Oakland Mills Village Center

The County has come up with a Master Plan for Oakland Mills Village Center but I'm coming out with my own. It mimics the County's in many ways but mine goes way more in depth. The County touches on community issues that weren't yet discussed in previous Columbia/Howard County politics. This post is dedicated to strictly the Village Center and I will do another one that touches on those other things although I might brush upon them here.My plan would include the extension of Thunderhill Road through the Village Center to meet Stevens Forest Road. In order to make that happen the Interfaith Center would have to be redeveloped, something their master plan does not talk about. It talks about a serenity garden on Santiago Road and my plan includes it.
Speaking of Stevens Forest Road it will receive streetscape enhancements including a landscaped median and additional lighting.
The Stevens Forest Professional Center is outdated and blighted. It will be redeveloped to mimic the planned development at the former Exxon Station.
The Columbia Ice Rink's functional life span has also come to an end. Redevelopment rather than mere facade improvements would be crucial to its future success. An outdoor Ice Rink proposed in the Master Plan has a space in my plan as well.Now on to the retail component. First and foremost the Food Lion would be converted into a "Bloom." Bloom is Food Lion's upscale component that will fit into my Master Plan for Oakland Mills as a whole and the evolution of Grocery Stores in Columbia and beyond.To the right of the new Bloom which is vacant would be a Starbucks Coffee.
Now the long standing independent merchants deserve a big round of applause for whethering the storm without an anchor not once but twice. The building that most recently occupied "Fire Rock" and will eventually house "Second Chance Saloon" will be torn down and the plaza with the existing merchants would be expanded. New merchants will include a Nail Salon, Coldstone Creamery, FedEx Kinkos, and a new location for the Police Satellite Office.
The Second Chance Saloon will be located where the present Bankok Garden is. They will probably close soon because they get virtually no business. That building will be torn down and the Second Chance Saloon will have first chance at occupying its new building.
The long vacant bank building will also be torn down and will be the location for the new Sams Mart. Sam's Mart, in addition to being a convenience store will house a BP Gas Station with a Carwash, a Boardwalk Fries and a Krispy Kreme Donuts.The current Sam's Mart Building will be torn down and an Outback Steakhouse will go in its place.To the left of Outback there is land available from a put put course that closed decades ago on this land will be home to the area's first "Bonefish" a Seafood Restaurant that's owned by the same company as Outback and the two are usually located next to each other as will be the case in Oakland Mills.
Now the new office building on the site of the former Exxon Station will have ground floor retail. Four spaces to be exact, they will include a full serviced upscale Salon and Day Spa that will occupy two spaces. The other two will be occupied by a Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy and an African Hair Braiding Salon.
There are some who say the struggles of Oakland Mills Village Center began when the Camelback Lane entrance/exit to Route 29 was closed during the Broken Land Parkway Interchange. As a way to link Oakland Mills Village Center to Route 29 and Columbia Town Center I'm proposing to reopen that interchange and have a bridge connect it to South Entrance Road on the other side of Route 29. Route 29 will have signage pointing traffic to Oakland Mills Village Center, something it currently lacks. The new interchange will have ramps to all directions on Route 29 and South Entrance Road and River Meadows Drive which connects Camelback Lane to the Village Center.

Well that's my ambitious plan for Oakland Mills Village Center. Stay tuned for my Oakland Mills redevelopment plan which will warrant some of these new upscale businesses.

