News

Q2 sees prime Route 1 properties trade hands

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Despite the coronavirus pandemic, it’s been a busy few months for property sales along the Route 1 corridor in Prince George’s County. Several major commercial and multi-family properties have traded hands in the second quarter of the year, according to state property records. The biggest transaction of the quarter in the Route 1 corridor belongs to Varsity Apartments in College Park, which traded hands for $146,022,026 in a sale recorded March 27, 2020. The 900-bed property was bought by Greystar Properties from American Campus Communities. Greystar Properties also plans a 343-unit student housing development on Knox Road in College Park.

News

Data: As Prince George’s enters ‘full’ phase 2, covid cases decline steadily

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Today, Prince George’s County crosses a milestone in its struggle to contain the local spread of coronavirus. At 5 p.m., June 29, 2020, the county will enter a “full phase two” reopening of county businesses. The move will allow gyms, fitness centers, casinos, shopping malls, spas and tattoo partners may re-open for business, with restrictions. 

But last week, Prince George’s County crossed another milestone in the local fight against covid-19. For the first time since April, the rolling 14-day average count of daily new cases dropped below 100 cases per day. This happened on June 26, 2020.

News

Prince George’s County gets high marks from bond underwriters

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Despite facing significant a projected loss of $130 million in revenue heading into the next fiscal year at the end of June, major financial ratings agencies have maintained Prince George’s County’s triple-A bond rating. The news was announced by Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks June 15, 2020. According to the announcement, financial ratings agencies Fitch, Moody’s and Standard and Poors all gave top marks to the county. A bond rating like a credit score for a government. A good bond rating, and a triple-A score is good, is helpful to have if you plan any major debt-financed projects because it gets you access to lower-interest loans.

News

Coronavirus stats continue downward trend in Maryland, Prince George’s

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At least 57,973 Marylanders have tested positive for coronavirus since the start of pandemic, according to data released June 7 by the Maryland Department of Health. That’s equivalent to roughly 10 cases for every 1,000 residents, statewide. But the number of positive tests reported by the state in the past 14 days, a metric Route 1 Reporter has been tracking, has continued to trend down. According to state data, there were 10,821 positive tests in the past 14 days as of June 7. The last time this number was below 11,000 was late April.

News

Prince George’s ‘Phase Two’ re-opening could begin June 15

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Prince George’s County could enter a “modified phase two reopening” June 15. But that’s only if current, declining trends in county coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations hold steady, County Executive Angela Alsobrooks announced Thursday evening. “We are encouraged by the trends we are seeing in our data since announcing our modified phase one reopening, but we must remain vigilant,” said Alsobrooks. 

According to Alsobrook’s announcement, a modified phase two reopening will allow for the partial re-opening of personal services, outdoor recreation, retail establishments, food establishments and houses of worship. Prince George’s County Health Department will be tracking coronavirus test positivity rates, deaths, hospitalizations and hospital bed capacity as it prepares to make a final determination. Prince George’s County entered a modified “phase one” re-opening June 1.

News

Maryland covid numbers hold steady as test rate, hospitalizations decrease

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Nearly 52,800 Marylanders have been diagnosed with coronavirus, with 13,016 cases diagnosed in the two weeks before May 31, 2020, according to the latest data from the Maryland Department of Health. The two-week population of cases continues to plateau, not moving much even after testing was expanded to individuals without symptoms.

Statewide, the positivity rate for coronavirus testing is dropping persistently. As of May 31, 2020, the statewide positive test rate is 10.9 percent, the lowest level seen since April 15, 2020. Maryland has now conducted 348,773 COVID-19 tests, including 9,412 tests over the 24 hours before May 31, 2020. Prince George’s County and Montgomery County, with positivity rates still above the rest of the state, continue to see steady decreases.

