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.

Wilde Lake Village Center

By now I'm sure everybody's aware of three major events at Wilde Lake Village Center. The first being that Giant closed in late 2006, the second that Produce Galore has closed in spring of 2008, and the third that Kimco, the center's owners plan to raze the center and redevelop it as a mixed use residential, retail, and offices. The new layout would be main street style shops with 500 rental apartments and no new Grocery Store, something that every Columbia Village Center has been anchored by. Rouse sold the eight Village Centers it owned (the exception being Owen Brown) to Kimco. Kimco could not have been a better candidate for Columbia's Village Centers.
Kimco's specialty was and is grocery anchored shopping centers not unlike Columbia's Village Centers. It seems that Kimco has given up on finding a replacement Grocery Store to replace and the new vision is Kimco's way of telling village residents that they admit defeat. It could also be that Kimco is ushering a new wave of retail using Maple Lawn as a model. The difference between Maple Lawn and Wilde Lake is that a Main Street runs through it and it's much closer to a major intersection (Routes 29 and 216).Wilde Lake lacks the critical mass that can support anchorless retail even with 500 apartments. I have championed the idea of redeveloping Columbia's first Village Center for years now and that I have mixed feelings regarding Kimco's plan for the center. My plans for the center evolved as the conditions of the center have. First I thought that the Giant should be expanded to compete with its sisters stores that have opened in neighboring villages more recently, then I entertained the idea of another Supermarket taking Giant's place, one that isn't so saturated in Columbia. It always involved a full service Grocery Store much larger than the 22,000 square foot Giant two and a half to three times larger to be exact, the doors would be located in front of the center and the expansion would be constructed on the parking lots near Cross Fox and Lynx Lane.Wilde Lake Village Center has played host to a dozens of merchants mostly Mom & Pop businesses, local chains, and a small mix of national chains. They included a Dress Maker, a Butcher Shop, a Cheese Shop, a Maternity Shop, a Duron Paint Store, a Bike Shop, a few Bakeries, an independent Pharmacy, a Dried Grocery Store, an Avanti Italian Restaurant, the Pub at Wilde Lake, a couple of Florists, an Encore Books, an Ice Cream Store, a couple of Shoe Repair shops and Photo mats, a couple of Pizza Parlors, an Erol's Video Store (later Blockbuster), a Hardware Store, a Jack in the Box, Roy Rogers, Hardees, than Roy Rogers again, an Animal Hospital, and a High's Dairy Store. Back then, store fronts were smaller and more businesses could fit in the center. A mild expansion of the Giant Food Store, vacant store fronts making way for larger stores and would eventually come to be the center's other anchors; David's Natural Market and Produce Galore.
Today, Wilde Lake Village Center is hanging on by a thread. Its current roster of tenants are David's Natural Market, Hunan Family, Great Clips, The UPS Store, KFC, Crown Gas Station, The Melting Pot, Wilde Lake Karate Center, Bagel Bin & Deli, Pizza Boli's, Tokyo Cafe, Feet First, Absolutely Wine or Spirits, The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy, Anthony Richard Barber Shop(original tenant),Wilde Lake Cleaners, Today's Catch Seafood Market, Star Nails, and the Columbia Bank. All of which could close up shop at any time regardless of whether they break their lease or not. Produce Galore broke theirs and will pay Kimco for another 18 months.
Now Wilde Lake Village Center isn't just retail with offices above select portions of it. Shown above is the Family Life Center which is under going renovations, Slayton House the Village's Community Center which was renovated in 2005, the CA Swim Center which was renovated in 2003 and the Wilde Lake Tennis Courts which are scheduled to undergo renovations in the near future. There is also Wilde Lake Interfaith Center which will undergo renovations and an expansion. Wilde Lake Middle and High Schools are behind the center. Wilde Lake High was torn down and rebuilt from the ground up from 1994-1996 students attended the undistricted River Hill High during those years. Wilde Lake Middle wasn't so lucky.
This main courtyard and building would be demolished under my plan to make way for a new parking lot. The building contains The Melting Pot, Wilde Lake Karate,Bagel Bin,Pizza Bolis, and Tokyo Cafe. They would be relocated on Lynx Lane on the grounds of the former Produce Galore along with Today's Catch and Anthony Richard Barbershop. This new building would would house roughly 125 condos on the top floors. It will have underground parking for residents and shoppers alike. The little building that houses the UPS Store and Great Clips would be relocated to the left of David's along with the Columbia Bank Drive through which would be demolished to make way for parking. The David's building would go through a massive overhaul and above it would be another 125 condos.
What is currently parking to the right of and behind the vacant Giant would be used for the Supermarket expansion. I'm thinking of a something like a Food Lion, Superfresh, or a Mars would be the perfect candidate to fill Giant's shoes. All are stores that aren't over saturated in the Columbia marketplace and one would think that they would jump at this rare opportunity to expand into Columbia. I'm guessing Kimco didn't fight hard enough to attract a supermarket after all they lured a Food Lion to Oakland Mills where it lost two other supermarkets in just 5 years! Giant had been at Wilde Lake for 39 years! Kimco got the idea to mimic Maple Lawn and ran with it. What I'm proposing is a mixture of that and a traditional Grocery anchored Village Center. Where would the other 250 condos go? On top of the new Grocery Store! Kimco's plan said the residential units would be rental apartments but Jim Miller co owner of Today's Catch preferred condos because they would be privately owned and would therefore have a more vested interest in the community. Jim, if you're reading this I agree with you whole heartily that's why I'm proposing 500 condos instead of apartments.

Almost every other Village Center has been redeveloped with a full service Grocery Store and Wilde Lake should be no exception.

Industrial Buildings and Land Have Aged Terribly

Industry was never meant to be pretty. Back in the early days of the industrial revolution residential and industrial land lived side by side and neighborhoods were built for the tens of thousands of workers in the factories. In the late 1800s the idea of smog free neighborhoods with grass and trees while still being urban came to fruition. This was the earliest version of the suburbs. At this point only the very wealthy could afford these new homes. After World War II the housing pressures caused suburbia to become more affordable. The Suburbs had the presence of mind to locate industry away from residential neighborhoods because this contributed to the downfall of the American city.Columbia is no different, its industrial land is located away from neighborhoods. It's located in the far eastern edges of town due to the land being flatter than that of West Columbia. When Columbia held its grand opening in June of 1967 Rouse presented thousands of observers and potential residents pieces of the city. A Village Center, a Neighborhood Center, some Model Home Parks of varying housing types, a Downtown Office Building, Hobbit's Glen Golf Course, and finally industry.
The "pieces" of industry Rouse decided to showcase were in Oakland Ridge (Red Branch Road) and Seiling (Gerwig Lane). Since this was the 1960s windowless, contemporary, gray, manufactured off the assembly line buildings were used. According to today's architectural standards the buildings are hideous. However some buildings have had face lifts and new buildings are being thrown into the mix.Today some industrial buildings are coming down and being redeveloped in favor of retail and office uses. At Snowden River Parkway and McGaw Road there is a proposal to tear down a vacant industrial building and Wegman's Supermarket.On Snowden between Broken Land and Minstrel Way 2 industrial buildings are being torn down for 2 restaurants and 2 hotels.As for existing industrial buildings there have been some improvements particularly on Route 108 across from Glenmont. Dobbin and Snowden have the worst buildings and redevelopment is the only solution for these eye sores. The out sourcing of these types of jobs and the dependence on machines will make industrial jobs obsolete and the buildings will continue to vacate themselves and redevelopment will take place. I don't agree with job outsourcing I'm just stating it as a fact.

