Business
A partly-cloudy winter sky hovers over Riverdale Park Station at dusk, seen looking west from the Van Buren Street overpass. In the foreground, the concrete bridge platform curves away from the viewer, leading the eye to an unadorned concrete structure in the center of the photograph. This is the parking garage. It is flanked by rows of townhomes. A white sports utility vehicle is seen on the bridge, driving eastbound.

Cafritz phase II takes first step; 600+ apartments in review

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A long-planned but yet-to-be approved proposal to build hundreds of apartments at Riverdale Park Station – also known as the Cafritz Tract – is now in the earliest phase of Prince George’s County’s development review process. According to Henry Zhang, master planner in the Prince George’s County Planning Department, developers Calvin Cafritz Enterprises have submitted plans to build two apartment buildings for pre-application review. In this stage, county planning staff reviews prospective development applications before officially accepting them for public review in order to give developers feedback on issues that may arise and to avoid a time crunch. Once an application is formally submitted and accepted, the clock starts ticking on a mandatory maximum 70-day review period. During that period, County planners will solicit feedback from residents and nearby city councils before the application is considered by the Prince George’s County Planning Board.

College Park

Biznotes: University View breaks records with sale; Tech firm picks College Park

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The University View student apartments in College Park have sold for $235 million, a record-breaking transaction. The property was previously owned by Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC and Rockpoint Group, which acquired the property in 2016 for $114.7 million.Property records for the sale have not yet been processed and the buyer was not disclosed in the announcement. The sale is believed to be the highest-priced single-asset student housing transaction in U.S. history. University View is a 1,570-bed, 507-unit, two-building mixed-use student housing facility with nearly 9,220 feet of retail space. It is located across Paint Branch from the University of Maryland at 8204 Baltimore Ave. in College Park.

Hyattsville

Reporter’s Notebook: Hyattsville Mayor on Route 1’s economic development challenges

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Hyattsville Mayor Candace Hollingsworth’s time in city politics has coincided with dramatic, urbanized redevelopment of the city’s downtown Baltimore Avenue corridor. She was a City Council member when the EYA Arts District Hyattsville redevelopment came into form. Her City Council, along with county planning authorities, are now considering the 240-unit Hyattsville Armory Apartments mixed-use proposal (after already helping the developers secure demolition funds from Maryland). In an interview following a recent economic development tour of the soon-to-open Sangfroid Distillery, Hollingsworth said the economic development philosophy of Hyattsville and the Gateway Arts District is to create a “destination” for artists, craft and specialty industries, and – implied in that – also the consumers who spend money on that kind of stuff. Against that context, Route 1 Reporter asked Hollingsworth for her thoughts on the challenges Hyattsville faces if that vision were to be fully realized.

Brentwood

Inside Studio 3807; A photo tour of Route 1’s newest mixed-use apartment complex

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Studio 3807, the new 147-unit mixed-use apartment complex that’s been under construction at – appropriately – 3807 Rhode Island Avenue,  is about to have its grand opening this coming Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018. Before this weekend’s grand-opening festivities, members of the Brentwood Area Business Association were privy to a meeting and tour of the nearly-complete facility. Route 1 Reporter got to tag along and explore the new apartment complex, a bright yellow, white and gray building. To put it briefly: this place is swanky.

Hyattsville

Hyattsville distillery plans for holiday grand-opening

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The first distillery to open in Prince George’s County since Prohibition ended plans to open its doors in time for the winter holiday season in downtown Hyattsville. The new business, named Sangfroid Distilling, will specialize in Dutch-style gins, which are sweeter, drier and have a higher malt content than British Gin. For its opening, it will also brew a pear brandy. Long-term, the owners have plans to produce apple brandy and rye whiskey. The business plans to sell its wares by retail, as well as offer tours and tastings. 
The business received a small welcome party from Hyattsville municipal officials Wednesday, Oct.

Art
A photo, taken from the center lane of the Baltimore Avenue-slash-Route 1 corridor looking directly south from the intersection of Oglethorpe Street and Baltimore Avenue, shows an urban vista. The green hills of Bladensburg are in the far distance, set against a cloudy evening sky and above a ribbon of roadway. Nearer to the photographer, an urban streetscape reveals row-houses and mid-rise commercial buildings south of Madison Street set against tree-lined sidewalks. Light traffic is seen on the roadway.

