Rockville auto dealership for sale

SK Certified Auto Sales is for sale itself. The dealership at 701 E. Gude Drive in Rockville is listed for $235,000. That price doesn't include the real estate, just the business itself. So the eventual transaction is likely to be for another used car business, rather than a change in land use. This is right near the Southlawn industrial area that the City of Rockville recently studied, in part to consider new uses for the area.

Mayor and Council to discuss outdoor dining smoking/vaping ban for Rockville restaurants tonight

A potential ban on smoking and vaping in outdoor dining areas in the City of Rockville will be a topic of discussion at tonight's Mayor & Council meeting, at 7:00 PM at City Hall. Councilmember Julie Palakovich Carr has submitted a sample ban for discussion purposes only.

Montgomery County currently does not have a similar ban on property it doesn't own, which some restaurant and property owners have said would put them at a disadvantage in Rockville, should outdoor smoking be prohibited in the city. City staff recommends holding a public hearing to get input on the topic, and has provided the ban passed by La Plata in 2006 for review by the Mayor & Council.

MoCo Council humiliated again as Rosslyn scores Nestle corporate HQ

750 jobs are coming to...Rosslyn, not Montgomery County, as Northern Virginia handed the impotent Montgomery County Council their briefcases again in the economic development game this week. Monday Properties announced Wednesday it has signed Nestle as the anchor tenant at 1812 N. Moore Street, a 35-story office tower in Rosslyn, Virginia. Nestle's corporate headquarters will relocate to the building from California, a state with an increasingly-poor business climate like MoCo.

$16 million in incentives from Arlington County and Virginia (humiliatingly, a small fraction of the $62 million-and-counting MoCo and Maryland taxpayers had to shell out just to move the Marriott deck chair down the Titanic deck from Rock Spring to downtown Bethesda) were just part of the success story. More business-friendly tax rates and regulations, Metro proximity and direct highway access were some of the advantages Rosslyn enjoyed. "Virginia offers a business-friendly environment," Nestle said in a press release Wednesday.

"Easy access to transportation" was a major factor, according to the Washington Post. 1812 N. Moore is right at the Rosslyn Metro station, and has direct highway access to I-66, I-395, the Whitehurst Freeway, Jefferson Davis Highway, and the George Washington Memorial Parkway, plus straight shots to Reagan National and Dulles airports.

Virginia was already home to over 70 corporate headquarters, and to many more Fortune 500 corporate headquarters than Montgomery County or Maryland. Nestle is a Fortune Global 500 company.

According to the Post, Virginia had been courting Nestle for over a year. Not a word was spoken about pursuing Nestle by Montgomery County elected officials during that time. As the top food company on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Nestle would have been a good fit for the White Oak area, near the FDA. Or in an office tower above the Wheaton or Bethesda Metro stations. The Council didn't even try.

And so, the humiliation continues. Montgomery County has failed to attract a single major corporate headquarters in two decades. It is the only jurisdiction in the D.C. region to suffer a net loss in private sector jobs since 2000; all others around us had a net gain. Our elected officials' intentional failure to complete our master plan highway system has left us with the worst traffic congestion in the nation, and no direct access to Dulles International Airport, the preferred flight hub for international companies.

As a result, Montgomery County finds itself a bedroom community for the job centers elsewhere in our region. Our private sector economy is moribund. The County is running a long-term structural budget deficit, as expenditures continue to swamp revenues. Even our once top-rated school system in now in a steady decline.

It's clear our County elected officials don't understand how the private sector business world works, and have no interest in learning. Time and again, they've proven they can't hit major league pitching when it comes to economic development. The results are being borne by the taxpayers in the form of record taxes, to make up for the low revenues our incompetent County Council has generated through its failed policies.

Voters will have to finish the job in 2018 they began by approving term limits in 2016. Throw the bums out.

SnowBots temporarily closed by Montgomery County

SnowBots, the "snowcream" and bubble tea shop at 1701 Rockville Pike, was temporarily shut down by the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services yesterday afternoon. No reason was given for the closure, but a notice was posted on the door by HHS.

Pandora Seafood House and Bar opening at Rockville Town Square

The Rockville Town Square tenant roster was updated yesterday, and a seafood restaurant is on the way in. Pandora Seafood House and Bar will take over the space recently vacated by American Tap Room on Maryland Avenue. This will be Rockville's first major seafood restaurant since Phillip's closed at 1775 Rockville Pike a few years ago.

Rockville construction update: Mission BBQ (Photos)

There's still a long way to go at Mission BBQ. The barbecue restaurant moving into Wintergreen Plaza will be in the space vacated by Benjarong, at 885 Rockville Pike.

MoCo Council quietly using loot from recordation tax hike for Silver Spring Transit Center debacle

When the Montgomery County Council raised taxes to an all-time record level last May, the heist included a hike in the recordation tax residents pay when selling their homes. This increase was broadly sold as a "school construction funding" mechanism. And a hike in the Recordation Tax Premium was ostensibly to provide funds for County capital projects, and $40-50 million for affordable housing and rent assistance, according to then-Council President Nancy Floreen.

Instead, the County Council now plans to spend at least $4,210,000 of the Recordation Tax Premium on legal fees for the infamous Silver Spring Transit Center debacle. You know, the overblown garage that took nine years to construct, and still wasn't built right?

When running for reelection in 2014, the Council repeatedly insisted that taxpayers would not be on the hook for any more SSTC-related money, beyond the massive $47,000,000 over-budget spending by that point. They immediately broke that promise only a month after election day, by appropriating another whopping $21 million for a slapdash patching of serious structural weaknesses in the transit center. Those fixes were only effective in the minds of the Council, as the building itself lacks the slip joints needed to handle the loads of buses. By the time these weaknesses become fatal flaws, of course, the current Council will be out of office.

But not before ripping off taxpayers again this year.

Instead of spending on needed transportation and facility projects which have been postponed, money is being taken from this specific funding source for the transit center legal costs.

The County is unlikely to win this lawsuit, primarily because neither the executive branch nor the County Council with oversight authority took action when flaws were first discovered. Only after the structure was essentially complete in 2012 (it would not open until 2015) did the County begin to press contractors about the flaws. And it remains to be determined if the County's contracts even allow for recovery of legal fees, including this new $4.2 million.

After witnessing the Council's approval of an illegal use of funds by the Parks Department, and a $900,000 cost overrun for a Bethesda drainpipe that puts the Pentagon's $640 toilet seat to shame, you may want to follow this latest (ab)use of your money by the County Council.

The Council will hear public testimony on the proposed appropriation on February 7, at 1:30 PM at the Council Office Building, at 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville.