Today, in a comment to this blog, HowChow asked “Any other news on Wegmans? I drive by looking for construction, but I haven't seen anything.”I thought that was a pretty good question too. So do many readers here I suspect. According to Google Analytics, my last post on Wegmans, on July 31st is still the 13th most popular post on this blog (out of 290) and the keywords “wegman’s howard traffic” are the fifth most popular keywords (out of 388) over the past thirty days.
So there you are. People want to know what’s up with Wegmans.
When I want to know what’s up with Wegmans I call Richard Talkin, arguably the best real estate attorney in Howard County and, just so coincidentally, he happens to represent Wegmans in Howard County.
“They’re moving forward,” he told me today. The company is currently working their way through the county planning and development approval process. They’ll likely need a developer’s agreement, a site development plan approval, a grading permit and a building permit before they can proceed. That all takes time. Lots of time.
“They could conceivably open in 2009,” he told me but admitted that it’s more likely to be early 2010.
There still is that pesky lawsuit to deal with. Dick insists that Wegmans is proceeding to work their way through the approvals process in anticipation that this will be resolved in their favor.
Now you know what I know.
6 comments:
Thanks! I laughed because I was inspired to ask precisely because I noticed that Google tracked people coming to HowChow off searches for "Wegmans Columbia." And, of course, I know nothing.
Why doesn't Wegman's go into the town center? Why put more big boxes along the edges of Columbia and ruin our villages?
Wegman's in towncenter Columbia? How outrageous.
The Nimby's are crying about the extra apartment units that are anticipated in the Town Center plans, the very idea of affordable housing there, cutting a tree at Meriwether, building a building at Meriwether and destroying the trees, not to mention the traffic it would draw. Why do you think Wegman's could get through the process? I like the idea. Why not entice Wegman's to be the anchor for Town Center?
HH
I can;t speak for Wegmans or how they reached a decision to located off of Snowden River Parkway, but my guess is Wegmans would rather be located near a major highway like I-95 since it would much easier for people outside of Columbia to get to than if it were downtown.
10:53PM
You're probably correct. I don't have any privileged information either concerning what constitutes the best location for a major upscale grocery chain.
I was just thinking how nice it would be. Perhaps a Whole Foods would be more appropriate.
HH
Thanks for the update. I came to your blog by searching for wegmans columbia and got exactly the information I was looking for. I am eager to see the Wegmans plan actually come to fruition!
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