Gateway Arts District impact on local artists hard to quantify

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Is the Gateway Arts District helping local artists? Anecdotally, the answer seems to be “yes.” Over the past 20 years, a number of arts organizations in the Gateway Arts District have sprung into life and created new visibility for the local arts industry along Prince George’s County’s southern Route 1 corridor. For instance, the Hyattsville Arts & Ales festival, formerly the Hyattsville Arts Festival, has grown dramatically, spanning multiple city blocks in downtown Hyattsville and attracting thousands of arts-oriented revelers to the corridor. But numbers to back up these anecdotes are hard to come by, or – worse – very fuzzy. The Gateway Arts District can informally refer to two things.

Chillum antenna farm trades hands as Redskins sell radio holdings

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As part of Daniel Snyder’s liquidation of the Redskins’ radio broadcasting business, a large radio broadcasting facility in Chillum has been bought by the nation’s largest African-American-owned broadcaster. According to state property records, Urban One Inc. bought the 18.7-acre antenna farm at 6000 Ager Road in Chillum, near the West Hyattsville Metro Station, for $828,700 in a transaction recorded August 21, 2018. Silver Spring-based Urban One purchased the property from Red Zebra Broadcasting LLC, the Redskins’ radio media subsidiary. It’s part of a larger $4.2 million acquisition of Red Zebra’s assets by Urban One, according to Washington Business Journal. Snyder announced in May 2018 that the Redskins were liquidating its radio holdings.

Greenbelt Marriott sold for $18M; Rebranding underway

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The familiar branding of the Greenbelt Marriott is gone from the towering structure that looms over old-town Greenbelt’s eastern gateway. The hotel is in the process of a major rebranding after an international hospitality chain acquired the property earlier this month, state records show. 
In an $18 million transaction recorded on August 8, 2018, SB&G Greenbelt Hotel LLC purchased the Greenbelt Marriott from Springhill Lake Hotel Partners LLC. SB&G Greenbelt Hotel is a subsidiary Intercontinental Hotel Group Plc., a United Kingdom-based hotel owner. It owns such other brands as Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn (and its Express, Resort, and Vacation sub-brands) Hotel Indigo, Staybridge Suites and Hualuxe imprints, among others. The property is operated by Atlanta-based Valor Hospitality Partners LLC, a hospitality company that manages hotels in the United Kingdom, South Africa and the United States.

News

Riverdale Park properties trade hands on Baltimore Ave.

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Three commercial buildings in Riverdale Park’s Baltimore Avenue corridor have a new owner. According to property records filed with the state of Maryland, E and K Professional Services LLC bought three lots at 6205, 6207, and 6211 Baltimore Avenue in a $1.8 million transaction recorded July 31, 2018. Presently, those buildings house the Ivy Lounge Unisex Salon and Spa and a restaurant, Lesly’s Grill and Bar. E and K Professional Services is owned by Potomac resident Ethiopia Alfred, according to the company’s articles of organization on file with Maryland’s Departmment of Assessments and Taxation. Alfred, a native of Ethiopia, is active within the region’s Ethiopian diaspora community.

Brentwood

Brentwood Council wants earlier closing time for new restaurant

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Brentwood Town Council wants to change the closing time of a forthcoming eatery and cocktail bar on Rhode Island Avenue. 

This past July, the Prince George’s County Board of License Commissioners (more commonly known as the Liquor Board) unanimously approved an application by restaurateur and culinary entrepreneur April Richardson’s Savor at 3807 “food hall” allowing the establishment to serve alcohol from 11 a.m. to midnight, Sunday through Thursday, and between 11 a.m. and 2 a.m. on Saturday. The eatery and cocktail bar will be located inside the still-under-construction Studio at 3807 apartment building at, appropriately, 3807 Rhode Island Avenue. But the Liquor Board approved that license without taking the opinion of Brentwood’s Town Council into consideration. Prior to the Liquor Board’s approval of Richardson’s application, Brentwood Council members had drafted a letter asking that the restaurant’s closing time be limited to midnight each night. That letter was not sent to the Liquor Board by the time they approved Savor’s liquor license.