Garnett, and pro golfer Michelle Wie as a junior agent at the William Morris Agency.

“I want to be my own boss,” she says.

She spent about $20,000 to open the store next to Whole Foods and hopes that the location next to Fells Point, Canton and downtown will help it get good foot traffic.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Alexis Thompson, Best of Luck

Winter may be just around the corner, but the owner of Little Italy’s Amicci’s restaurant is already thinking of spring.

The restaurant will add 20 outdoor seats to the 300-seat venue, Roland Keh says.

Amicci’s is one of several Baltimore City restaurants that have requested permission from the liquor board to hold outdoor service. Others include Greektown’s Acropolis restaurant, the Grand Cru wine bar and Phillips Seafood Restaurant, which will soon open a location at the Power Plant.

Keh says he got the idea after applying for a one-day outdoor seating license during the Baltimore Grand Prix. He didn’t get quite the boost in business he was expecting since the restaurant is several blocks away from where the action was taking place.

But having outdoor seats gave the restaurant a festival atmosphere that he wants to continue during the warmer months.
“It was reminiscent of a European café atmosphere,” Keh says. “We want to capture that essence again on a regular basis.”

Writer: Julekha Dash
Sources: Roland Keh, Amicci's; Baltimore City liquor board

A million-dollar, Caribbean-themed seafood restaurant, lounge, and tiki bar has opened in Harford County.

Owner Anthony Ashe hopes Fallston’s Mallet Restaurant and Crabhouse will stand out from the county’s chain restaurants.

He also hopes the location, at the busy intersection of Route 1 and Maryland Route 152, would attract plenty of drive-by traffic. Though the economy has not been kind to some restaurants, Ashe is hoping the county’s new residents from the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) will bring in business.

The 13,000-square-foot restaurant, which opened last month, features a martini lounge serving sushi, a raw oyster bar, steamed crabs, and a patio decked out with palm trees. It seats 650.

“We have multiple environments in one destination,” Ashe says.

Prior to opening the restaurant, Ashe was an executive for Canadian airline technology firm GuestLogix Inc. He also had a career as an investment banker.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Anthony Ashe, Mallet Restaurant and Crabhouse

Annapolis residents who have an appetite for red velvet pancakes, fried-green tomatoes, and sweet potato fries will soon get their fill of the comfort food.

Miss Shirley’s will open its third location at Park Place, a residential, office, and dining complex in the downtown state capital whose tenants include a Westin hotel and Fado Irish Pub.

Owner Eddie Dopkin says he spent $2 million to open the 155-seat restaurant. Much of that money was spent gutting four spaces that once held shops, including a former Starbucks and a jewelry store.

But Dopkin says he thinks the dough will pay off: Many of his Roland Park restaurant customers make the trek from their homes in Anne Arundel County. The other Miss Shirley’s is located in downtown Baltimore.

The menu at Park Place will be the same as the others, but with a more contemporary design. It will also be the first Miss Shirley’s to house a standalone bar, where diners can order mimosas to go with their brunch or a glass of wine at lunch.

Meanwhile, Dopkin says he expects to begin construction on the expansion of the Roland Park Miss Shirley’s Feb. 1. Adding 50 seats, more restrooms, and a larger waiting area will take about two months. The restaurant is taking over the School of Rock Baltimore space.

Dopkin has also applied for a liquor license to serve beer and wine for S’ghetti Eddie’s, his Roland Park pizza and wings joint.


Writer:Julekha Dash
Source: Eddie Dopkin

City design officials could give the green light for a proposed Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum to open at Harborplace within the next month.

Ripley’s staff put forth a new proposal that reduces the size of their signage and puts the sea creature Chessie on the mall’s second-floor porch. The original plan was to put the 3-D Chessie on the roof, which met with resistance from the city’s Urban Design and Review Panel (UDARP) because it was not in keeping with the look of the downtown shopping center.

“They came in with a scheme that is more doable,” says Robert Quilter of Ripley’s. “It’s definitely on the right track. It’s much more respectful of Harborplace architecture. They’re definitely going to have a presence there," says Quilter, an architect in the city's planning department.

Ripley’s told BmoreMedia that it hopes to open the museum by summer to take advantage of the tourist season.

Known for displaying oddities like the world’s largest sushi roll, the world’s smallest car, and an engraved human skull, Ripley’s operates 31 museums in 18 North American cities. The locations include Atlantic City, San Francisco, San Antonio, and Ocean City, Maryland.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Bob Quilter, Baltimore City

A Baltimore design panel has given final approval to the Canton Crossing shopping center, one of the city’s largest retail sites currently under development.

