UPDATE: College Park Mystery Boom came from UMD

Dozens of ear-witnesses in College Park, Greenbelt and Berwyn Heights, including this journalist, reported hearing a loud, explosion-like boom in the early-morning hours of Sunday, Aug. 18, 2019. The noise rattled residents, who took to social media to report their experiences. As of Sunday evening, no definitive cause for the noise has been disclosed by local officials.

A middle-aged African American man, wearing a brown jacket with a grey sweater and blue shirt, sits at a wood-paneled dais, gesturing as he speaks. Above and behind him, a sign reads "Greenbelt." Infront of him, a placard reads “Emmet V. Jordan, Mayor” To the left of him sits a younger African-American man wearing a dark shirt, infront of a placard reading “Colin A. Byrd, Councilmember”. To the right, an older white woman sits, wearing a matching red blazer and necklace, her nameplate reads “Judith F. Davis, Mayor Pro-Tem.”

Beltway Plaza redevelopment gets ‘conditional’ support of Greenbelt Council

Greenbelt City Council voted to conditionally support a conceptual redevelopment proposal for Beltway Plaza Mall. The action took place at its Feb. 11, 2019, meeting. While the mall’s owners, Bethesda-based Quantum Cos. hailed the move, there’s still a chance Greenbelt could end up opposing the conceptual site plan if city officials and the mall’s owners fail to agree on conditions set down during the meeting.

Property Notes: Riverdale apartments sell for $8.4 million; Greenbelt Station gets new neighbor

Hundreds of renters in Riverdale Park have a new owner as multiple apartment complexes trade hands in a single transaction. A bit further north, a court auction results in the sale of industrial land near Greenbelt Station. For different reasons, they are two notable commercial real estate transactions to enter the record from the past quarter in Prince George’s County’s Route 1 communities. River Crossing Apartments go for $8.4 million

A number of apartment properties traded hands for a cool $8.4 million in a sale recorded late November in Riverdale Park. All of the properties in the transaction neighbor each other, located at 5610, 5609 and 5505 54th Avenue in Riverdale Park.

A small storefront is seen at night, it features a column of rainbow-colored bricks. The inside is brightly lit, seen through large windows next to a far door.

Reporter’s Notebook: Good news for Mt. Rainier library; College Park fee review; Berwyn Heights tweaks charter

I hope you all had a warm and wonderful snow-filled weekend. Here’s hoping it doesn’t put too much of a damper on your early-week plans. Word on the street is most Route 1 communities reported few issues with snow clearance. It always helps matters when the snowstorm is on a weekend. From Route 1 Reporter’s world headquarters in Berwyn, crews were seen at all hours working city and state roads alike.

A large suburban strip mall is seen from above, at an angle. A sidewalk of street-facing retail, including a Shoe Show store, can be seen across a small two-lane circulator roadway.

Beltway Plaza update: Hearing pushed back as Greenbelt Council weighs proposal

While there are concerns about density and other issues, Greenbelt’s City Council seems cautiously supportive of a proposed redevelopment for Beltway Plaza. The six-phase plan would add between 175 and 250 townhomes or quadplex units, between 875 and 2250 multi-family units, and replace the 800,000 square-foot central mall with between 435,000 and 700,000 square feet of commercial retail space to the Greenbelt Road property. 

On Jan. 11, 2019, representatives from the city of Greenbelt and the mall’s owners, Bethesda-based Quantum Cos., briefly met with the Prince George’s County Subdivision Design Review Committee to discuss the proposed redevelopment. Nothing major came of the meeting, aside from the rescheduling of a Planning Board hearing for the proposed redevelopment to March 14, 2019, to give city officials there time to consider whether or not to support the proposal. Greenbelt City Council is tentatively scheduled to consider and vote on such a resolution at its Feb.

Beltway Plaza owners add to Greenbelt Road holdings

The owners of Beltway Plaza have acquired more properties along Greenbelt Road. According to state property records, Greenbelt Retail Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of Beltway Plaza’s owners Quantum Companies, purchased three lots around 6107 Greenbelt Road in Berwyn Heights for $3.2 million from the Karl H. Flicker trust in a transaction recorded Nov. 15, 2018. The property currently houses a branch of Money One Credit Union. In an email, Quantum Companies attorney Marc Kapastin said there were no immediate plans for the properties.