Fallen Star

On February 18th, the Lone Star Steakhouse and Saloon closed in Columbia. This once popular restaurant had been in business for about 12 years.

I was involved in bringing this particular chain restaurant to Columbia. My former business partner and I “discovered” Lone Star while on assignment for another client in Fayetteville, North Carolina. That began a long courtship that eventually resulted in the company purchasing four acres of land in the Columbia Corporate Park on McGaw Road.

The restaurant enjoyed great success when it first opened. It was not uncommon to have to wait an hour and half to get a table; much like it is now at the Cheesecake Factory in Town Center.

That was hardly the case in recent years. Some lay the blame on the fact that it was hard to get to but that did not seem to deter those early patrons. The visibility of this site was so strong that it generated the following front page story by Dan Morse in the Sun back on January 12, 1997:

Business lament: Site unseen; Columbia: As bigger, brighter signs appear on the eastern edge of town, merchants feeling invisible in older areas argue for more wattage.

“Sign envy is gripping Columbia.

Listen to saloon owner John Heyn, who for years has tried to make a go of it in this tidy planned suburb that boasts some of the strictest sign restrictions in the nation.
Every day, residents drive past his Last Chance Saloon -- buried in the courtyard of a neighborhood retail center -- without knowing it's there.

Some residents even walk through the courtyard itself without noticing his bar.
Life, for Heyn, has no neon. And so as the barkeeper crested a hill along Route 175 on Columbia's eastern edge two months ago, he was shocked to confront -- a half-mile away but very much in his face -- the words "Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon" illuminating the side of his new competition.

"Damn," Heyn remembers thinking. "What a great sign." He's not alone in his admiration -- or his envy.

Throughout Columbia, merchants are turning green over Lone Star's beacon.
For the new town's almost 30-year history, they've been restricted to tiny, often hidden signs.
Heyn says he can't even plug in a simple "Open" sign and hang it inside his window.
The sign envy -- though hardly a fatal condition -- underscores tensions felt by merchants in Columbia's downtown and neighborhoods as they try to compete with the growing number of chain restaurants and warehouse-style retailers cropping up on the community's eastern edge.

"Clearly, there's a double standard," says Bill Miller, co-owner of the Today's Catch seafood shop buried in Columbia's Wilde Lake Village Center.

By contemporary standards, the Lone Star sign is hardly spectacular.
There actually are three of them -- on three sides of the restaurant. They measure about 18 feet across and 8 feet high.

And they're actually smaller than what the 205-outlet western-style steak giant first proposed, says Thomas Brudzinski, a design director for the Rouse Co., Columbia's developer.
If the signs were along U.S. 40 or Ritchie Highway, "Lone Star" would undoubtably fade into a haze of halogen.

But this is Columbia, designed in the 1960s to allow residents -- in the words of its founder, James W. Rouse -- to "feel the spaces of nature."

And so for nearly three decades, the Rouse Co.'s criteria for signs essentially have been to subtly post small ones. A favorite spot has been behind the town's many berms, or man-made grassy knolls.

For the most part, Columbia residents seem to enjoy the uncluttered look. Lone Star also should be pleased -- for its star shines brightly against the subdued suburb's relatively dark backdrop.

But those merchants with sign envy want to know: How'd the steak king get permission for such a bright sign?

Lone Star officials wouldn't discuss their new Columbia outlet, other than to say they followed local sign restrictions. The steak chain -- based in Wichita, Kan. -- makes no bones about wanting to be seen, though. "If they're driving and are making a dining decision," said John White, Lone Star's chief financial officer, "we want to be part of that decision."

Officials at the Rouse Co., which controls signs on the Lone Star property and other commercial areas in Columbia, say the Lone Star sign is no big deal.
They say they're allowing other new businesses and restaurants on the town's eastern, largely commercial edge to post these larger signs.

And even the most envious of central Columbia merchants concedes this is appropriate to some degree. After all, that area is not adjacent to Columbia's neighborhoods. But no other restaurant in that area is perched on such a conspicuous hill above a major thoroughfare.
So no other sign is more visible to drivers entering Columbia from the east -- particularly because huge spotlights are trained on it.

And in Columbia, some residents, particularly some longtime residents, take a dim view of any bright lights. Just last year, for example, some neighbors of Columbia's Oakland Mills High School erupted when educators hung a relatively modest, but lighted marque outside the school -- the only such sign in their neighborhood.

As for that Lone Star sign, "James Rouse would roll over in his grave if he saw that sign," says David Reynolds, who lives in Columbia's Town Center. Reynolds jokes that the Lone Star sign is so bright that pilots flying at 12,000 feet could use it to land in the middle of the planned city.

But now that Lone Star has set a new community standard for candlepower, many Columbia merchants want more of the same for themselves. Fred Paine, a former Rouse commercial property manager who now manages Hunt Valley Mall, agrees. For years, he says, he tried to get his bosses to allow bigger, brighter -- but tasteful -- signs in Columbia's older core. "If I was a retailer," he says, "I'd just be livid."

At the Fresh Choice restaurant -- hidden without a road sign in Columbia's downtown, a large parking lot away from the nearest road -- manager Denise Antinnucci is close to livid.
She says she'd have more customers if drivers were informed a restaurant was nearby. "If they have a sign like that," Antinnucci says of Lone Star, "I should be able to have a little sign" by the road.

Similarly, at the nearby Silver Shadows nightclub, its owners say lost patrons constantly call them from their cellular phones and must be guided to the club by bartenders -- much like air traffic controllers.

Even some Columbia residents say the brighter and bigger, the better.

Which brings us to east Columbia resident Robert Thomas, a relative newcomer to the town who is perhaps not imbued with its original ethos.

Says Thomas: "These Columbia purists, they're back in {the '60s}. I don't think that sign is big enough."

A local developer recently purchased the property for $2.95 million. The new owner is apparently receptive to a new restaurant taking over the building.

Less Than a Week Later…

A confession…from a neighbor no less!

We now know who killed Bryan Antoine Adams Jr.. According to an article in today’s Sun, Antajuan L. Wilson confessed to the shooting yesterday. Antajuan is one year younger than his 20 year old victim. He lives less than a quarter mile from where he gunned down Bryan.

As I mentioned in a comment to a previous post about this, I was planning on going shopping at Wilde Lake Village Green this past weekend to pick up a new pair of running shoes from Feet First.
Sunday afternoon around 3:30 PM I fulfilled that task. The parking lot was pretty empty but it was Sunday afternoon. As I walked across the green I saw people patronizing Absolutely Wine & Spirits but otherwise it was quiet inside the center as well.

Inside the store I spoke with Andre about what effect, if any, the shooting had on business. “It’s not even noticeable” he claimed. At this point in time there were more sales clerks than customers in the store so I sort of gave him a look that said “really!”

“Yesterday we were really busy. Sunday afternoons is usually slow.”