Long Reach Village Center

Ladies and Gentlemen stop the press because I got the idea of the millennium for Long Reach. Between Long Reach and Owen Brown Village Centers lies a mecca of suburban "big box" retail that has changed the way Columbians have shopped forever. This no doubt cost East Columbia Village Centers business and tenants especially Sit Down Restaurants. Long Reach has lost a very large number of mid market to upscale tenants over the past 15 years to be replaced by low rent tenants that cater to a poorer audience. This is also due to the decline of apartment and town home developments around the Village Center. Crime has also been a deterrent to would be shoppers for the past 15 years as well. The opening of a Police Satellite Office in the Center has brought back shoppers but not upscale tenants.
Now my idea, rather than building a Wegmans at Snowden River Parkway and McGaw Road we build it at Long Reach. Upscale Grocery Stores have been the order of the day in the past few years and it doesn't get much higher end than Wegmans. Now why Long Reach? Well, it's very close to all the big box retail and it's probably the closest Village Centers to a slew of high traffic roads; (Route 175, Dobbin Road, Snowden River Parkway, Route 108, and Route 100. Tamar Drive also carries a respectable number of cars itself.
Now how can a Village Center attract a high end grocer? Well a new page in history was written when Kings Contrivance attracted a Harris Teeter replacing an aging Safeway which coincidently is the current Supermarket at Long Reach. Safeway has stuck it out through good times and bad times at Long Reach but has increased competition from the new Giant at Palace 9, the new Food Lion, on Route 108, and even a new Safeway at Long Gate which boasts a more modern look and a better selection. Wegmans can be Long Reach's chance to get back the business it's lost over the years.Over the years Long Reach has lost a Subway, a Taco Bell, a Hair Cuttery, a First Union Bank, a Blockbuster Video, Jack's Ice Cream, a CVS Pharmacy, a Renew Instant Shoe Repair, Sneakers Bar & Grill, Adam's Ribs, India Palace, African Braiding House, Long Reach Hair & Nail Salon, a Bike Shop, Long Reach Pharmacy, Barber King, and the Long Reach Branch of the Howard County Library.Current Tenants include Dollar Buys, Long Reach Beauty Supply, Community Cutz, United Optical, Gourmet Garden, Dominos Pizza, Long Reach Cleaners, Angel Nails, Deli Town, State Employees Credit Union, Reve Day Spa, Long Reach Laundromat, Chick'N Friends, Liberty Tax Service, Parcel Plus, Safeway, Richburn Liquors, Exxon, and the Howard County Police Satellite Office.Now my remodeling plan for Long Reach Village Center is just a small part of my redevelopment plan for the Village as a whole. The addition of upscale merchants would be supported by a broad new spectrum of residents. I will dedicate an entire post to the redevelopment of Long Reach.Now the current Safeway is a once respectable 53,000 square feet, well under half the size of a Wegmans. No doubt, the current anchor space in Long Reach would have to be expanded drastically to accommodate a Wegmans whose stores run about 130,000 square feet. Now I don't know if Long Reach has the space to expand to a full 130,000 square feet but I'm aiming for at least 110,000 square feet, still more than twice the size of the current Safeway.
The new Wegman's expansion would be to the left of the current Safeway eating up Richburn Liquors and the Exxon. It would brush up against Tamar Drive and Foreland Garth, in fact Foreland Garth may be relocated a little further towards Old Dobbin Lane to accommodate Wegmans. The new Exxon would be across Foreland Garth near the power lines and the new Richburn Liquors would be located inside the courtyard where the Laundromat currently is. The Liquor Store wouldn't take the whole space.
Other new tenants would include an A&W Foods (replacing Deli Town), Walgreens (replacing Dollar Buys and Long Reach Beauty Supply with a Drive Through Pharmacy), the sidewalk between Walgreens and SECU would turned into a paved road to make way for the drive through Pharmacy. Still more new tenants would include a Rita's ice (the other part of the now former Laundromat which will have parking lot frontage) Starbucks Coffee (replacing Liberty Tax Service, and Curves Women's Gym (replacing Chick'N Friends.)
Well that'll do it the new Long Reach Village Center, the crown and jewel of the redeveloped Long Reach.