Development

292-home Preserve at Westphalia preliminary plans approved by P.G. Planning Board

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The Prince George’s County Planning Board took action on a preliminary site plan for 292 new homes and a bunch of commercial space at the Preserve at Westphalia. Also before the Planning Board at its May 29, 2020, meeting: A detailed site plan to rebuild a McDonalds in Riverdale Park, conceptual site plans for an ironworks near Fort Washington, and detailed plans for a large storage facility. You can find agenda details from the meeting here. More details below: 

Preserve at Westphalia

With some minor conditions, the Prince George’s County Planning Board unanimously approved preliminary plans for the Preserve at Westphalia which would bring 184 townhomes, 108 detached homes, and 12,500 square feet of commercial space to a 64-acre plot of land at the intersection of Westphalia Road and Richie Marlboro Road. The project comes from Green Revolution Realty LLC. Riverdale Park McDonalds

The Planning Board unanimously approved with conditions a special permit to rehab the existing McDonalds restaurant at the intersection of East-West Highway and Baltimore Avenue in Riverdale Park. The application asked for a departure from development design standards to update the facade and make two additions to the existing building.

Coronavirus

Confirmed Maryland covid cases plateau; State hospital hotspot shows up on ZIP data

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By May 25, 2020, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Maryland increased to 47,152 and the number of deaths climbed to 2,302. But by several metrics – including daily new confirmed cases, daily deaths and two-week population of new confirmed cases – the coronavirus outbreak in Maryland seems to have leveled off, for now. With many parts of the state re-opening, reports of casual-to-non-existent compliance with social distancing at Maryland’s beachside vacation hubs, and expanded no-symptom-needed testing regimes coming online, it will be interesting to see how these trend-lines move over the next few weeks. !function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var e in a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.getElementById(“datawrapper-chart-“+e)||document.querySelector(“iframe[src*='”+e+”‘]”);t&&(t.style.height=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][e]+”px”)}}))}();

For instance, charted above, the daily population of people with cases confirmed in the preceding two-weeks has hovered between 12,400 and 13,400 since May 6, 2020. !function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var e in a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.getElementById(“datawrapper-chart-“+e)||document.querySelector(“iframe[src*='”+e+”‘]”);t&&(t.style.height=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][e]+”px”)}}))}();

Likewise, charted above, the number of daily new confirmed coronavirus cases has been slightly down since May 19, 2020, when a backlog of test results were added into state data.

Coronavirus

Data: Maryland’s Coronavirus outbreak slackens slightly

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The number of new covid-19 infections confirmed in Maryland and in Prince George’s County declined over several days last week, according to a key metric tracked by Route 1 Reporter. Specifically, the number of new confirmed coronavirus infections in the past 14 days has declined from a statewide high of 13,260 on May 11, 2020 to 12,396 on May 17, 2020. Likewise in Prince George’s County, the number of coronavirus cases confirmed in the preceding 14 days fell from a high of 4,233 on May 10 to 3,718 on May 17. !function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var e in a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.getElementById(“datawrapper-chart-“+e)||document.querySelector(“iframe[src*='”+e+”‘]”);t&&(t.style.height=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][e]+”px”)}}))}();

While the trend is encouraging, the conclusion that the declining number is “a good thing” is based on a number of assumptions, including the assumption that the rate of new diagnoses correlates with the true spread of the disease in any way. It must be emphasized this data only reflects confirmed case counts, and not true infection rates.

News

$50M Laurel Hospital expansion, 230 townhomes approved by P.G. Planning Board

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Prince George’s County Planning Board approved several notable development applications during its May 14, 2020, meeting. Among the approvals include detailed site plans for two townhome projects, one in Bowie, one in Brandywine, with a total of 231 units, preliminary plans for another townhome development in Clinton, and preliminary plans for a 950-bed mixed-use student-housing complex in College Park. But the biggest approval from the meeting was a detailed site plan clearing the way for the first phase of a new “health campus” at the University of Maryland Medical System Laurel Hospital. A rendering shows the exterior of the first phase of the planned Laurel Hospital Health Campus. The new hospital facility plans call for a two-story 79,900 square-foot medical office building and a 1,550 square-foot MRI building near the intersection of Van Deusen and Contee Roads.