I’ll buy that.

This store is usually pretty busy around this time of year. Feet First is one of the sponsors of Clyde’s American 10K race which is being held this Sunday. Starting this Thursday race participants will be able to pick up their race packets and t-shirt at the store.

I ended up getting shorts, socks and a shirt in addition to my brand new Asics. Another customer came in as I was finishing up so the customer to sales clerk ratio reached parity.

Mai Tais & Black Tie

The Columbia Festival of the Arts will host "Mai Tais & Black Tie, an evening with Paula Poundstone on Friday, May 9th in the Spear Center at the GGP building in Town Center. The dinner and performance are the spring fundraiser for this year’s festival.

I had never heard of Paula Poundstone so I checked her out on You Tube and found this clip. Pretty funny.



Tickets cost $150.00 each but it’s a pretty good deal. You get live entertainment, dinner and drinks and you don’t have to drive out of town.

You can download the ticket order form here or call the festival office for more information. The number is (410) 715-3044

Howards First Homicide of 2008

Bryan Antoine Adams Jr. was gunned down today. Just before noon, in broad daylight, along Twin Rivers Road, right in front of the Wilde Lake Village Center, he was shot four or five times and later died at Howard County General Hospital.

He was a 2005 graduate of my alma mater, Wilde Lake High School. My thoughts go out to his family and his friends.

This is very familiar ground for me. I grew up in that neighborhood. I have walked this sidewalk and ridden my bicycle down this sidewalk. I have driven by this spot innumerable times.

The thought that strikes me is that Columbia today is a far different place from the Columbia of forty years ago.

Thank you to Columbia Talk for giving me the heads up on this.

Did She Go And Have A Private Meeting With GGP Without Telling Us?

Last night my buddy Jim Binckley attended the Village of Harper’s Choice candidates forum at Kahler Hall. He had the opportunity to query the incumbent Columbia Council representative, Cynthia Coyle about the deplorable state of the dock and piers tower in Town Center. Ms. Coyle had twice voted against any restoration funding for this centerpiece of the town. Jim wanted to know why she did that.

Apparently Ms. Coyle has everything under control. Jim told me that Ms. Coyle announced to those in attendance that she voted against restoring the existing structures because she is going to see to it that an entirely new “dock” will be built in its place.

Here’s the best part though. Jim told me that Councilperson Coyle has received assurances from GGP that they will pay for it.

How good is that!

Then I wondered how she got that assurance because I haven’t exactly heard anyone else talking about this.

Could it be that a member of the Columbia Council, acting on behalf of the Council, held a private meeting with GGP?

God forbid.

Scene This Week In...

It is hard not to take pictures of flowering trees this time of year. Columbia explodes with white blossoms on the thousands of Bradford Pear trees planted around town. There is a liberal sprinkling of pink from the various cherry trees as well.

But that is not what caught my eye today.

I was actually on my way to Wilde Lake Park to snap some pictures of flowering trees when I noticed all of the activity at the Wilde Lake barn. A closer inspection revealed that the barn is undergoing a fairly extensive renovation.

I was glad to see that. Given the abysmal state of some of the other Columbia icons, it’s nice to know that at least this one is getting some attention.

I still wanted to find some flowering trees though so ventured a mile up the road from Wilde Lake to Centennial Lake. Technically, once you cross Route 108 you are in Ellicott City after all.

Centennial Lake is home to grouping of cherry trees which I believe is dedicated to the memory of Jim Rouse. The trees are planted on both sides of the lake path. The lakefront was sparsely populated with an assortment of runners and fishermen. I was sort of surprised to see as many people as I did. It was around two o’clock in the afternoon on a cold and damp spring day.

I spoke with a guy named Chris. He was one of the fishermen. He said he’d caught a few bluegills but he was really hoping to hook a catfish.

It turns out we had a catfish thing in common. Both of us had visited the Bass Pro Shop in the Arundel Mills Mall yesterday to see the giant catfish that Ron Lewis caught in the Potomac. The 67 pound behemoth was supposedly in the giant fish tank at the store. It turns out that this particular fish is still in a “transitional tank” and that the big one I saw was only 64 pounds.

That’s still a big catfish.

Chris was taking a day from his landscaping job in Annapolis. I imagine the landscaping business is a little intense right now and so he probably needed a day of fishing.

That’s what I’m saying anyway.

Thanks Anon 10:49 AM!

This blog has always been wide open to anonymous posters. This policy invites both benefits and detriments such as the occasional spam post that exists solely to divert traffic to a different site or god knows what else. I routinely delete this spamoola as soon as I see it but that’s about the only thing I’ll delete.

I enjoy all dialogue, both fine wine refined and sushi grade raw. And sometimes, just sometimes, I’ll get an anonymous comment on a post that I’ll really like because it gets me to thinking a different way. I got one of those yesterday.

Anon 10:49 AM commented on my Friday post about the county putting the Ridge Road property up for sale. The current administration intends to “return this land to the county tax rolls.” This would ultimately result in the heavily wooded ground being developed in some fashion. From a pure economic perspective the highest and best use of this property would be retail. It is currently zoned POR. (Planned Office Research).

Anon 10:49 AM believes the county would get a greater value if it preserved these twenty four acres as a park. Anon 10:49 AM’s park would include a pedestrian overpass over Route 40.

Anon 10:49 AM estimates that the county would likely net $6 million from the sale of this property. Anon 10:49 AM wonders if the county could ever buy 24 acres of heavily “forested” in Ellicott City at that price.

In my opinion, with current POR zoning, the county is more likely to net around $5 million.

Ironically, it was then County Executive Jim Robey who got the county to purchase this property. It was also his administration that developed the Route 40 Enhancement Study.

The current administration says that it needs the proceeds to fund the renovations of the existing county complex. No one can argue that those buildings need renovating, they’ve never been right. Jim once quipped to me that he’d throw the builder in jail if he could. You may recall that Jim was also the former chief of police.

The thing is, according to an article by Larry Carson in the Howard section of the Sun today, the renovations will cost $22 million. The county also plans to purchase office space in the Meridian Square project in Oakland Mills. That will cost an additional $3.9 million for a total of about $26 million.

It sort of puts that $5 million dollar profit into perspective and I’m starting to like the park idea a lot. Maybe the now "Senator" Jim Robey can cajole some extra funds out of the state coffers to make up for the shortfall.

Prime Development Opportunity? Perhaps.

When Jim Robey was the County Executive he envisioned creating a new county office complex on 24 acres of land at the intersection of Rogers Avenue and US Route 40. The County purchased the property in 2000 for $3.7 million.

The county put out a bid proposal to the development community. The competition was whittled down to Trammell Crow Company and our own hometown national developer, Corporate Properties Office Trust (COPT). COPT won. I should note here that development proposals of this scale are rather extensive and expensive. The developer enlists architects, lawyers, engineers and other consultants to help them prepare a vision for the project. These costs can easily exceed $100,000.