Hickory Ridge Village Center

The County is getting serious about revitalizing Village Centers new and old and is drafting legislation to make it possible. Hickory Ridge Village Center opened in 1992 a good 20 years after the first houses went up. It's located at the corner of Cedar Lane and Freetown Road, two very old roads that pre date Columbia by at least 100 years. The Village Center, though centrally located is surrounded almost exclusively by low density single family homes but there are new developments nearby in the pipeline.
While other Village Centers were suffering Hickory Ridge thrived. Vacancies were kept minimal and it was always able to attract quality businesses both chains and independently owned shops. Its anchor tenant has always been a Giant. Past tenants include Young's Gourmet Coffee, Hickory Ridge Bottle Shop, Blockbuster Video, Parcel Plus, One Hour Photo, Greene's Travel, Boston Market, Taco Bell, The Card Shop, Sara's Cards & Gifts, The Dollar Bazzar, Experience Works, Hickory Ridge Chiropractic, Old Hickory Grille, and Greek Taverna II.
Today there are three vacancies in the Village Center the most recent tenants in those vacancies were Blockbuster Video, Dollar Bazzar, and Hickory Ridge Chiropractic. The Giant Supermarket is showing its age and is due for a renovation and an addition. The suits at Giant Recognize this and are planning a renovation and a 50,000 square foot addition that would nearly double the size. (It's currently 55,000 square feet) this is going with the trend of "mega marts" like Wegmans and Harris Teeter. Owen Brown is doing the same thing with its Giant. It just expanded to a good size plus I don't see room for additional expansion.
At Hickory Ridge current tenants in addition to Giant are Jiffy Drop (packaging and shipping), The Fractured Prune, Renew Shoe, SunTrust Bank, Master Barber, Rave Reviews:A Consignment Shop, Dominos Pizza, PNC Bank, Decantur Fine Wines, Luna Bella Ristorante, Peking Chef, Nirita Sushi, Pro Finish Nail Salon, Hair Cuttery, Wardrobe Valet Dry Cleaners, and Subway, and Hickory Ridge Sunoco. Also on site are Sunrise Assisted Living and the Goddard School.
Besides the new Giant renovations at Hickory Ridge should be relatively minimal. It's laid out with two strips and a front and back parking lot. Between the two strips and parking lots is "The Avenue" a pedestrian walkway. Shops in the middle of the Avenue don't get the visibility that outer shops do. My solution to this would be to turn the Avenue into vehicular cut through. Think the Avenue at White Marsh. This would bring back a Main Street element to the Village Center.

Now there are still three vacancies in the Village Center. Blockbuster left because Netflix is killing the chain (close to every Blockbuster in Columbia has closed or is going to.), The Dollar Bazzar left because it's too low class for an upscale Village Center like Hickory Ridge (renovation to the space was non existent), and Hickory Ridge Chiropractic left because a retail center is not the best place for a Doctor's Office. United Optical at Long Reach is the exception to this rule.
Backfilling these vacancies shouldn't too hard. I suggest a Cold Stone Creamery (the first in the area) for the Chiropractic Space. I think an old Columbia favorite that has recently closed its doors at the mall; Bun Penney Food & Wine should go where Blockbuster was. Bun Penney didn't close due to lack of business it closed because their rent was close to $40,000 a month. Where the Dollar Bazzar was it should be subdivided into two spaces. The first half would be a Jeweler maybe a Jared's and the other half would be a full service day spa. I think Jiffy Drop has got to go in favor of a better packaging and shipping place like FedEX Kinkos or the UPS Store.

One thing Hickory Ridge Village Center lacks is an Interfaith Center and a Community Center. I don't believe the Hawthorn Center on Sunny Spring was meant to serve long term as Hickory Ridge's Community Center. It's seems more like a neighborhood Center. There's a parcel land on Cedar Lane just south of the Village Center that would be perfect to house both a new Community Center and an Interfaith Center for Hickory Ridge.

What's to Become of Dorsey Hall Medical Center?

