Pike Center has been a fixture at 12137 Rockville Pike for decades, surviving several waves of economic tumult and retail trends, and even boasting a movie theater from 1964 to 1988. When it faced its biggest challenge yet after the 2008 "Great Recession," the shopping center's ownership thought it had found a solution to revitalize the property: welcoming Walmart as its new anchor tenant. The Montgomery County Council stepped in and aggressively blocked the Walmart plan, ultimately deep-sixing the ubiquitous big box store's expansion plans in the County, which would have begun with superstores at Pike Center and in Aspen Hill. Instead of reversing its decline and filling empty storefronts via the incredible foot traffic Walmart would have generated, Pike Center saw some of its longest-standing tenants exit, the most-recent being stalwart Goodyear. Now Pike Center's years may be numbered, as the newest proposal for the property's future would replace the strip mall with a 760-unit apartment development.
A virtual public meeting has been scheduled for the proposed redevelopment of Pike Center for June 24, 2024 at 6:30 PM. You can call in by phone at 301-715-8592 and use passcode 584842, or join by internet at http://tiny.cc/fpq9yz and use passcode 815 6544 6741.
The new development proposed by property owner Kimco Realty would have 760 residential units, with 15% Moderately-Priced Dwelling Units (MPDUs), and up to 90,000 gross floor area of retail and restaurant space. You can't say Pike Center didn't try to stick with retail, as business would have been booming there today if their original Walmart plan hadn't been blocked by the County Council. Now Pike Center will likely be demolished, and the proposed Aspen Hill Walmart site remains an abandoned property a decade later. The shopping centers of Rockville Pike are the largest generator of commercial revenue in the State of Maryland, but that revenue will decline as more and more of them are redeveloped into housing, which generates more new costs than revenue for the County. Heckuva job, Brownie!
Oh boy! Let's all go live in government-mandated apartments on Rockville Pike! Just like our friends in the Soviet Union and NYC.
ReplyDeleteThats the way it is becoming. They are so worried about having more housing that they do not care about traffic problems or how this will effect schools and parking. Not everyone wants to take public transportation! And push come to shove many will move out of this county and taking their income with them!
DeleteNo one is "mandating" that you live in this apartment building that may or may not even be constructed in your boomer nimby lifetime. What a dumb thing to whine about.
DeleteShirley you jest! Walmart was a joke from the get-go at this location due to the size of the parcel and the volume of vehicle traffic it would create. btw, not very much of its traffic is "foot". Apparently you missed the list of new tenants coming soon to this center. This includes; Luna Hall, another food hall of Asian cuisine to compete with the waning Pike Kitchen, and fill the gap left by P&R's miserable failure The Block. Buena Onda Baja Taqueria offering Ecuadorian cuisine, will also join the existing merchants in the coming months. I don't think these tenants, along with the existing TGI Friday's and Diamonds Direct have signed short term leases, or have leass expiring in the near future.
ReplyDeleteNo. And don't call me Shirley....
ReplyDeleteNo, I didn't ask you a question. Surly...
Delete