The developer of
The Metro Centre at Owings Mills has moved one step closer to bringing restaurants to the multimillion-dollar residential and retail project.
David S. Brown Enterprises' application to the Baltimore County liquor board for three restaurants to serve alcohol at the site was approved Monday.
The company is in various stages of negotiations with prospective restaurant tenants, says the developer's attorney David Mister.
For restaurants coming into a big project like this, they need to be able to say, "‘Yes, you will have a liquor license,'” says Mister, of Mister, Winter & Bartlett LLC.
The liquor board’s Chief Administrator, Michael Mohler, says Metro Centre would control the licenses until close to completion of the project, then likely transfer them to the restaurant operators.
A decision on license requests is ordinarily granted at the conclusion of the hearing. Asked before the hearing if he expected the licenses to be granted, Mohler said “there was no reason not to grant” the licenses.
Located near the Owings Mills subway stop, so far a six-story building housing a branch of the Baltimore County Public Library and Community College of Baltimore County and an adjacent parking garage have opened. Two five-story buildings with retail on the street level and 232 apartments above and a four-story office building are expected to open this fall.
More construction is to come. When completed, Metro Centre will encompass more than 1.2 million square feet of office space; 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space; 1,700 residential units; and, a 250-room hotel. Maryland and Baltimore County have spent more than $57 million on the infrastructure; the rest is privately funded.
Baltimore County has a limited number of liquor licenses, the number depending on the population in each of its 15 election districts. Mister says on-site restaurant licenses were available in the 4
th election district, Metro Centre’s district, and the decision was made to apply for three simultaneously.
Sources: Michael Mohler, Baltimore County Liquor Board; David Mister, for David S. Brown Enterprises
Writer: Barbara Pash