Before 1986 Clarksville Pike and Old Annapolis Road made up Route 108. Clarsville Pike dead ended at Old Annapolis Road a mere feet from the traffic light at Old Annapolis Road and Route 29. Part of the interchange project at Route 29 and 108 was to make Clarksville Pike and Old Annapolis Road come together on a new wider Route 108. This left "stubs" of the former roads and some land. A piece of the land was used to build an Office Building that housed mostly Doctors' Offices with a Pharmacy and a Bank. The Building was dubbed "Dorsey Hall Medical Center. Dorsey Hall Drive was always meant to cater to low rise office development past the Village Center. This was built mostly in the late '80s or early '90s with a little more in 2002. All the Dorsey Hall Drive Office Condos look brand new, well maintained, and well occupied. Dorsey Hall Medical Center, on the other didn't fare so well.It thrived until about 2004/2005. Vacancies began popping up and remained that way. Its location works both for and against it. It's nestled in between Routes 29 and 108, Columbia Road and Dorsey's Search Village Center but it's hard to find. As I mentioned earlier, the 29/108 interchange created roadway "stubs" and Dorsey Hall Medical Center is located at the intersection of two of them.
Dorsey Hall Medical Center is three stories high and as it stands right now the entire second floor is vacant, the Pharmacy and Bank are gone, and almost all of the first floor is vacant. The third seems relatively healthy. Could they just be waiting until their lease is up before moving to a better occupied building? I have a gut instinct that this may be the case. If nothing's done I predict the building will go completely vacant.
Across the parking lot is both a Liquor Store and a Restaurant and Lounge. Across the "Old Route 108" is a new town house development dubbed "Dorsey Crossing. A few old cottages were torn down and a rather large piece of land became available for development. 95 town homes are being built and sold as I type this post.
Now, what does this have to do with Dorsey Hall Medical Center? Well it has me helped craft a vision for the land it sits on. And what's the vision you ask? Well it involves tearing down the Office Building and adjacent Liquor Store and Restaurant and building a small condo complex. Where the Office Building currently stands will be turned into a social green space with a fountain center piece.
The three to four story condo buildings will be built on all four sides of the green space. I think this will complement existing land uses very well. The first floor of one of the condo buildings will have retail and what will the retail be? You guessed it! Allview Liquors and Lee Lynn's Restaurant and Lounge.

Bryant Square: What's with the Hold Up?

Ok, lets be reasonable here how long does it take to put replace old siding and roofing on an 88 unit town home development? I'd say one summer maximum. Wrong, if you live near, in, or drive by Bryant Square in the village of Wilde Lake you'd see that's not the case at all. So far it's five and a half years and counting and construction has slowed to a halt with no end in sight. They're about 33% done with the development and the kicker is that houses that have been worked on are spread throughout the entire development in an almost random fashion. A few houses have been half done for a number of years now. This brings just one question to mind; What's the Hold Up?
Built in 1973, Bryant Square has lead me to believe that it was once completely a rental community that was converted to homeownership in the 1980s or 1990s. This practice was not uncommon for older Columbia developments as the rental market dried up over the years. For town homes Bryant Square homes are huge! Many with four bedrooms.
By the late 1990s Bryant Square began to show signs of blight. It doesn't have much surrounding it. It's land locked by Governor Warfield Parkway and Twin Rivers Road.

The only housing development nearby is the Section 8 rental development of Roslyn Rise, part of community homes which has four other sites throughout West Columbia. Other nearby sites include Wilde Lake High School and Century Plaza a very early office park in Columbia's history. Paths and tunnels connect Bryant Square to the rest of Wilde Lake and Columbia as a whole.
New development across Governor Warfield Parkway further gave Bryant Square an old and blighted appearance. Spillover crimes began occurring from other decaying neighborhoods. Although Bryant Square is a homeownership development many of the units are rentals with "slum lords". In the spring of 2002 a nonfatal shooting occurred in Bryant Square which further gave off the perception of that Bryant Square was a bad neighborhood. The victims of the shootings were all Wilde Lake High School students, I was a senior there at the time of the shooting. In fact, I was on the school grounds when it happened mere feet from it.
Very quickly the suspects were apprehended (Columbia doesn't fall victim to stop snitchin') and were tried and sentenced to very long prison sentences. It became very clear that Bryant Square, like much of older Columbia neighborhoods were in need of revitalization. The county came up with a Master Plan for Bryant Square that would serve as a roll model for aging Columbia neighborhoods. The Master Plan focused mostly on sidewalk, pathway, parking space, striping, and vegetation. The structures themselves were barely mentioned so as far as the Master Plan goes it was successful. New plantings replaced dying ones, sidewalks, paths, and streets were resurfaced, and cleanup projects brought many residents out to clean up their community. The homes themselves were and still are, for the most part blighted. The original buildings are are dark brown wooden siding and white stucco. In late 2002 Vinyl siding started to appear on a few buildings. From then until about 2006, at a bottle neck pace new siding continued. For about two years now there has been no activity on the siding front. What's the hold up? They're nowhere near done, as I mentioned before, only about 40% of the homes have been completed. Crime has gone down and thanks to the real estate boom home ownership is up. As far as the original question about the hold up, I really can't answer that. The homes that have been completed don't look all that fancy, they look like old homes that have been redone instead of brand new homes. If done right Bryant Square could serve as a model for communities like Hollow Oaks, Beechin Hills, Cross Fox, Russett Ridge, Bryant Gardens, and the Cove.

