Dawson's Market is closing at 225 N. Washington Street at Rockville Town Square. The grocery store, which threatened to shutter before until the City of Rockville (a.k.a. you, the taxpayer) stepped in to provide a financial subsidy, will close at the end of June, owner Bart Yablonsky told The MoCo Show in a statement yesterday. I noticed the store was selling off a lot of kitchen equipment and cafe seating back in February (in fact, the auction listing remains online). When I messaged Dawson's Market on February 7 about the reason for liquidating so many items, the store declined to respond. The auction went forward on February 12, and the store remained open. No closure announcement has been posted on the Dawson's Market website or social media accounts as of this writing.
The departure of Dawson's is yet another blow to the struggling Rockville Town Square and Town Center, though the grocery store part of the development was troubled from the beginning. Major supermarket chains balked at the space that the original developer had built on spec with a grocery tenant in mind, finding it too small and hidden at the back of the property. Perhaps now that chains like Aldi, Lidl and Trader Joe's are in major expansion mode, and utilize smaller store footprints than Giant or Safeway, a bigger-drawing brand name will be willing to take another look at this opportunity. The typical Aldi is 22,000-square-feet, while a Trader Joe's can be only 10,000-15,000 SF.
Despite the fact that Dawson's wasn't what the original developer had in mind for this space, the unique selection of products and prepared foods, and events like wine tastings, helped it build a loyal-if-not-financially-sustainable customer base. Morguard, the new property owner of Rockville Town Square, now has the grocery store space and the long-vacant and large former American Tap Room, CVS Pharmacy, and Gordon Biersch spaces to fill. The company having its base in Canada probably isn't doing a Maryland property any favors, but Morguard doesn't even list the vacant RTS storefronts on its Leasing page.
I'm sure all the shootings and stabbings around Rockville Town Center really make people want to frequent stores like Dawsons.
ReplyDeleteLol what on earth. Are you the same person who claims North Bethesda is a "war zone?"
DeleteA person was put in prison for 65 years for stabbing and killing another person on Hungerford dr two years ago.
DeletePrices were higher than the big giant store and ALDI on the pike. The place looked cool though...
ReplyDeleteThe prices were inline with WFM, as was the merchandise and layout.
DeleteDawsons already received a bail out with tax money. An over priced store. We would be better off with a more successful chain
ReplyDeleteDawsons was always expensive and little to show for it. Hope a Trader Joe’s or Aldi replaces it
ReplyDeleteMorguard and moribund.
ReplyDeleteAs longtime former council member Pierzchala said about the Town Square/Center : "We blew it."
Another failure at RTS. So sad, not even 20 years and the pathetic leftist leadership of this County has a once vibrant, desirable and enjoyable gathering spot devolve into a criminal welcoming area. RTS is the bellwether as Rockville is the County seat. Mark Pierzchala is not only right about blowing it at RTS, but how about Red Gate golf course and its needless failure. All you bozos that continue to vote for these clueless, talentless people (maybe someday authentic people with actual leadership and economic acumen will run for office here in Moco; but I doubt it) will figure it out. Dawsons was bailed out with 400k and still could not pull it off.What a shame. Time to demolish RTS I suppose.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Choice Hotels and Dawsons were heavily subsidized by the City and both are no more in the Town Center.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the plan for Red Gate anyway? Last I checked it's being allowed to become overgrown park??
ReplyDeleteIf you actually lived in Rockville you would have been at HTH @ Red Gate instead of typing that comment.
DeleteAny suggestions commenters? Always bitch and moan at the city. Any ideas to solve the problem? Like let put In Amazon return location free parking bring people to town center or food bank for all Rockville Charities it has the proper equipment. And could act as food pantry. Lets have some outside the box discussions
ReplyDeleteI think we should position RTC as the next Chinatown. Similar to flushing New York. Too much design flaw at this point, RTC needs a differentiation point
DeleteAmazon return??? ROTFLMAO! Good one.
DeleteRed gate overgrown park exactly what the citizens voted for and looks great
ReplyDeleteRobert, i like your local news, but this article has no mention of the Rockville Town Square owner, Morguard. They select tenants for the retail space and set the rent. Weird to blame the city (save for the subsidies, yes) when a private company is unable to attract talent to RTC away from Pike and Rose or Rio/Crown.
ReplyDeleteRTC has so much potential. I do welcome a grocery store chain like a TJ's (the one on the Pike is always so crowded!). We'll see
8:53: Thank you for your readership! If you read the last paragraph of the article, you will see that I did discuss the Morguard troubles (although some date back to many years before Morguard acquired the property - design mistakes, parking policies, agreements between the City and previous developer).
DeleteThank you and apologies, had not seen that for some weird reason.
DeleteNo other shopping center along the pike is failing like RTC. What sets RTC apart is the excessive and ineffective involvement by the City of Rockville. That goes from disastrous design (that made the County pull out from co-financing the Peking) years ago to trying to curate the commercial tenants to fit some silly vision of upscale. The solution is for the City to get out. The City is great at parks and public works and cultural programs—it’s a disaster on economic development and urban planning.
ReplyDeleteWasn't there a similar problem with the Rockville Mall many years ago? Poor planning Ect.
DeleteThis was never a joint venture between the County and City, and people need to stop equating the two bodies. RTC is the sole venture of the city of Rockville, that being said, it did not control the actual development, it gave control to Federal Realty from the start. Fault for failure falls on them.
DeleteThe county was going to help bond the parking but backed out when the height of the whole development was halved. Rockville is super involved in everything RTC. Blaming the developer is fair but excluding the City from blame is silly. Federal seems to do ok in other places. City of Rockville is the distinguishing player at RTC.
DeleteEnabling and encouraging RTC to become a thriving Chinatown is an awesome idea.
ReplyDeleteTJs would be the most likely replacement - they ALWAYS chose locations with a horrible parking situation. Add in a Chick Fil A and town center is rocking busy.
ReplyDeleteMore Asian themed restaurants will not bring in traffic since the neighboring West End is like 90% white - that's where the foot traffic is going to come from.
What Rockville needs is to make space for more local businesses. The downtown is filled with corporate chains. We should aim to look more like Frederick, MD. At least ONE locally owned coffee shop in the downtown area please.
ReplyDeleteHave you look at Main Street Frederick lately? It's not a pretty sight.
DeleteBTW, there are several locally owned coffee shops in the Rockville area, they survive by staying away from Starbucks territory designated in their contracts.
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