Now the county has changed it’s mind, or at least the current administration has. The county has now decided to renovate the existing county complex and purchase a floor of space in the proposed Meridian Square development. They have decided to sell the Rogers Avenue property to fund these plans. COPT and its hard won right to develop the project for the county is left holding the bag so to speak. True, while this can just be racked up to the cost of doing business, it still hurts.

It’s a shame. This property sits at one of the major gateways into historic Ellicott City. A government complex here would have had a significant impact on transforming that portion of Route 40. Right now it is a collection of strip shopping, auto dealers, fast food and a porn shop. Talk about an area that could use some revitalization!

Hopefully someone with vision will snap this up. Perhaps COPT will go ahead and take a shot at it.

Maybe we will.

The county paid a little over $150,000 per acre eight years ago. Right now the going rate for prime office land (think Columbia Gateway) is around $600,000.00 per acre. The major difference being that the land in Gateway is ready to go. It is cleared and rough graded. When you buy 24 acres, you get 24 acres. The land on Rogers Avenue is heavily wooded. The euphemism that is commonly used is raw. The purchaser won’t get to use all 24 acres. They’ll get somewhere between 15 and 20 acres to build on if they are lucky.

Still, it will probably fetch a pretty nice number and the county will likely end up with a fair return on their investment in Ellicott City real estate.

Stale Bread

When I stopped by Orinco Coffee Shop this morning I saw two tractor trailers backed up to the entrance of the Atlanta Bread Company at the opposite end of the strip of eateries on McGaw Road.

A closer inspection revealed this note taped to the door.
The closing of this eatery comes as no great surprise to me. I ate there once and never went back. The food was, at best, average and I felt the prices were high for the value received.

This is a great location though and I expect it won’t be long before another food operation fills the space.

In This Months Business Monthly

A little over a year ago I wrote a column about the Columbia Association Board of Directors and their reluctance to renew the contract of the association’s president, Maggie Brown. In that column I lamented that Columbia residents would not likely pay much attention to the machinations of the Columbia Council until “hundreds of CA employees run amok, thousands of acres of land go untended, dozens of facilities enter a state of disrepair and a $63 million dollar plus annual budget is squandered.”

Well the situation is getting pretty close to that. Check out this post from fellow blogger Bill Santos at the Columbia Compass blog or consider the fact that Columbia’s premier golf club, Hobbits Glen, is hemorrhaging members. What makes this state of affairs even more alarming is the fact that the majority of the CA board members are seemingly most concerned with capping increases in the CPRA assessment.

The good news is that not all CA board members are bad. The bad news is that the good people are currently outnumbered. This month Columbia residents will have the opportunity to change that.

You can read this month’s column here.

Wegmans Saga Part Three

It appears that the grocery workers union and Giant and Safeway have reached a new labor contract and have averted a strike. Local resident, Buddy Mays, president of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local Number 27 must be pleased. A strike right now would seem to be a very bad idea. This is no time to piss off any more consumers. Dave Wissing has a nice post about his recent trip to a union store.

Don’t get me wrong. I have no bone to chew with the union. I only ask that I have a choice of where I spend my dollars. I would suspect that any store staffed by paid union professionals would have to be better run than some store staffed by mere mortals. Surely the union can see that they have an advantage here.

Buddy Mays apparently doesn’t feel that way. He is behind the effort challenging the legality of Wegmans, a non union grocer planning to open a store at the intersection of McGaw Road and Snowden River Parkway. He has issues with the zoning amendment that allowed a grocery use in what was originally an industrial zone, albeit an industrial zone that already allowed for such “industrial” uses as gas stations, banks, restaurants and home improvement stores.

I’m with Dave. Wegmans can’t come soon enough. Let them have their clock tower too.

Wegmans Saga Part Two

click to enlarge

I am one of those dogs who can’t help but sniff out a zoning notice so when I spotted one at the proposed Wegmans site on Snowden River Parkway and McGaw Road I had to stop and check it out.

It appears that Wegmans is not taking “no” for an answer on their bid to include a 92 foot clock tower as part of their store.

I don’t see why the clock tower is a problem. It is not an advertising sign, it is an architectural feature. Since this proposed clock tower would be just down the road from a 120 foot (+/- ) water tower it would not exactly be ruining the skyline.

Jim Rouse Tribute www.marcsilverstein.com

Mark Smith, the editor of The Business Monthly brought this YouTube video to my attention. I love the story about the muskrat.

Village Center Initiative

I dropped by Ken Ulman’s press conference at Wilde Lake Village Green yesterday. I stood with local activist Jud Malone and Bill Miller, the owner of Today’s Catch seafood market. Along with the three of us and the county executive, there were councilpersons Mary Kay Sigaty and Jen Terrasa.

Alan Klein was there of course, pontificating as usual. Steve Meskin was in attendance as well. Steve is running against Sue Waller for Columbia Council representing Town Center. You may recall that Steve was one of those who sued to stop the construction of the Plaza Tower condominiums. He was of course joined in that action by Lloyd Knowles who was also in attendance.

I also saw Tony Tringali. Tony was the first barber to open a shop in Columbia. He has been a tenant, in the exact same location, since the village center first opened. I believe he is the only original Columbia merchant that is still in business.

Just before the press conference started, Jud Malone quipped to me wondering if Ken would mention the “d” word (density) anywhere in his remarks.

He didn’t.

He did use the word “evolve” quite a bit though. Could that be the new euphemism for density?

Hayduke had a pretty good post about Ken’s speech here.

The gist of the press conference was the announcement of a legislative initiative to amend part of the New Town (NT) zoning regulations. As it now stands, only General Growth Properties (GGP), as the successor to The Rouse Company, can request changes to an existing use in the NT zone. This arrangement worked fine when The Rouse Company controlled the village centers as well as virtually all of the commercial property in Columbia.

Since The Rouse Company divested itself of the village centers several years ago it could be well argued that GGP has conflicting interests with the owners of the village centers, particularly when it comes to village center’s “evolving.”

All of this is positive and the county executive is to be commended for taking this initiative. If the village centers are to remain viable commercial centers they need greater flexibility to “evolve.”

Scene This Week In...

Last Thursday was the vernal equinox which marks the first day of spring. It actually occurred at 5:58 AM. In Ellicott City, this means that Rita’s on Frederick Road is open again. Rita’s celebrates the first day of spring by giving away free Italian ices. The cooler weather last week did not deter folks from stopping in and welcoming them back.

Of course Columbia has a Rita’s too at Harper’s Choice Village Center. Soon it will be joined by a second one in the Kings Contrivance Village Center.

In Town Center, the harbinger of warmer weather was the workmen readying the outside tables for Clyde’s. Soon these tables will be filled with folks enjoying the lakefront. Until GGP’s master plan for Town Center gets underway the outdoor dining at the lakefront will have to suffice for a “vibrant” Town Center.

