Mixed Use Village Centers Coming Soon

With Kimco in the process of redeveloping Wilde Lake Village Center as a mixed use by ading Apartments into the mix, it showed that perhaps other ailing Village Centers without a full service grocer anchor tenant can go the way of mixed use and build a larger critical mass while attracting people to the centers in other ways.

Enter the County who has purchased Long Reach Village Center when it lost its anchor tenant and is attempting to redevelop the Center as a mix of Retail, Apartments, with a strong Arts Component. Columbia already has an Arts Center in Long Reach but the County is trying to move its Arts programs currently at the old Rockland Elementary School to Long Reach as well. In addition, one of the redevelopment proposals shows a portion of the old Safeway space being used as Artist space while some of the proposed Apartments will be subsidized for Artists. 

At first it seemed that this mixed use redevelopment was only an option for struggling Village Centers with no Grocery Store, indeed the void left by a vacant Grocery Store will make the Center more of a blank slate for redevelopment. But then Kimco did something that surprised me. It probably surprised many others as well. It submitted a site plan of a redeveloped Hickory Ridge Village Center as mixed use. Hickory Ridge is one of Columbia's most successful Village Centers anchored by a high Volume Giant. So what's the deal?

I can't speak for Kimco but I believe that coming up with plans like this is to ensure other Village Centers remain modern and viable by keeping large critical masses living near and in the Village Centers. They probably chose Hickory Ridge because it mostly has lower density Single Family Homes surrounding it. The Giant has no plans to leave the center and Kimco's plans shows Giant in the same anchor spot.

The current layout of the Village Center shows a pedestrian promenade known as "The Avenue" with shops on either side of it. There are also parking lots both in front of and in back in of the Avenue. The strip of shops that doesn't have the Giant is proposed to be demolished to give the Center an open feel. The Apartments would go on a parcel of the front parking lot closest to the Cedar Lane and Freetown Road intersection with the majority of the Retail from the demolished strip would be located on the ground floor of the Apartments. There are three Retail pad sites proposed which would most likely contain the larger footprint Restaurants (Luna Bella, Peking Chef, Hickory Ridge Grille.) The Retail strip connected to the Giant would remain unchanged as will the Sunoco Gas Station.

Upon coming across these redevelopment plans, I began looking at the other six Village Centers in Columbia and I began looking at parcels surrounding the Centers and their space for mixed use while simultaneously opening them up to give them better road visibility. I was able to easily come up with mixed use redevelopment plans for all of the Village Center with the exception of Harpers Choice which already has loft Apartments above it. The following posts will address each Village Center in detail and my plan to redevelop it to keep it viable for decades to come.