Rockville Amazon Fresh store: "Go big," or go home?

A long-completed but yet-to-open Amazon Fresh store filled with empty shelves on Shady Grove Road has become the local poster child for a nationwide freeze on Amazon's expansion plans in the grocery sector. Amazon successfully opened Amazon Fresh stores in Friendship Heights and Chevy Chase Lake, but the 270 Center store on the border of Rockville and Gaithersburg has been frozen in time since the fall of 2022. Yesterday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy offered the first update on the cloudy future of the retail giant's bricks-and-mortar grocery adventure to the Financial Times, and it was a vaguely positive one.

Empty shelves inside the completed-but-unopened
Shady Grove Amazon Fresh store

Amazon plans to "go big" on expansion of its physical grocery stores this year, Jassy said in an exclusive interview with the FT. He said the halt he ordered on the openings and leasing of new locations cost the company $720 million in Q4 of 2022, and blamed the problems that warranted the pause on the pandemic. He said that now "we're hopeful that in 2023 we have a format we want to go big on, on the physical side."

That sounds like we can expect the Shady Grove store to go forward this year, and that the hysterical forecasts of all Amazon Fresh stores closing will prove to have been premature. Surprisingly, Jassy sounded more bullish on bricks-and-mortar stores than on the company's Amazon Fresh online delivery service, saying "people want to actually touch and feel" the foods they are buying before making a purchase. The FT noted that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had promised to remain engaged on the grocery push after stepping aside as CEO in 2021. It's likely Bezos wasn't too pleased to hear the company hesitate on a plan that was meant to facilitate major growth in Amazon's online same-day-delivery service, which is dependent upon having neighborhood hubs like the Amazon Fresh grocery stores function as warehouses.

Bezos has a home in Washington, D.C. You can be sure he is going to be monitoring the progress of a Shady Grove store that is practically right under his nose in Montgomery County.

REWILD, Ever/Body open at Cabin John Village in Potomac

Cabin John Village is welcoming two new tenants to the shopping center in Potomac. REWILD is a houseplant store similar to The Sill that opened recently at Bethesda Row. A wide selection of plants is joined by planters, pots, accessories and plant-themed gifts and decor. They offer a free replanting service with purchase. Look for REWILD at 7937-C Tuckerman Lane, and watch a video preview of what you'll find.

Ever/Body is a spa offering treatments for skin, hair and body. Services include laser facials, Hydrafacial, Botox, Emsculpt NEO and more. Find Ever/Body at 11325 Seven Locks Road, in Suite 690.

Man arrested in Rockville allegedly thought he was meeting a teen girl, but she was really a cop

A Mount Airy, Maryland man traveled to Rockville on January 19. Police say he was expecting to meet up and have a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old girl he met on social media. She had informed him she was only 15, but he proceeded to "have sexually explicit conversations with her," detectives from the Montgomery County Vice and Intelligence Unit alleged in a press release this afternoon. When the man arrived at the agreed upon meeting place, he discovered that the teen girl was actually a police officer.

Todd Eugene Immel, 51,  was arrested and transported to the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit. He was charged with solicitation of a minor. Immel is currently being held without bond.

V&I detectives are concerned that there may be other victims who have been contacted by Immel. They are encouraging anyone who believes themselves to be a victim, or anyone with information related to this case, to contact the V&I Unit at 240-773-5958 or contact Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Callers may remain anonymous. 

Update on RASA Indian restaurant, opening soon in Rockville (Photos)

Construction of RASA Indian restaurant continues at the Montrose Crossing shopping center at 12033 Rockville Pike. Additional signage - a pedestrian-facing blade sign, and some of the "coming-soon" variety - has been installed on their future storefront. A new front door has been installed. RASA replaces Slapfish, which closed last November.

JK Beer & Wine closes in Rockville

JK Beer & Wine has closed at 800 Rockville Pike, in the Golden Arcade strip mall. Signage has been removed from the storefront (or maybe just covered over, for now). A sign in the window states the space is now available for lease. JK Beer & Wine opened here in November 2021, but is still open at its 331 Kentlands Boulevard location in Gaithersburg.

Rockville Wegmans-anchored Twinbrook Quarter development tops out

Construction of Phase 1 of B.F. Saul's Twinbrook Quarter development has topped out at the corner of Rockville Pike (MD 355) and Halpine Road in Rockville. Clark Construction, the lead contractor on the project, made the announcement this afternoon. Twinbrook Quarter has been the most highly-anticipated development in the city since Rockville Town Square, in no small part because its retail anchor will be a Wegmans grocery store. Clark nodded to that by noting that the amount of concrete it has poured for the 12-story building would fill 29,166 Wegmans shopping carts.

Photo courtesy Clark Construction

Rockville marijuana dispensary seeks parking waiver from City

Peake ReLeaf, a medical marijuana dispensary in the Chapman Center at 2001 Chapman Avenue, is asking the City of Rockville for a waiver from its current parking requirements. Specifically, it would like permission to reduce its parking mandate by 17 spaces. But if it receives the waiver, the number of surface parking spaces will remain the same. Why seek the waiver, then? It's slightly complicated.

The dispensary business is located in a property that received a previous parking waiver in 1982. That waiver allowed the property to be occupied by several tenants, under the condition that a portion of the building would remain vacant. Peak ReLeaf would now like to occupy that unused space with new medical offices, that would complement its existing retail functions. In order to do that, it must now either create 17 new parking spaces, or receive this waiver from the City.

Peake ReLeaf's parking study indicates that even at peak times of the day, only 70% of its surface parking spaces are filled. The Rockville Planning Commission will review the waiver request at its February 15, 2023 meeting. Planning staff are recommending approval of the waiver, citing the property's proximity to bike lanes and the Twinbrook Metro station. The City has not received any feedback from residents on the proposed waiver so far, but the staff report notes that there is no legal requirement to notify the public of parking waiver requests.