Barnes & Noble Rockville store moving to Congressional Plaza (Photos)

Barnes & Noble will be moving its Rockville store from Montrose Crossing to Congressional Plaza next year. Federal Realty, which owns both shopping centers, has confirmed the move. This explains the recent relocations of several tenants at the shopping center from the wing on the north side of the property, which is where Barnes & Noble will be located.

Coming Soon signage in empty storefronts
for the future Barnes & Noble at
Congressional Plaza

What hasn't been announced yet is that the new Congressional Plaza location will be one of Barnes & Noble's new format stores, similar to the one it is opening at the Mosaic District in Northern Virginia. These stores are smaller in size, while still offering a cafe for customers unlike competitor Amazon Books at Federal Realty's Bethesda Row property.

Montgomery County on sidelines again as Indian software firm Zoho chooses Texas

Indian software firm Zoho has completed a nationwide search for the location of its new U.S. headquarters, and the winner is Austin, Texas, not Montgomery County. As is the case more often than not, there's no public indication that Montgomery even made any effort to recruit the company, much less mount a competitive bid. Zoho currently has a small customer service office in Austin with 60 employees, but when they relocate their current California U.S. HQ to Texas, they will ultimately host 500 jobs in a new, 100,000 SF office building, the Austin American-Statesman reported early this morning.

New interchange TXDOT
is building by the future site
of the Zoho HQ, one of
four to eliminate signaled
intersections and reduce congestion

Best of all, Austin didn't even have to put together an expensive package of giveaways to win the HQ. Zoho cited its employees' growing frustration with traffic congestion and expensive housing costs in California in its choice of Austin as an improvement. In researching the site of their new Austin HQ, I noticed they chose land on SH 71, which the Texas Department of Transportation says "serves as a major corridor for motorists traveling to and from the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport." While Montgomery County's elected officials are actively fighting any attempt to increase highway capacity here, TXDOT has a whopping four projects to reduce congestion on SH 71 alone.

Google Maps shows how close the
Zoho HQ site will be to
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport,
a quick 7-minute drive

How important are highway access and infrastructure to economic development? They are critical. According to Google Maps, the site chosen by Zoho at SH 71 and Kellam Road is only 7 minutes from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The need for easy airport access for an international firm like Zoho could not be provided in Montgomery County, thanks to the County Council blocking construction of the planned new Potomac River crossing to Dulles Airport. Heckuva job, Brownie!

A quick search finds flights from Austin-Bergstrom to a whopping 40 cities in India, including New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Imagine how significant that 7-minute access is for this India-based company, and its executives and sales team.

The Texas newspaper also reported that analysts see the Zoho decision as having benefits beyond the 500 jobs - and collateral economic activity and revenue - the HQ will generate. Because Zoho is an Indian firm and has offices around the world, Austin economist Angelos Angelou told the paper, “it could lead to the attraction of additional companies because now in the eyes of other Indian companies, Austin will be on their radar screen.” Who are some of Zoho's customers? Amazon, Uber, Facebook and Netflix.

While Austin celebrates another economic development victory, Montgomery County has only received more bad news on that front this week. Not only did County officials tell our super-low-energy County Council that MoCo's failing taxpayer-subsidized business incubators are hemorrhaging $1 million a year, but the short-lived CEO of the County's economic development company announced Monday he is quitting...to move to Texas. Smart man, obviously. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." You can't make this stuff up, folks.

With the "new" County Council having taken no action on highway congestion or the economic development crisis in Montgomery County after over four months in office, and their plan to hike both County employees' salaries and your property taxes bigly, could Democrat David Blair be looking at a 2022 encore run for County Executive? He lost the 2018 Democratic primary by only 77 votes, and the only other local pol not-so quietly planning to run is failed Councilman Hans Riemer, Riemer is not only literally the least-popular Council member in Montgomery County based on voting results, but is infamous for tanking the County's nighttime economy with his disastrous Nighttime Economy initiative.

Will Montgomery County business leaders (and voters) finally take the advice of Bob Ehrlich they so far have rejected: "Get dangerous," and elect a few Republicans to the Council? Or will they just keep slouching towards Gomorrah?

Quarter Pounder Deluxe returns to McDonald's

It's been awhile since McDonald's had a Deluxe Quarter Pounder on the menu. Or any burger topped with mayonnaise, for that matter. Even the venerable Daily Double is no longer recognized as a secret menu item. But McDonald's has just brought back the Deluxe Quarter Pounder - with a few changes.