Name That Wreck!

Bill Harrison believes that the “50’s vintage” junk that was pictured in this recent post is a 1957 DeSoto.

Could be.

Reinventing Wilde Lake Village Green

This is kind of a good news bad news deal.

The good news is that Kimco, the owner of the Wilde Lake Village Center, is willing to make a $40 million investment to remake the oldest village center in Columbia.

The bad news, at least for some folks, is that the future center will not likely have a grocery store.

I think the good news outweighs the bad news in this instance. Kimco Realty Corporation owns interests in 1,973 retail properties in 45 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Chile. They have long standing relationships with just about every major food retailer in the country. If they are unable to attract a grocery store to Wilde Lake it is highly unlikely that anyone else could. They didn’t just rely on their chain store contacts either. They also attempted to get David’s Natural Market and Produce Galore to split the former Giant space giving each merchant an expanded store. Word has it that while David’s was interested, Produce Galore took a pass.

It’s probably time to accept the fact that a traditional grocery store will no longer be part of this village center and be grateful for the fact that at least someone is willing to make a major financial commitment to give the center a new life.

Belmont Stakes 2

Last August I wrote a post about the continuing saga of the Belmont Conference Center in Elkridge. Today there was an article in the Howard section of the Sun by Sandy Alexander about the end of the controversial relationship between local homebuilder Harry L. “Chip” Lundy and the college and the Belmont property. Just over three years ago, Chip lent the college $1.3 million dollars for the down payment on the 81 acre historic conference facility that borders the Patapsco State Park in Howard County.

Last week Chip and his partner David Adler were repaid the loan without interest which conservatively would have been around $200,000.

That is a far cry from what Chip had envisioned four years ago. In the original deal he had hoped to gain control of the 13 acre Dobbin property which is attached to Belmont but sits on a separately recorded parcel. He and his partner had hoped to construct senior housing there.

The fate of the Dobbin property remains in the air. According to the article, the county Department of Parks and Recreation offered $1.75 million for the property but the college turned down the offer.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

To set a proper tone for this day of all things Irish I offer a story from this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. It is an Irish tale, complete with an ailing mother, a starving widow, mermaids and scoundrels.

Cheers!

In honor of the patron saint of Ireland, our office will likely close around noon today. I expect, at some point in the day, to stop by Clyde’s. They have put on a pretty good St. Patrick’s Day celebration for as long as I can remember. I was four years out of college when I picked up this button. I know some folks in town have Clyde’s “Irish Power” buttons that are even older.

So…,if anyone comes up to me at Clyde’s today wearing a button older than this one, I’ll buy you a drink.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

What Would You Have Me Do Two

Earlier this week I posted about a sign that was nailed to a tree on College Avenue. The sign said that there was a “beautiful waterfall” next to an “open dump” just ahead in the woods. It called upon residents of Taylor Village to “wake up and unite.”

Whatever that meant.

In any event, I also wrote that, this weekend I would venture beyond this sign to see what it was all about.

The first thing I noticed was that the sign was down.

The next thing I noticed was this terrain is very hilly with many bramble patches. You cannot move “straight ahead” as the former sign suggested.

My daughter and I wound our way down the slope until I spotted an abandoned vehicle and a pile of rubbish. What was noteworthy about this “open dump” was it’s age. This is not a new or current dump. I can’t make out the model of the car but it is definitely a 50’s vintage.

The beautiful waterfall turns out to be a bit of an exaggeration. It is beautiful but it is also rather small.

The old dump was actually pretty interesting. At one time people lived back in here. We discovered a few old foundations and other evidence of the former inhabitants.

Again, I am not certain whether this is private property or part of the Patapsco State Park. As I mentioned in the original post, the boundaries are little fuzzy around here.

All in all, my daughter and I enjoyed our investigative hike. It was a great way to spend an early spring afternoon.

Jamming a Square Peg Into a Round Hole

Allow me to begin this post by stating that I happen to like our county executive, Ken Ulman. I voted for him and so far I think he has done a pretty good job for the citizens of Howard County.

That doesn’t mean I always agree with him.

The Meridian Square issue is a case in point. Ken has proposed that the county purchase 15,000 of office space in a 60,000 square foot office condominium building being developed by Metroventures in the Oakland Mills Village Center on the site of a former Exxon gas station. County Councilperson Calvin Ball and the village board believe this project is crucial to the revitalization efforts in the village. Ken recently defended this proposal in this article by Larry Carson that appeared the Howard section of the Sun this week.

While I agree that the county can be an important catalyst for rejuvenating the village center this is not, in my opinion, a very good vehicle for doing it.

Why do I think that?

The main reason is that no market exists for a 60,000 square foot office condominium building in the Oakland Mills Village Center. Oakland Mills is not an office market and a 60,000 square foot building is a pretty big building. It is twice the size of the Columbia Association building in Town Center (where Clyde’s is located). The Stevens Forest Professional Building (9650 Santiago Road) located right next to the site for this proposed building struggled for years to attract tenants. This 25,000 square foot office building was built in 1984 and it took until 1997 before it finally reached 100% occupancy. Today there is a 1,100 square foot office suite available that has been vacant for two years.

When The Rouse Company redeveloped the village center for Food Lion they eliminated the office component for just this reason. There are just too many good alternatives for office tenants in nearby Town Center and around Columbia in the established office parks. If the county moves forward with this plan they run the risk of being the only tenant in the building for years. What happens then?

Does the county then feel compelled to buy the remaining floors in order to protect their investment?

A better solution would be for the county to buy the site from the developer and put up whatever building best fits the needs of the agencies that it wants to be located there. That is a much better approach than having the county be the only tenant in a building that is simply too big for that area.

Produce Galore No More

It appears that once again the blame for the demise of yet another local retailer is being laid at the doorstep of “the developers.” Delegate Liz Bobo has even gone so far as to suggest that “with the support from the local government, we could prevent something like this.”

What kind of support does Liz envision that to be?

I remember when Produce Galore first opened in Wilde Lake Village Green. At the time I was working for The Rouse Company and my boss, Kemper Sullivan was approached by Kent Pendleton who at that time wanted to set up a roadside fruit and vegetable stand in Columbia. Of course there was no room in the Columbia “plan” for a roadside stand so Kemper convinced Kent that a better alternative would be to open a simple fruit and vegetable stand in the Lynx Lane annex of the Wilde Lake shopping center. Kent soon opened a bare bones operation in approximately 1,500 square feet in a space that is now part of David’s Natural Market. It was the smallest retail space available in the center at that time.

It wasn’t long before Columbians discovered how much fresher his produce was than the produce found in the Giant grocery store across the parking lot. Produce Galore soon expanded when the adjacent retail space became available. The business continued to grow and prosper. Before long, Kent made the big jump and took over the space that was originally occupied by Columbia Hardware which went under soon after Hechinger’s opened in Dobbin Center (in a building now occupied by a Havertys furniture store). Columbia Hardware was a local retailer.