Columbia's Retail Scene:Bracing for a Shaky Economy

Don't let President Bush fool you with his propaganda, the economy is tanking nationwide and the national retail chains are taking a big hit as well as some of the locals. Columbia and Howard County have always been somewhat sheltered from economic woes. Being located so close to D.C. a huge percentage of residents are Federal Government Employees where lay offs are about as common as a sighting of Bigfoot. Not only do residents work directly for the Federal Government but residents work for companies that are contracted by the Federal Government. Massive layoffs that plague other parts of the Country don't land at our doorstep. Still, we're not bulletproof and sky high rents, stiff competition, and national chain bankruptcy have shown their faces in Columbia.The evolution of retail can also be blamed for vacant storefronts that have popped up in Columbia. As I mentioned in the previous post, Wilde Lake Village Center lost both a Giant Supermarket and Produce Galore in the past two years as well as Great Clips and Ridels Flowers. Kimco, the center's owners say that they can't find a replacement supermarket but I'm stubborn as a mule in thinking that they got the Maple Lawn Style redevelopment idea and ran with it. I think that if the economy were in better shape a full service supermarket would come to Wilde Lake. Another evolution of the retail world has been in the way we rent videos. Netflix has hit the ground running as a video rental mailing service.
Blockbuster has been closing down retail stores left and right and restructuring their operation to focus on mail video rental to compete with netflix. Hickory Ridge, Wilde Lake, River Hill, and Long Reach have closed their Blockbuster locations while Dorsey's Search is still open but the Kimco website has it listed as a vacancy meaning they're looking to close up shop.In the big box scene, there are signs of crumbling as well. The Comp USA chain has gone bankrupt meaning the inevitable closure of their Columbia Crossing location despite it being one of their busiest locations.
SCAN furniture declared chain wide bankruptcy and closed their Dobbin Center Store. I'm unsure if all locations were closed but that SCAN never seemed that busy.
Also on the furniture front, I predict Haverty's will close its Dobbin Center location in the coming year as will Offenbachers. Their parking lot is deserted all hours of the day and if even if they're doing well through catalog and online sales there's no point having a show room that no one will go to. That section of Dobbin Center's parking lot was so empty that a Chevy Chase Bank was built on it. Dobbin Center has always been stuck in the middle of the retail tide. Is it a big box center? Or a shopping center? This has made it tough to attract and retain tenants on either end of the retail spectrum and gets overshadowed by its newer big box opponents across the street. Speaking of new big box centers the new Gateway Overlook still has a vacancy between Costco and Office Depot. Office Depot doesn't seem to see much business either. Suffering from the identity crisis that it does Dobbin Center has gone through many anchors. It started with a Bradless then a KMart and finally a Wal Mart which has fulfilled its role as anchor tenant. On the other side there's been a Hechinger, Uptons, and Haverty's which as I said previously said predict will close it also took a long time to get. In the back of the center there was an F&M drugstore which left and was replaced by SCAN and it took a long time for them to get SCAN. Ross has been the sole anchor tenant that's put down any roots. Another important fact about Dobbin Center is that it will soon have Columbia's only Blockbuster.Snowden Square has dodged a bullet in the economic woes of retail America. Best Buy, perhaps the center's biggest draw moved down the street to the new Gateway Overlook that could have spelled the end for PetsMart and DSW which replaced a Borders that moved to Columbia Crossing several years ago. But Snowden fought back with a Fielene's Basement, the only one in the area which has filled void left by Best Buy. Another closure that seems inevitable is the United Artist Theaters behind Snowden. Muvico at Arundel Mills and AMC 14 at the Mall have chipped away at its customer base. United Artists did this to General Cinema 3 and Columbia Palace 9. I'd give it another year or two before they close up shop.
Columbia may be experiencing the nation's economic woes on the retail scene but with our proximity to D.C. massive job layoffs may surpass us.