First, the name has changed. It's now called, "Quarter Pounder Deluxe," instead of Deluxe Quarter Pounder.

Second, it now features a freshly cooked beef patty. Patties were still frozen when the Deluxe was last on the menu.

Third, it features Roma tomatoes, almost unheard of for a fast food burger.

Fourth, and most importantly, they have added ketchup as a topping on the Deluxe. McDonald's hasn't offered a burger topped with both ketchup and mayonnaise together since the much-missed Big and Tasty. This gives the Deluxe a Whopper-style flavor.

Whole leaf lettuce, raw onion, pickles and two slices of American cheese round out the Deluxe toppings. At $5.99, it's mighty pricey for a single-patty burger, though.

Montgomery County Council proposes property tax hike

4.8% tax increase

planned

The Montgomery County Council, contrary to fake news headlines, is planning to raise your property taxes this year. A required legal announcement published by the Council confirms the planned tax hike in black and white, despite County officials' false claims of no increase.

"Notice of a proposed real property tax increase," the legal notice proclaims. "The County Council of Montgomery County proposes to increase real property taxes," it states. Despite annual false claims of "holding the line on property taxes," MoCo property taxes automatically increase due to rising assessments. The only way the Council could fulfill a promise of "holding the line," or "no tax increase," would be to lower the tax rate by the amount required to offset that automatic increase.

According to the Council's required legal statement, the Council "is considering not reducing its real property tax rate enough to fully offset increasing assessments." Instead, the Council is proposing to hike property taxes by 4.8%.

But while the Council is required by law to disclose their planned tax hike in the legal announcement, County officials and their friends in the media have been falsely claiming no tax increase is proposed. "No tax increases in Montgomery County proposed budget," blared a fake headline on WTOP.com. "It’s what residents don’t see in Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich’s proposed 2020 budget that might impress them the most: no tax increases," the article falsely announced.

The Washington Post's Jennifer Barrios, who never wrote a single article covering the general election County Council At-Large race in 2018 (and unprofessionally didn't even respond to emails during the campaign), tells an even bigger whopper of a lie this morning on the Post website by claiming a tax cut. All three local media statements are entirely false, as these photographs of the actual legal tax hike announcement clearly show.

Fact Check: Because County elected officials and the County cartel-controlled media have told this lie annually for many years, Post fact-checking standards require me to award them the new "Bottomless Pinocchio" rating for those who "repeat a false claim so many times that they are, in effect, engaging in campaigns of disinformation.” 

Rockville Post Office mural is now a stamp

The United States Postal Service has issued a new line of stamps commemorating some of the best Depression-era post office murals from around the country. One that made the cut is right here in Rockville, although to make things confusing, it is currently located in the Rockville Police Department headquarters at 2 W. Montgomery Avenue. That's because the police HQ used to be the Rockville post office.

"Sugarloaf Mountain" by artist Judson Smith (1880-1962) was completed in 1940, and depicts the famous local peak south of Frederick near Barnesville. This is the mountain you can easily see from tall buildings in Montgomery County.

You can order the stamps now from the USPS website. A sheet of 10 forever stamps is $5.50. Designed to raise morale in the Great Depression, perhaps the mural can now help raise morale in moribund Montgomery County.

Photo courtesy USPS

Hot Pot City construction update

There has been significant progress inside the future Hot Pot City, located on "Regal Row" at 199 E. Montgomery Avenue in Rockville. Lighting fixtures resembling Chinese lanterns are in place, as is the bar and a wall with the restaurant's logo and statuary. This was formerly Tara Asia's spot.

Montgomery County headlines:

Neuhaus Chocolates, world-renowned chocolatier, to open Bethesda store

Affordable apartments in downtown Silver Spring

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Java Nation opening Rockville location

Kensington's Java Nation is opening a new location in White Flint. It will be next to Hank Dietle's Tavern, in a space vacated by Helen's restaurant. A sign out front refers to the new location as a "social house and roastery."

Java Nation has operated in Kensington since 2012. Their menu includes hearty breakfast entrees, sandwiches and wraps, pupusas, beef tacos and chicken mushroom empanadas. Of course, a full menu of hot and cold coffee drinks, teas and cocoa is available, as are beer and wine during happy hour. The menu for the new Rockville location is still under wraps as of this morning.