About ten years ago, Kent decided he’d like to get out of the business. He enlisted Darrell Nevin, a local commercial real estate agent, to help him find a buyer. The word on the street was that the stores labor costs were too high to justify the price he was seeking. Though Darrell was unsuccessful in finding a buyer, it was widely understood that Kent remained interested in selling.

So now the end game is here. Unable to find a buyer he has opted instead to throw in the towel. I don’t blame him but he should not be blaming the loss of Giant and the arrival of other new retailers as the reasons for his stores declining sales. Much like Bun Penny, Produce Galore did not adjust well to the demographic changes in Columbia. New competition will either make a store better or it cause its demise.

The people in Columbia and Howard County have many choices as to where they spend their money. Every day shoppers make decisions as to where they will shop. Mama Wordbones and I discussed this last night. I had stopped by the grocery store on my way home to pick up a few items including fresh fruit. The most convenient grocery store to my office on Dobbin Road was the Safeway in the Long Reach Village Center. I drove right past it on my way to the Giant on Centre Park Drive.

Scene This Week In...

With the move of our offices from the airport area to Columbia I have settled into a new commute pattern. I always stop for coffee somewhere along the route because the decaf stuff in our offices doesn’t quite cut it. On my old route my preferred stop was the Dunkin Donuts at Route 1 and Montgomery Road in Elkridge. With my new route I pass a Dunkin Donuts, Donnas, Riverside, and Orinoco. So far I’ve made Orinoco my new regular stop. I really like their coffee.

When I was coming out the coffee shop earlier this week I was stuck by a the sight of these birds all nicely lined up along the roof line of 8830 Stanford Boulevard. I decided to make this aviary hangout my Scene This Week in Columbia.

Driving through Ellicott City the other day, the red caboose that is part of the B&O Railroad Museum: Ellicott City Station, stood out in the crisp March afternoon sun. This little museum is well worth a visit whether you are a train buff or not. This was first caboose I ever climbed inside of. It is this weeks Scene In Ellicott City.

Enough Is Enough!

Appropriately enough, that is the cover headline on today’s Howard section of the Sun. The article discusses Barbara Russell’s decision not to run for reelection to the Columbia Council. I could not have said it better.

I usually put aside my differences when someone announces that they are retiring from public service and thank them for their service to the community. In Barbara’s case I make an exception. Enough is certainly enough.

The article cites Barbara’s proudest accomplishments during her eight year tenure as establishing a cap on assessments and preventing the community of Emerson from becoming Columbia’s eleventh village. The legacy of those “accomplishments” is the sad state of affairs of Columbia’s public spaces. She also led the charge to remove Maggie Brown as the Columbia Association president which will create a serious leadership vacuum just as she leaves office. Barbara’s tenure on the CA board has been divisive and highly detrimental to the health and well being of Columbia.

Her departure does not mean that things are likely to get better either. Alex Hekimian, the president for life of the Alliance for a Better Columbia (or as Jud Malone calls it “The Alliance of Bitter Columbians”) is running for her council seat in the village of Oakland Mills. That is akin to jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

What Would You Have Me Do?

I came upon this sign on College Avenue in Ellicott City last week. It is`nailed about eight feet up on tree at the intersection of High Castle Road and College Avenue. The boundaries of Patapsco State Park are little fuzzy through this stretch of road so I am not certain whether or not this sign and the “beautiful waterfall” it refers to are on park land or private property.

That is almost beside the point. What gets me is that someone went through a good deal of effort to create and post this sign that is essentially meaningless. If the poster wants to gain support for rectifying this situation this is not a very effective way to do it. This is merely a shout in the wilderness not a call to action. A call to action would have a name to contact or directions on who to contact. It calls to mind the logic of certain anonymous blog commenter’s.

In any case, I hope to take a hike behind this sign this weekend with my camera to see what it is all about.

Stay tuned.

Dispatch 2 from Spring Training

I meant to post this picture with my earlier post about my "spring training" trip with my college buddies. This is a shot from Thursdays drubbing of the Orioles by Minnesota Twins here in Naples.

Dispatch from Spring Training

I blew out of town Tuesday for five days of “spring training” with nine of my buddies from college. We have held this annual gathering for at least twenty years.

Our spring training is only marginally about baseball but we do take in a game. Yesterday we saw the Minnesota Twins take on the Baltimore Orioles. The hometown boys lost to the Twins 8 to 7.

The rest of the time is spent golfing, boating, eating, and drinking. The boys come from Milwaukee, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, New York, Charlestown and Baltimore. It is not easy to carve time away from family, work and other obligations but I would not miss it for all the tea in China.

For the record, it is partly sunny today, current temperature is 76, the high will be around 85.

In This Months Business Monthly

The title “General Manager of Columbia” has always intrigued me. Some towns have a city manager, some have mayors but Columbia is the only town I know of that has a general manager. Of course it is a little misleading. The general manager of Columbia is not an elected position and the only thing the general manager manages in Columbia is private real estate owned by General Growth Properties. The Columbia general manager is essentially a development director.

Since Columbia is a town that was conceived by a real estate development company the towns’ main development person has always been a pretty high profile position. Each general manager has dealt with a unique set of challenges over the towns forty year history. Greg Hamm will certainly be no exception. I thought it would be fun to dedicate a column to welcoming him.

Scene This Week In...

Jessie and I connected on some weird coffee shop vibe this week. I had decided to do a post about the Starbucks Café in the Barnes & Noble bookstore in the Long Gate Shopping Center in Ellicott City. I needed to park someplace for a hour before I went back to my daughters elementary school. This bookstore is my favorite local bookstore and one of my least favorite coffee shops. The staff is friendly enough but the wifi costs four bucks for two hours. At 9:30 AM on a Thursday morning the place was dead.

I am willing to bet that was not the case in downtown EC. As previously reported here and further confirmed in today’s post on Hometown Columbia, the place to grab coffee and free wifi connection in Ellicott City is the Bean Hollow coffee shop. On the other hand, Bean Hollow isn’t a very good bookstore.

The Scene This Week in Columbia is the sculpture “When The Wind Comes.” I was driving through Thunder Hill last weekend when I noticed this large sculpture in front of Thunder Hill elementary school. The plaque at the base of the sculpture identifies the sculptor as Rodney Carroll and indicates that it was erected in 2000.

I love discovering stuff like this. When I was a senior at Wilde Lake High School one of my best friends lived in a house directly across the street from the school. I was in that neighborhood all the time. It was fun to drive through it again and discover this piece of public art.

The 30th Annual

Last week I received a mailing for the 30th annual Clyde’s American 10K race in Columbia. Today I’m filling out the application and sending in the check. Of course that will only mean that I am “signed up” for the race. That doesn’t necessarily mean I will actually run in it. I do have certain limits.

