Cinnabon to open this weekend at Montgomery Mall

The return of Cinnabon is upon us. I've been seeing increased construction activity at their space in recent weeks. Now Westfield Montgomery Mall reports that the bakery no real mall can be without will be opening this weekend. Look for Cinnabon in the Dining Terrace next to Urban Plates, by the escalator.

Rockville chosen for microtransit pilot program

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation is launching a pilot program to test microtransit in Rockville, Wheaton, and Glenmont. Riders would be able to request a small shuttle bus from designated pickup and drop-off points using an app on their phones. They would receive an estimated time of arrival for the bus.

A public hearing on the pilot will be held on Thursday, April 25, 2019, at 6:30 PM at A. Mario Loiederman Middle School, which is located at 12701 Goodhill Road off Weller Road in Silver Spring. Attendees will have the opportunity to speak, and to learn more about the pilot program.

MCDOT has released these two (very blurry) maps showing the zones for the pilot. In Rockville, the pilot zone appears to include Rockville Town Center, Hungerford and part of Rockville Pike near those areas.

Story House bookmobile opens bricks-and-mortar bookstore in Rockville

The Story House, a trolley bookmobile marketing books to children and families in Rockville for the last two years, has just opened a bricks-and-mortar location at Rockville Town Square. It is located inside of Dawson's Market at 225 N. Washington Street. Books also remain for sale aboard the trolley. The Story House at Dawson's Market is open from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM.

Rockville construction update: Main Street apartments (Photos)

Here's a look at the progress at the construction site of the future Main Street apartments at 50 Monroe Place. This is a very unique project in Rockville, and in the region. 25% of the units will be set aside for the disabled, and 75% will be affordable.

The development is on the former site of the historic IBM office building, and was previously going to be redeveloped as senior housing before that project fell through. That opened up the opportunity for Main Street, and the non-profit quickly moved on it.

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.