Panel to outline progress on Rockville Villages program on October 8

The progress of the Rockville Villages program, a concept designed to provide community support for seniors aging in place, will be detailed at a public meeting on Saturday, October 8, 2016 from 10:00 AM to noon in the Carnation Room at the Rockville Senior Center, located at 1150 Carnation Drive. A panel of village leaders from Rockville and elsewhere in Montgomery County will discuss their experiences so far, and answer questions from the audience. They will also be available to speak individually after the event.

Representatives from the six villages forming within Rockville will also be on hand to provide information to those interested in finding out more. A tour of the senior center is planned, as well.

The panel will be moderated by Pazit Aviv, the Villages Coordinator from the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services.

Acqua Nails staff leaving for Amber Door Day Spa in Rockville (Photo)

There appears to be a mass exodus from Acqua Nails in Rockville Town Square. According to a sign posted at the nail spa at 100 Gibbs Street, the manager and staff are moving a block north to Amber Door Day Spa at 275 N. Washington Street. The phone number is moving with them also: 301-838-8599.

Lotte Plaza Market replacing old Twinbrook Safeway (Photos)

The question of what would replace the vacant Safeway in Twinbrook has been answered. Lotte Plaza Market, a local Asian grocery store chain, is the new tenant. Coincidentally, the very first Lotte Plaza Market opened in Rockville in 1976.

Signs are out in several different languages, including English, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese. I risk sounding like a broken record to say that this opening will further solidify Rockville's place as one of the largest and fastest-growing Asian communities in the region. Stay tuned for an opening date.

Washington Property Co. acquires 2nd I-270 corridor office building, as CubeSmart opens (Photos)

Washington Property Company announced yesterday that it has acquired a second office building in the same I-270 corridor office park where it has just converted another one into a self-storage facility. That facility, under the CubeSmart brand, has just opened at 4 Research Place in Rockville.

WPC is more bullish on office space with the second building, 1 Research Court, which it and partner Alex. Brown Realty, Inc. plan to continue to operate as an office property. The partners acquired it for about $17 million. Built in 2001, the office building is 89% occupied by 14 tenants. WPC plans to upgrade the building's lobby, elevators, bathrooms and fitness center, to maintain its competitive edge in the market.

“We believe that our planned value-add improvements, along with a dearth of new supply, will increase this property’s appeal to small- and medium-sized businesses, including those in the life sciences," WPC principal Andrew Eshelman said in a statement yesterday. Life sciences and biotech are two bright spots in the moribund Montgomery County private sector economy, and the 270 corridor is the place to be for those industries.

CubeSmart is one of the top four self-storage brands in America, and space can be rented now either online, or by visiting the site in-person. If you've driven past on 270 recently, you've probably noticed the new building facade that faces the highway. The building has 715 climate-controlled storage units, and indoor, air-conditioned corridors to reach them.

Photos courtesy Washington Property Company

Demolition clearing way for JBG's Upper Rock retail project (Photos)

Demolition of an existing office building at 5 Choke Cherry Road in Rockville is underway. The JBG Companies project there will revamp an office park just off I-270 and Shady Grove Road, and provide convenient retail for the new housing already built in the Gables Upper Rock community.

Tenants on-board already include a 14,600 SF CVS Pharmacy opening next summer, and a 16,000 SF MOM's Organic Market expected to deliver by next fall. MOM's CEO and Founder, Scott Nash, is a Montgomery County resident.

"Our customers have told us over the years how much they’d love a MOM’s between our Rockville and Frederick locations,” Nash said in a statement yesterday. “We’re thrilled to provide what they’ve been asking for with the opening next fall of our Northern Rockville/Gaithersburg store.”

An additional 4100 SF building will be offered for lease to a restaurant and smaller-scale retail tenants. JBG's portion of Upper Rock is 4.5 acres out of the total 20 being redeveloped. New Urbanist architect Andres Duany, the master planner for the Upper Rock redevelopment, is locally best known for his work on the Kentlands.

Renderings courtesy The JBG Companies

Dawn Crafton Dance Connection opens in Rockville (Photos)

The first visitors to
Dawn Crafton Dance Connection
enter moments after the
ribbon cutting; note the
boatload of trophies high above
the reception desk

Dawn Crafton Dance Connection, the newest tenant at Rockville Town Square, officially opened its doors yesterday evening. A dance performance by students went forward as planned, despite a passing storm.

Rockville Chamber of Commerce
director Ed Harrington (John Marshall Bank)
and the Chamber's
President/CEO Michelle Day

Then city and Rockville Chamber of Commerce officials helped cut the ribbon before a large crowd that had jammed onto the sidewalk on Gibbs Street. After the ribbon cutting, it took several minutes for the many visitors to stream into the newly-revealed lobby and studios for tours and free lessons.

For more information, or to register for classes, visit their website.

Dawn Crafton Dance Connection

152 Gibbs Street

301-840-8400

Residents to hold meeting Sept. 8 to fight bus depot plans at Blair Ewing Center

With the Blair Ewing Center and Mark Twain Park on Avery Road back in the crosshairs of a Montgomery County desperate to find a new school bus depot site, local residents are planning to meet on Thursday, September 8, at the Bauer Drive Community Recreation Center at 14625 Bauer Drive in Rockville. Blair Ewing, and the Oaks Landfill at 6001 Olney-Laytonsville Road in Olney, are the two known finalists on the County Council's list.

A couple of things are clear right now. First, there is no other "perfect" or even serviceable site that can hold the number of buses proposed anywhere in the County beyond the handful already fought over, and the two alternatives now on the table. If there were, the County would have acquired it in 2015.

Second, County politicians are now engaged in a cynical game. Rather than face the legal consequences of admitting they blew it, and that their "smart growth initiative" was simply a scheme to benefit developers, the County Executive and Council are now going poke the hornets' nests in Aspen Hill and Olney, and see if they can figure out which one will emit the fewest angry bees.

Conversely, they may also tally up the number of votes they believe will be lost in a particular community. During the Westbard controversy in Bethesda, it accidentally slipped out that some on the County Council were literally having their staff tally the number of votes they might lose, if they enraged the voters in the Westbard area. Ultimately, their math told them they could take the hit and survive.

Counting votes probably won't help here, though. Aspen Hill has vigorously fought the previous bus depot plan, and Walmart, and won both times. Olney, with its strong civic association, likewise was the only community in the County that was able to kill a planned Bus Rapid Transit route.

Unless they've come up with a magical third option, or go back to Westmore and Carver, it looks like the Council will have to pick its political poison.