Still, I have always looked at this race as a way to gauge how I fared through the winter. I don’t run against anybody but me. Running in the middle to the back of the pack doesn’t bother me at all. I’m just happy to participate with all the other 1,200 or so runners. Simply finishing this race is its own sweet reward.

This year’s race will be held on Sunday, April 20th right in Town Center. The course takes runners through Town Center, around the mall, up to Fairway Hills golf course and out to Route 108, then it's up to Centennial Park and back down through Running Brook to the finish line at the pedestrian bridge back in Town Center. It’s a hilly course.

It is fun though and Clyde’s puts out a nice spread of food and beverages after the race.

Last year the weather was awful; rain, wind, cold, but the race still went on. Look for those sporting 29th annual t-shirts this year. They will be wearing them with pride.

I, on the other hand, happen to think that they’re just a little nuts.

Moving Day

They are dismantling the office cubes around me. My laptop is perched on a recycling bin laying on the top step of a step stool. I am hoping I can keep this chair for just a little longer.

My company is moving today. Actually, we will be moving over the next three days. After 10 years in the BWI Business District we are moving to new offices in Columbia on Dobbin Road.

It will be good to be back in Columbia. Ironically, the space we are moving into is the same space that my old firm occupied about 17 years ago. You stick around here long enough and you can end up back you started.

Barbarians at the Gate

I attended the Columbia Association Board of Directors Planning & Strategy Committee last night. I went to show my support for increasing the annual contribution that CA makes to the Columbia Festival of the Arts. For as long as I can remember, the CA contribution to festival has remained static at $95,000.00. This money is used primarily to help fund the free, three day LakeFest program of the sixteen day festival.

This year, the Board of Trustees of the festival requested a $15,000 increase from CA. As I have previously written, this years fundraising for the festival has been directly impacted by the slowing economy. Festival volunteers are pulling out all stops to make up for the shortfall. The request to CA was one of these ongoing efforts.

First, the good news; CA will not reduce this years contribution. That was actually proposed by Councilperson Cynthia Coyle (Harpers Choice). After watching Ms. Coyle in action last night I can honestly say that she is either the dimmest bulb on the council or simply an obstructionist. Councilperson Coyle and Councilperson Barbara Russell believe that the festival is “flush with cash.” They believe this because they erroneously misinterpreted a contribution made to the festival from The Rouse Company Foundation.

The foundation made a contribution to an endowment for the festival in lieu of continuing to make annual gifts. The object was to establish something more long term to insure the festivals long term survival. The intent is for this endowment to produce an annual income that would be equal to the previous annual gifts. Unfortunately because the endowment fund has not actually earned much money yet (it was only established this year), this had the resultant effect of actually reducing the amount of money that the festival would have received this year from the foundation. Instead of being “flush with cash” the festival is like a Columbia homeowner. Our home is worth more on paper than it would be in readily available cash. That is hardly being “flush with cash.”

Both Ms. Coyle and Ms. Russell said they got their information from “the newspaper.” A statement from Steve Sachs, the former chair of the festival Board of Trustees detailing the facts of The Rouse Company Foundation gift was read by CA president, Maggie Brown, at the meeting. The statement claimed that the CA board members had injured the festival fundraising efforts by these statements. Both Ms. Coyle and Ms Russell remained unapologetic for their previous statement and simply reiterated that they believed what they had read in “the paper.”

The bad news is that the CA Board voted 5 to 4 to deny an increase in the annual contribution. Those voting against the increase along with Ms. Coyle and Ms Russell were Councilpersons Evan Coren (Kings Contrivance), Phillip Kirsch (Wilde Lake), and Henry Dagenais (Long Reach). Evan Coren, who also chaired this particular committee was blatantly pandering to both Coyle and Russell all evening, not just on this issue. It was quite obvious to the very small audience (less than five people including myself) that Coyle, Russell, Kirsch and Coren are all under the influence of the Alliance for A Better Columbia. I am beginning to question what a “better Columbia” actually means to these people. I don’t think it looks like any place I’d want to be.

It wasn’t all bad. There are good people on the board too. There just aren’t enough of them. Last night the festival friends were Tom O’Connor (Dorsey’s Search), Miles Coffman (Hickory Ridge), Pearl Atkinson-Stewart (Owen Brown) and Michael Cornell (River Hill). After listening for an hour and a half to the discussions about staff salaries, the sister city program (it now has some new multi cultural name) and the festival funding request, I would have to categorize these four councilpersons as the guardians at the gate. We are very lucky to have them on the council. Right now they are outnumbered and it is getting harder to hold back the barbarian hordes.

Just my opinion of course. Still, I challenge anyone to attend a CA board committee meeting and draw your own conclusions. It is high drama of Columbia politics. This particular meeting even had a surreal nature to it. Ms. Russell was unable to attend in person (I know not why) but she was present on the speakerphone. I guess that is at least better than Gail Broida (Town Center) who was not in attendance at all (again I know not why).

The bottom line is that The Columbia Association has seemingly been taken over by a people are closely aligned with The Alliance for a Better Columbia. That should scare anyone who cares about Columbia.

The Alliance for a Better Columbia is a darling of the local papers. Alex Hekimian, the president of the organization is often portrayed by the papers as a spokesman of a leading community group. The problem for me is that this organization is basically Alex Hekimian. For at least fifteen years he has been the only president the organization has ever had. I would be very surprised if the ABC board of directors hadn’t changed that much in so many years either. I am willing to bet that their active membership does not exceed 300 people. Three hundred people led by one guy, having a major influence on the direction of an organization that touches the lives of the majority of people in Howard County. Scary.

Real citizen’s organizations have succession in leadership and dynamic boards. In this way they attempt to more accurately reflect a wider range of opinion and thought. That just ain’t happening at the ABC.

In my opinion of course. This is my blog after all. You don’t have to read it if you don’t like it.

For those who agree, we need to do something. We need to do something big. We need to act soon before it is too late. The barbarians are at the gate. We are outnumbered.

A Call to Arms for the Arts

The Columbia Festival of the Arts needs your help. I know I’ve already made that pitch in this post but now the festival also needs your voice, particularly voices of those folks who live in CPRA lien assessed properties. This Thursday at 7:30 PM the CA Planning and Strategy Committee of the Columbia Association Board of Directors will be meeting to consider the festivals request for this years funding. The CA contribution to festival has always been earmarked for the free three day Lakefest festivities. So far, Councilpersons Miles Coffman (Hickory Ridge) and Tom O’Connor (Dorsey’s Search) have been supportive of the festivals request. Councilpersons Barbara Russell (Oakland Mills) and Cynthia Coyle (Harpers Choice) have been somewhat less so. Ms. Coyle has gone so far as to suggest that the CA contribution be reduced this year.

