Thursday, August 27, 2009

Done Deal for Harris Teeter at Turf Valley

According to a report in the Howard / Arundel Report this week, Harris Teeter has officially signed the lease for a new grocery store in Turf Valley Town Square. This is the same grocery store that sparked the ill fated petition drive and federal lawsuit by Marc Norman and his union buddies.

Greenberg Gibbons, the developer of the project has signed a lease with Harris Teeter for a 53,000 square foot grocery store. Site work for the store is expected to start in late spring or early summer next year with a store opening planned for late 2011.

2011 should be a big year for grocery shoppers in Howard County. Wegmans is expected to open in the first quarter of that year.

15 comments:

Freemarket said...

Yay!

Anonymous said...

Yay!!! any other details of what is going in that plaza?

Dave W said...

Good news indeed. I'll probably still frequent the KC Harris Teeter more than this new one since it is closer, but it will be good to see another Harris Teeter along with Wegmans in a couple of years to give us more options.

Varina said...

Hurray! Outstanding news...

Anonymous said...

Goodbye Waverly Woods Weis. (And they are non-union.)

Anonymous said...

Is that the correct link to the howard/arundel report? didn't see the harris teeter item.

Lotsabogeys said...

The lawsuit in the post wasn't because of the petition drive. It was the one trying to stop Wegmans and the expansion of home at Turf Valley. Cattail Creek was part of it too. Marc Norman does has a lawsuit in state court and Paul Kendall has another by himself in federal court due to the petition drive.

wordbones said...

Anon 7:26 AM,

The Howard / Arundel Report is a subscription only newsletter. That's why you can't access the article.

-wb

Anonymous said...

I did open the link successfully and view the report. But the report didn't have the HT info you referenced, at least I didn't find it.

wordbones said...

Anon 10:47 AM,

I guess you'll just have to trust me then ;-)

-wb

Anonymous said...

Phsh.

Anonymous said...

any news on the proposed gas station @ Waverly?.. it is very overdue and needed...a large Sheetz/WaWa would be great..

JustTheFacts said...

Dennis... do you have any information about the persistent rumor that all Greenberg Gibbons projects are on hold because their primary financier, Prudential's real estate investment group, has encountered serious liquidity issues due to the economic meltdown?

It's also important to note that Paul Kendall's federal lawsuit (related to the Board of Elections decision to retroactively apply new rules that resulted in the disqualification of 87% of the signatures on last winter's referendum petition) has yet to be heard.

Likewise, the administrative appeal of this same BoE decision, filed in Circuit Court by Marc Norman and Angela Beltram, has yet to be heard.

If either legal challenge is successful, the referendum will appear on the 2010, or possibly 2012, general election ballot for Howard County voters to decide.

While the County has permitted the developer to move forward at their own risk since March, it's interesting to note that neither Mangione Enterprises nor Greenberg Gibbons have processed the requisite plans to do so.

Do you think the lack of financing and significant legal questions are giving the developers and their investors cold feet?

wordbones said...

JTF,

I can offer you no insight into Greenberg Gibbons financing except to say that all commercial real estate financing is taking a little longer these days.

Regarding the federal lawsuits, I'd doubt that the developer is overly concerned with them. They have already gotten a pretty good indication from Judge Motz about how he feels about this.

Besides, I can't recall a single lawsuit that Susan Gray has ever won.

-wb

HowardCitizen said...

It seems that some people are confusing Susan Gray's federal lawsuit, which was recently dismissed, with the very specific election rights action that Paul Kendall has brought.

After reviewing the case, it appears that Kendall is questioning how the county & state boards of elections could interpret petition signature requirements the same way for 30 yrs and then change the rules for the referendum petition.

If you read the text of his filings, it's pretty hard not to agree with his challenge to the boe's reinterpretation of the rules.

The denial of a registered voter's right to sign a petition (more than 85% were disqualified) is the crux of Kendall's request for federal intervention.