The Dream of James W. Rouse Is Alive and Well

Ah, this may be my favorite post to date. Columbia will not have come to fruition if it weren't for the vision, leadership, and business sense of James W. Rouse, Frazier Wilde, and the Work Group. All of these men are my personal heroes and all once and future Columbia residents owe them a debt of gratitude for the community they live in. If I could travel back in time I would go to the weekly work group sessions of the mid 1960s in the then Saratoga Street headquarters of the Rouse Company not to put in my two cents but just to listen and watch history being made.
In 2007 many are questioning the longevity of Rouse's vision. Sprinkled throughout Columbia's history have been periods of violent crime, the redevelopment of Town Center has everyone on both sides of the issue claiming to know the dream of Rouse better than their opponent, Older village centers have lost anchor supermarket tenants due to increased competition from big box centers, CA facilities struggle with debt as national super gyms with deep pockets show up next door and the ever present question of incorporation. What follows are answers to some of the issues and how Rouse may deal with them and I took the camera Downtown to capture some long standing values of Rouse.
As I mentioned in the previous post Columbia has had crime in its past. This is not surprising considering that Columbia was and is meant to be a mixed income community and when the poor and downtrodden are brought into the equation the probability of crime becomes more likely. I don't however think that Columbia should get rid of its section 8 housing complexes and other rental complexes that accept section 8 vouchers, this is just a pill that Columbians have to and for the most part have swallowed. I think that these communities need a lot of attention so they can continue to offer the full Columbia Experience even if they can't afford it.
The Town Center issue seems to be what's dominating the local headlines lately. Every tom dick and harry seems to know Rouse's answer to the question of Town Center. Fact of the matter is no one's gotten it 100%. The building progress has been much slower than originally anticipated but outside market forces have rendered the 1980 110,000 population estimate impossible. Once the villages have reached build out Town Center was supposed to be redeveloped at that point. We are at that point today and one would think that the old Columbia pioneers would be happy that the crown and jewel of Mr. Rouse's dream is being fulfilled. Of course that's not the case they're as whiny and self righteous as always thinking that the way Town Center was before 1997 was how it was supposed to be. Rouse envisioned a vibrant pedestrian oriented downtown with sky scrapers 30 to 50 stories high where one could see Baltimore and DC on a clear day. Any book about the planning of Columbia will support this including the biography of Jim Rouse. The tallest building proposed as of right now is only 22 stories high.
The Village Centers now face more competition than ever with big box shopping centers now throwing grocery stores in the mix. When the first big box shopping centers came they coexisted nicely with the village centers but now look out. Trader Joes, Costco, Wegmans, have either committed or are making proposals to come to Columbia. King's Contrivance is fighting back with the areas first Harris Teeter. Oakland Mills appears to be a cat with multiple lives. It has lost many grocery anchors but the community hasn't given up on it. Despite not being near major intersections Kimco was able to lure in a Food Lion after the closed metro was vacant for 3 and a half years. I do fear for the future of Food Lion because there are many residents who still shop at Dorsey's Search or Owen Brown Giant instead of the Food Lion. The other merchants, God Bless 'em they've held on through thick and thin. Wilde Lake Village Center also has lost its grocery anchor. After nearly 40 years and just one modest expansion Giant closed its doors for good. Whether anyone knows it or not Wilde Lake has been without an anchor for many years now. Giant lost its drawing power when larger stores in Dorsey's Search, Hickory Ridge, and River Hill and the opening of the Safeway in Harpers Choice. David's Natural Market and Produce Galore are now the center's anchors with county wide drawing power. I'm confident that Kimco will find a new full service grocery anchor for Wilde Lake and redevelop the center as a whole.
Another question is Columbia Association (CA). CA has amassed tens of millions in debt and a complete pay off of it doesn't seem feasible. Increased competition for mega gyms, non profitable properties, and aging properties have put CA in a bind. Instead of facing these issues head on they have reduced to petty squabbles on relatively small issues. Only recently has CA started to look at the bigger picture but I still think they should do more. Off of Robert Fulton Drive a mega Gym called "Life Time Fitness" has been built a mere half mile away from the Supreme Sports Club and the Hopewell Pool. CA did fight back with a renovation of both the Supreme Sports Club and the Hopewell Pool. Although not near Life Time Fitness CA just finished renovating the Athletic Club in Harpers Choice which has always been a money maker for CA. Not all CA facilities are as lucky as the Athletic Club as far as bringing home the bacon. The two in question are the CA Horse Center and the Fairway Hills Golf Club. i think both should be closed down and doing so can help wipe out CA's debt, I'll save the details for future posts. As far as renovating older facilities CA should continue what its doing in renovating them but investing more and making them more like newer ones.For the record I don't think that Columbia should be incorporated as a City. I think it will distance itself from Howard County and I think CA and Howard County should be partners in Columbia's Future and incorporation might put that in Jeopardy.
Despite all the problems and challenges I've mentioned I still think the dream of Rouse is alive and well. I think he would be proud of Ken Ulman and all he's done and will continue to do for Columbia and Howard County. I think he will encourage redevelopment when needed and will turn CA into a money maker. Just look at all the pictures of I've taken and you will see the evidence of the dream.