The Urban Design and Review Panel gave the go ahead to Phase 1 of the project, which will encompass 325,000 square feet of retail. The site will contain two anchor tenants and several smaller shops, says Neil Tucker, a principal with developer Chesapeake Real Estate Group. Next the plan goes before the city’s planning commission, followed by the Baltimore City Council.

Chesapeake Real Estate Group and Birchwood Capital Partners in June acquired a 31-acre parcel from Exxon Mobil Corp. with the goal of adding two new retail centers on the site.

Tucker says he expects to break ground in the summer or the fall. He couldn’t divulge any tenants as the Baltimore real estate firm has not yet signed any leases, though it has several letters of intent.

The site is adjacent to Edwin F. Hale Sr.'s First Mariner Tower and the Merritt Athletic Club.

Real estate brokers had been trying to woo Target and Harris Teeter to Canton Crossing to the site since at least 2008, but development stalled as the economy sputtered.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Sources: Neil Tucker, Chesapeake Real Estate Group; Robert Quilter, Baltimore City

WhiteWave Foods Co., the maker of Horizon milk and other dairy foods, will open a sales office in Columbia by the end of the year.

The Broomfield, Co., company’s 4,000-square-foot office will be located at the Columbia Corporate Park at 8850 Stanford Blvd. The company signed a lease with Merritt Properties Inc.

The office will support customers on the East Coast, says Sara Loveday, a spokeswoman for the company. The office will employ eight initially, of whom five are new employees. The plan is to hire another four.

WhiteWave’s brands also include Silk Soymilk, flavored creamer International Delight and Half & Half under the Land O’Lakes brand name, licensed from the Arden Hills, Minn., company.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Sara Loveday, WhiteWave

Centric Business Systems, a document management company in Owings Mills, plans to snatch up two firms in the next three or four months, CEO Rick Bastinelli says.

“We are aggressively pursuing and evaluating acquisitions,” Bastinelli says.

The company moved into a new 39,000-square-foot LEED Gold building this month. Double the size of its former headquarters, the office houses 120 workers. Another 20 work in Salisbury, Hagerstown and Rockville.

And Bastinelli says he plans to hire another 30 Centric plans it hopes to add another in sales, marketing and administration. 

Its customers’ migration from black-and-white printers, scanners and copiers to color is fueling Centric's product sales, the CEO says.

Acquisitions are also key to its growth strategy. Last year, the company bought the copier division of Office Suppliers Inc. in Hagerstown.

Bastinelli couldn’t give any details on the companies Centric plans to acquire due to confidentiality agreements except that the two firms are in Maryland.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Rick Bastinelli, Centric

Baltimore City’s liquor board has granted Baltimore’s long-awaited five star Four Seasons Hotel a liquor license for its two restaurants, room service, and a rooftop pool bar.

The 256-room hotel is expected to open next month at 701 Aliceanna St. in Baltimore’s swanky Harbor East neighborhood. The restaurants will include outdoor seating and live entertainment, according to the license application.

Wit and Wisdom, a Tavern by Michael Mina, will be its signature eatery, serving comfort food and featuring a live-fire grill and rotisseries. The 156-seat eatery will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The 136-seat Japanese restaurant Pabu will open February 2012. Pabu will feature sushi, small plates, 100 types of sake, bamboo ceilings, and solid wood tabletops.

The pool bar will seat 45 on a terrace overlooking the Inner Harbor. The Four Seasons will also feature a coffee shop called Lamill Coffee.

The hotel applied for what is known as a “Class B” hotel license for properties with at least 100 rooms and a $500,000 investment.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Four Seasons

A running store, sub shop, and dentist are latest tenants to sign up for McHenry Row, an office, residential, and retail complex debuting this year in Locust Point.

Charm City Run and Horizon Dental will open in January, says developer Mark Sapperstein. Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches is expected to open by the end of the year.

It will be the local running store’s fifth location. The others are located in Bel Air, Timonium, Annapolis, and Clarksville. McHenry Row’s anchor tenant, Harris Teeter, will open Dec. 7.

The retail portion of the development is now 90 percent leased, Sapperstein says. Two spots totaling 7,200 square feet remain.

The Green Turtle Sports Bar & Grille, Yogi Castle, Red Parrot Asian Bistro, pet store Dogma, and Massage Envy are among the other shops opening this year.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Mark Sapperstein