Luxury Beauty & Nails coming to Montgomery Mall, Sheepskin & Alpaca Too opens

There will soon be a new salon option at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. Luxury Beauty & Nails will open for the holidays next to Candy World on Level 2, in the Dining Terrace area. Speaking of the holidays, this is always the most wonderful time of the year at the mall, as they gear up for Black Friday and Christmas. Expect to see seasonal stores and pop-up kiosks open again.

First to return is perennial retailer Sheepskin Gifts & Alpaca Too. Warm and comfortable winter clothing from Peru is their specialty. Find them this year next to the Apple Store and Madewell on Level 2. Just look for this guy:

Baronessa restaurant for sale in Rockville

Baronessa, an Italian restaurant at 1302 E. Gude Drive in Rockville, is being offered for sale. The asking price is $525,000, according to an online listing. Baronessa remains open for business.

Montgomery College sends out false active shooter alert, apologizes

Montgomery College, through an electronic alert system, sent out erroneous tweets and text messages at 7:42 AM this morning falsely stating there was an "active shooter" at one of its campuses. The message included a bracketed phrase stating, "[insert campus]," (Montgomery College has three campuses). About half an hour later, the College deleted the original tweet from its Twitter account, and sent another message indicating the alert was a false alarm and apologized.

Escapology opening tomorrow at Pike & Rose

Escapology, a new escape room attraction, will open tomorrow, Friday, November 1, 2019 at 11572 Old Georgetown Road, in the Pike & Rose development. Four escape rooms are available to choose from: Antidote, Budapest Express, Mansion Murder and Mayday. All four will be unlocked for public view from 2:00 to 4:00 PM tomorrow for a grand opening event. While a few escape rooms have opened in Montgomery County, this appears to be the first to locate in this type of development.

MoCo misses out on Mitsubishi HQ, relocation expert cites importance of airport access

Montgomery County hasn't attracted a single major corporate headquarters in over twenty years, and Mitsubishi North America won't break that humiliating streak of failure. The Japanese industrial giant's U.S. headquarters has been in sunny California since 1988. After a nationwide search, they've chosen Franklin, Tennessee.

"I’m proud Mitsubishi Motors will call Franklin its U.S. home, and bring 200 high-quality jobs to Middle Tennessee," Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said in a press release announcing the victory. The press release notes that corporate headquarters jobs have grown by 37% in Tennessee since 2013. "Mitsubishi Motors’ decision to relocate its U.S. headquarters from California to Franklin underscores Tennessee’s growing profile as a hub for U.S. and international companies," Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Chair Bob Rolfe said. "Tennessee will continue to actively recruit quality headquarters jobs from higher-cost coastal states, and we are honored Mitsubishi will make this significant investment in Williamson County.”

This is just the latest major corporate HQ contest the Montgomery County Council and economic development officials have either lost, or simply dozed through without even making a bid. One ongoing disadvantage Montgomery has, besides its national reputation as a business-unfriendly jurisdiction with high taxes, is its lack of direct access to Dulles International Airport.

We could have had direct access by now, had our elected officials not canceled the long-planned Potomac River crossing to the Dulles area. John Boyd of corporate relocation firm The Boyd Company reaffirmed the importance of such access in recent comments about Sherwin Williams dissatisfaction with their current Cleveland HQ location, that has spurred them to begin a relocation search.

Boyd's analysis was reported by Cleveland's Fox 8 as follows:

He said air transit is a key factor in site selection. As Cleveland vies to keep the company that employs more than 33,000 people worldwide, Boyd said the region's lack of non-stop flights to markets around the globe is its biggest hurdle.

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport was ranked second-worst among 16 similar-sized airports in the J.D. Power 2019 North America Airport Satisfaction Study. The airport has commissioned a firm to create a new master plan for upgrades.

"Every time there's a major trophy headquarters project, you always think about the usual suspects: Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston. Cities with major gateway airports," Boyd said.

Dulles is unmatched in our region for the frequency of flights and variety of international business destinations. It would be so simple to eliminate this major obstacle to economic growth by merely greenlighting the new bridge to Dulles. The Council's stubborn refusal to do so speaks volumes about their radical, fringe ideology, and total lack of competence.

Pile driving to begin at Rockville senior housing project next month

Construction is beginning on the HarborChase Rockville Senior Living development at 55 W. Gude Drive. Early next month, pile driving will take place on the site, and a hydraulic vibrating pile driver will be brought in to work between 7:00 AM and 5:00 PM. Whiting-Turner has requested a noise waiver for the pile driving, which is expected to go on for several months.

Derwood McDonald's to expand

The Derwood McDonald's at 15801 Frederick Road is planning an expansion. Under the site plan submitted by McDonald's USA, LLC to Montgomery County, the restaurant will increase in size on the lot from the current 5586 SF to 6082 SF.

The drive-thru will be changed to the dual lane design found at many McDonald's locations these days, allowing two rows of cars to line up at once. There will be "three small building additions" to the restaurant itself, and bicycle parking will be added.

McDonald's' site plan will be reviewed by the Montgomery County Planning Board on November 7, 2019. Planning staff is recommending approval of the site plan.