If you believe the Lakefest celebration is worthy of CA support the festival needs your help at this critical juncture. If you can spare the time please try and attend this meeting and let the CA board know how you feel.

It’s Good To Get Away

Mama Wordbones and I just returned from seven days in the British Virgin Islands or more specifically, Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda.

Little Dix Bay was created as one of the first “eco resorts” back in 1964. The buildings all blend in nicely with the environment (none is over two stories) and the majority of the land has been set aside as a permanent conservation easement. It was originally developed by Laurence Rockefeller in an attempt to preserve as much as the island as possible. If you like to hike and experience the natural beauty of a Caribbean island you won’t be disappointed in this place. There are no TV’s in the rooms.

It is a small place (population around 2,000) that is 1,600 miles from Baltimore yet we still met six people from Maryland while we were there.

Did y’all miss me?

Scene This Week In...

The Howard County Blogtail Hour came to Ellicott City this month. The local blogosphere landed at the Ellicott Mills Brewing Company. Jesse Newburn and Frank Hecker “sponsored” the gathering which was also attended by Bill Santos, David Wissing, Mike Morucci, Ed C., Cheri Beck, Susan Coghlan, and Mary Kate Murray. This auspicious gathering seemed appropriate for my Scene This Week in Ellicott City.

Before the blogtail hour I stopped by the mall for a haircut with long time Columbia barber, Wayne Shepard. Wayne has been a fixture in the mall for as long as I can remember. In the early days his shop was called Rex’s Place, today it is known as Cavallaro & Company. Wayne is another one of those long time Columbia residents who recently relocated to Ellicott City. That kind of makes him a poster child for this here blog.

Never Gonna Happen

A few months back I was standing in line for coffee at the Mad City Coffee stand in the main lobby of the Howard County General Hospital. In front of me in line was an African American male who appeared to be in his late sixties or early seventies. Unprompted, he turned to me and asked “So who do you think is going to be our next president?”

“If I were a betting man I’d put my money on Barak Obama,” I replied.

“Never gonna happen,” he shot back.

I think about that response quite a bit these days. Keep in mind that this coffee line conversation occurred before the Iowa caucuses. Obamamania had not yet taken off. To this gentleman, the notion that our nation could embrace an African American as president was just too farfetched.

I initially believed that this was a generational thing. His generation had experienced the hard edge of race relations and discrimination for too long. His cynicism was well entrenched. My generation, though not that far behind him, grew up a bit more enlightened in this area, particularly in Columbia. For me, an African American president is very conceivable.

Columbia has always been a little ahead of the national curve in this regard. My first realization of this came when I went away to college in Cleveland. The campus was primarily white with very few minority students. It was a bit of a culture shock for a kid raised in Columbia. Today, John Carroll University is much more diverse than it was in 1973.

While we may live in an area that is progressive in race relations we are behind the times in how our primaries work. Maryland is a closed primary state meaning that participation in the primaries is largely limited to registered voters of the two parties. As a registered independent the only vote I can cast in the election on Tuesday is for the school board. It is time for Maryland to get with the program and open up its primaries to independents.

In This Months Business Monthly

I took a departure my usual commentary to make an unadulterated fundraising pitch for the 21st Annual Columbia Festival of the Arts. The festival needs some serious help this year.

You see, as much as some people like to beat up on the developers and the home builders in Howard County, they are the ones who have been disproportionately represented in sponsorships for the festival. As you may have noticed, the real estate business isn’t doing all that great lately. That in turn has had a negative impact on festival fundraising.

A few facts are in order here. The festival costs in excess of a million bucks. That doesn’t count the value of the time that the hundreds of volunteers add to the equation. In our business we call that leveraging up. The community gets a great deal. It gets a free three day Lakefest (which still puts the best stage at the lakefront), artists workshops and masters classes for the schools, a community art project (this year it’s the birdhouses), a parade, and world class performances in the intimate 700 seat Rouse Theatre.

Even if all the paid events sell out (which occurred about three times last summer) it would not cover the cost of the performances. Donations by corporations and individuals subsidize the entire sixteen day festival and keep ticket prices generally affordable. A business can participate for as little as five hundred bucks and an individual can “join” the festival for as little as fifty bucks and yes, membership does have its privileges.

In addition to the corporate and individual donors, the festival holds a raffle and a special fundraising event. Last year the fundraiser was a dinner in the Spear Center atop the General Growth Building in Town Center. The guest appearance last year was John Waters. It was a pretty wild evening.

This year’s fundraiser will be held on Friday May 9th in the Spear Center and will feature comedienne Paula Poundstone. The theme for the evening is Black Tie and Bling Bling. The entire sixteen day festival schedule will be made public in mid March.

If you could see a way to help the festival this year it would be greatly appreciated. You can contact Leigh Murphy at the festival office to learn how you can help. The festival office is located in Town Center at 5575 Sterrett Place, Suite 280. The phone number is (410) 715-3044.
Or drop me an email.

And to show that I put my “bones” where my words are, I have donated all of my 2008 income from the Business Monthly to the festival.

Requiem for the Tower

The site is stabilized, the deposit money is being returned and the sales center is now by appointment only. The Sun reported today that everyone who had a reservation with a deposit for the Plaza Residences would receive their deposit back. WCI will continue to honor the reservations.

“"We appreciate their patience as we look forward to the continued successful development of the Plaza Residences," Robert H. Grabner Jr., vice president/senior project manager of the tower division of WCI Mid-Atlantic U.S. Region Inc., said in a statement.”

They say the earliest the project could get going again would be around mid 2009. Of course this isn’t the result of any local pressure. The condominium market is taking the biggest hit in the housing downturn. Ironically, WCI may be thankful that the anti tower legislation and lawsuit held them up for awhile. Right now the last thing that company needs is unsold units.

Liz Bobo was even strangely compassionate in her quote. "It's an example right in our own community of the impact of the housing slump,"

How very insightful.

Scene This Week In...

“Excuse me sir. You are not allowed to take pictures in the mall.”

I was standing on the second level of the mall snapping pictures of what appeared to be a kids show for my Scene This Week In Columbia. The crowd was large, the strollers were double parked, and the kids seemed to having a blast. It was a perfect Columbia moment until the mall gendarme appeared.

My first reaction is that he must be kidding but he had that no nonsense mall security guard look about him. I simply said. “Well I already have, haven’t I?”

With that comment he gave me a look and then turned on his heel and left. I took more pictures.
How long has this no picture policy been in place?

It is a pretty stupid policy. I for one intend to ignore it. If I were GGP I’d be very careful about aggressively enforcing it too. It smacks of the same PR misstep as the poinsettia tree fiasco.

That same morning I had an appointment cancelled at the last moment so I used the opening in my otherwise hectic schedule to drop in for a cup of coffee at the Bean Hollow coffee shop on Main Street. As much as the Lakeside coffee shop in Columbia functions as the community center for Town Center, Bean Hollow does the same for Ellicott City. Interestingly, both coffee shops share the same DNA. They were both started by Mike Lentz who operated them as Riverside coffee shops before selling them off and moving to North Carolina.
Today, Bean Hollow is owned and operated by Gretchen Shuey.

