Pike Chicken and Beer first confirmed tenant at future Rockville Asian food hall

The first confirmed vendor at the Pike Kitchen Asian food hall at 1066 Rockville Pike is Pike Chicken and Beer. They tentatively expect to open in September. The food hall is located in the Edmonston Crossing shopping center, next to Taco Bell.

Slapfish Rockville opening mid-July

I have a couple of updates on fast-casual seafood shack Slapfish. Their grand opening at the Montrose Crossing shopping center on Rockville Pike is now scheduled for mid-July.

Slapfish offers at least one region-exclusive item at its locations, and they have announced the menu here will feature a Clobster Cake, made with half Maryland crab and half New England lobster. That will be in addition to the standard menu, with popular favorites like Clobster Grilled Cheese, the Ultimate Fish Taco, and Chowder Fries.

The rapidly-growing chain expects to open ten locations over the next six months. It currently operates 13 restaurants.

Rockville construction update: Starbucks at Pike & Rose

Here's a look at the progress inside Starbucks at Pike & Rose. The current store at the corner of the property will relocate into this space at 11860 Grand Park Avenue this summer.

Slight changes to new cell tower proposed for Derwood

NB+C, LLC proposed building a new cell tower in Derwood last August, which would be at an unspecified property "near Derwood Road." While the exact spot they plan to erect it remains secret, a couple of new details have emerged.

The tower is now proposed to be 5 feet shorter at 150' tall. They also now say it is not expected to have any aircraft warning lights on it. Many homes are located in the vicinity of the proposed site.

Demolition permit issued for Mr. Banh Mi space in Rockville

The Ritchie Center has requested and received an interior demolition permit for the space vacated by Mr. Banh Mi at the shopping center on Rockville Pike. This suggests they may be making it more appealing for a prospective retail, rather than restaurant, tenant. Mr. Banh Mi closed at the end of 2017.

VisArts VisAbility Art Lab takes over Toy Kingdom space at Rockville Town Square (Photos)

VisArts once again steps in to fill an empty storefront in Rockville Town Square. VisArts VisAbility Art Lab is now open at 36-C Maryland Avenue, formerly home to Toy Kingdom. There was a lot of construction going on there, so it was somewhat unexpected that it was not for a major new retail or restaurant business.

Daily Kos exposes MoCo "covert Republican/developer Council slate" in Democratic primary

A cabal of developers and Republicans is spending big to determine the winners of the Democratic primary election in Montgomery County on June 26, according to an investigation published by the Daily Kos. "There is a covert Republican/developer slate for Council," author Eric Hensal writes. He identifies the covert GOP/developer slate as Democrats Gabe Albornoz, Marilyn Balcombe, Evan Glass, Hans Riemer (in the At-Large race), Andrew Friedson (District 1), and Sidney Katz (District 3).

Hensal says these are the "candidates Republican/Developer donors in Montgomery County want elected in its Democratic primary." He also cites David Blair as the covert group's Democratic choice for County Executive, and says campaign donations show developers abandoning Blair's rival Roger Berliner for Blair and Rose Krasnow.

Hensal notes the covert financing effort is a change from 2002's overt developer effort that successfully elected the laughably-named "End Gridlock" slate to the Council. The "End Gridlock" slate infamously went on to double and triple the amount of traffic gridlock, by allowing unlimited development without providing the highway capacity needed to support it.

To reach his conclusions, Hensal examined patterns of donations, and connections among donors contributing to the same candidates. He determined that many of the donors who are supporting the covert slate are also donors to Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. Hensal also concluded that simply using public financing did not eliminate developer influence on candidates doing so - they still receive donations from developers, and can leverage those developer donations for more public money.

In identifying the covert slate of candidates, Hensal concludes that, "The most generous view is that these candidates are simply a consensus of the Republican/Developer community. However, an ongoing coordinated effort to elect them is very possible."