“For years, we’ve been hearing from our members that they would love to see us expand into Maryland," DMV Iron Gym owner Leo Williams said yesterday. "We were excited by the central location of Federal Plaza in Rockville, and look forward to bringing a state-of-the-art gym and training facility to Montgomery County.”
The 16,000 square foot gym will open in September 2023. It will be located next to Micro Center.
This is the former Pier 1 space, which in the center's current configuration is technically the anchor space for the property. Walmart had sought to open an 80,000-square-foot store at Pike Center twelve years ago, until its plans were blocked by the Montgomery County Council.
Golfdom has an existing store in the region in Tysons, and touts itself as "THE Golfer's Store." The chain's lease at Pike Center was first reported by the Washington Business Journal.
Photo courtesy Golfdom Tysons
When Miller's Ale House opened in 2012, it looked like a new age of nightlife might be upon us in Rockville. Bar Louie and American Tap Room had also just opened at Rockville Town Square. And there were old standbys like Gordon Biersch and Hooters. Look around in 2022, and every single one of those businesses is gone.
It started with a major hike in the County energy tax, one that saw businesses like Target and Magruder's having to dim their lighting, posting apologetic signs explaining it was due to the energy tax. A series of other anti-business votes were taken by the Council in the ensuing years, over the objections of business owners.
At the same time, the Council also lashed out at food trucks. Part of the bubbling up of a potentially vibrant new era of nightlife was the new phenomenon of food trucks, which would park in legal parking spots in busy areas at lunchtime in Bethesda, Rockville and Silver Spring. Some would also park in nightlife areas later, to serve patrons emerging after bars closed for the night.
Over the last decade, at least 21 nightspots closed in downtown Bethesda alone. Incredibly, all of those closures followed the Council's 2012 "Nighttime Economy Initiative." Hyped to the max by some local media outlets at the time, the initiative - along with the rest of the misguided Council actions of the last decade - ended up tanking the nighttime economy countywide. The demise of Miller's is only the latest example of that collapse.
The 18-wheeler delivering one truck to the facility broke down while entering the driveway, blocking the northbound lanes of Rockville Pike for a short time. Is that an El Cap Granite Rivian? We've only seen Launch Green on-site so far.
Photo via Rockville City police