You Just Can’t Make Some Folks Happy

The Sun reported today that Greg Hamm, the newly minted “General Manager” of Columbia for GGP, spoke to an “open meeting” of the Columbia Association board of directors about his firms plans for the redevelopment of Town Center. His predecessor had been heavily criticized for holding private meetings with individual community groups.

In case you are interested, I attended one of these meetings and posted about it here, here and here.

Still, it seems that just wasn’t good enough for Alex Hekimian, president for life of the Alliance for a Better Columbia who was quoted as saying “There have been a lot of private meetings, and those people have gotten a lot more information than was available in public sessions. That's troubling. If the information was good enough for the private groups, why isn't it good enough for the public session?"

Sheesh!

How would he know what was presented at those meetings if he didn’t attend one of these meetings?

I can see why some people refer to his group as the Alliance of Bitter Columbians.

We’ve Got A Great Dump

Last Saturday I packed up the last five years worth of retired computers and related peripherals and headed out to the county dump. Mama Wordbones has been badgering me to get rid of them since we first moved into this house two years ago.

I finally got around to it. My prior reluctance to perform this task was my inability to accept the fact that these machines no longer held any value. I knew they were kaput but I kept hoping that someone would want them.

I finally accepted the fact that no one wants them and so off to the dump I went.

Of course they don’t call these places dumps anymore. They are called landfills and ours is run by the Department of Environmental Services.

A dump by any other name is still a dump. It is a place where you dump the stuff that you no longer want or need. It is the repository of last resort for unwanted items.

Our dump is more like an orphanage though. In the old days I recall driving out to open area with tractors and bulldozers and just dumping my stuff in a big pile. At Alpha Ridge there are individual stations for electronics, plastics, metals, paper, yard waste and so on.

The dumpster for computers and televisions goes to a recycler who will extract the last bits of value out of them.

It is all very efficient and very cool.

Not That They Will But They Might ‘Cause They Can

My good friend Jim Troy who publishes the Howard/Arundel Report, reports that the portfolio of office buildings owned by GGP in Town Center are now “eligible” to be sold. Jim reports that “the 10-year moratorium on selling assets that were part of the Rouse Company REIT lapses this year on the approximately million square feet portfolio.”

Interesting. If GGP needed to generate cash this would certainly attract attention from investors, particularly foreign buyers looking to capitalize on the favorable exchange rates.

Ah, but that is unlikely to occur. GGP has too much at stake in Town Center right now. It will be much easier for them to achieve their redevelopment plans if they control the surrounding properties. Besides that, the Town Center buildings have a significant vacancy level right now (approximately 30%) which pushes down the value. It is always better to sell an office property when it is 90% leased preferably under long term leases to strong credit tenants. These types of tenants will be more attracted to these buildings if GGP is able to create the type of Town Center they envision.

Panhandling Columbia Style Part 2

Back in April of last year I wrote a post about a panhandler working the LL Bean plaza of the The Mall In Columbia. This past week I had my second panhandling experience while I was taking a picture for another post of the Brunswick Bowling sign on Carved Stone in Columbia.

While I was taking the picture I was approached by a stocky fellow who appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties. His hair was cut short and he was dressed in typical Columbia casual (warm up jacket, sweat pants, etc.). He walked with big strides towards me. Before he got too close he shouted out “Hey buddy could you help me out so I can catch the MARC train into Baltimore. I just got out of prison.”

He stopped and added. “Look I’m just bein honest here.”

My knee jerk reaction was a quick “Sorry pal,” and he simply shrugged his shoulders, turned and headed off again.

As he walked away I began to have second thoughts. What if he really had been recently released by some local correctional institution?

There are more than a few of them in Howard County after all. I mean why else would he just blurt that out?

I liked the fact that he was dealing with his post penal situation in such an open and honest manner. I called him back over and laid a twenty on him. He was a little surprised and very grateful.

As he strode off in the direction of the Starbucks on the other side of Carved Stone I had two thoughts. For one, there isn’t a MARC station anywhere near here. Secondly, if he truly had just been released from prison then panhandling was probably a violation of his parole.

Howard Lite

Is it just me or does anyone else agrees that the Sun has significantly pared down their Howard County coverage?

The new tabloid format cannot the mask the fact that there is lot less meat in the package. It isn’t as noticeable in the online version. It’s much more evident, to me anyway in the print version.

They seem to have come down to level of The Washington Post for Howard County coverage.

April at Merriweather

I just learned that Santana will be performing at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Sunday April 6th.

April 6th?

Did I miss something?

Have they enclosed Merriweather already?

They haven’t of course. This is the earliest I have ever heard of a show being held at the outdoor theatre. I don’t know about the other Santana fans out there but I just can’t see paying $55-$75 to sit in the cold and watch a concert.

Scene This Week In...

Okay, so I skipped a week there. My bad. I don’t know what it is but since Christmas I seem to have more things to do and less time to do them. January and February always seem like such bleak months anyway.

But there is beauty in a gray winter’s day and that is exactly what I found on College Avenue about a mile outside of the Ellicott City historic district for my Scene This Week In Ellicott City. These guys were just standing around in a pasture as I drove by. I spotted the white one at the crest of a hill and thought perhaps I could get a closer shot if I stopped and walked over to the fence. I pulled over on the shoulder, got out, walked over to the fence and started zooming in and snapping some shots. Before long the pinto decided to come to check me out which provided me the close up. Fortunately, the white horse was also curious and came close enough for me to get a decent picture too.

For the Scene In Columbia I picked the Brunswick bowling sign. I recall when Brunswick opened this bowling alley back in 1974. I was around back then and I recall it was a big deal to be able to go bowling in Columbia rather than heading over to the Brunswick lanes on Route 40 in Ellicott City. Today the bowling alley remains as popular as ever while the neighborhood surrounding it has gradually shifted from industrial to office and retail. Just across Snowden River Parkway, Rock Realty has demolished a warehouse formerly owned and occupied by an electrical contractor. They will be building a Chevy Chase Bank and possibly a hotel and other retail in its place.

Barely A Whimper

Another of the Mall In Columbia's original local tenants has left. Hyatt & Co men’s clothing store recently closed its mall store and relocated to Maple Lawn. How come there wasn't any outcry over this departure?

Hyatt caters to the fashion forward men’s market which is a retail category that has certainly taken it’s lumps over the years as mens clothes have trended to a more casual look. The store relocated from its original location to the Nordstrom’s wing of the mall when the mall expanded with the arrival of Nordstrom.

I guess this isn’t such big news because Hyatt is staying in business. They have managed to adjust to the times and that just doesn’t make much of a story.