College Park

$75,000 College Park Grant Brings Shop Made in D.C. to New City Hall

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College Park will give a $75,000 grant to help a retailer build a store in its new, soon-to-open mixed-use City Hall. 

Greenbelt

Development notes: Three major Route 1 projects moving through pipeline

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A trio of major real-estate development projects – two in Hyattsville and one in Greenbelt – are making their way through Prince George’s County’s development review process. For starters, developers have submitted detailed site plans for approval by Prince George’s County planning authorities for a 350-unit multifamily building near the Greenbelt Metro and the intersection of Cherrywood Lane and Edmonston Road. Route 1 Reporter first wrote about this project back in July, when the developers were seeking approval of their preliminary plan of subdivision, a procedural step where property lines are redrawn or consolidated to accommodate new development. The preliminary plan was approved by planning officials last week. For developer NRP Group LLC, a new face in the D.C. development scene, the project is only its second in region. NRP Group LLC is a large Cleveland-based developer, property management and real estate investment company with a large portfolio.

Commercial Real Estate
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.

Hyattsville weighs affordable housing programs

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Lacking a county-wide program to incentivize affordable-housing development, Hyattsville might create its own using about the only tools it has: municipal property tax breaks and dedicated city funding. 

Hyattsville Mayor Candace Hollingsworth is sponsoring two measures before City Council that address affordable housing. The most-notable is a measure directing city staff and attorneys to craft municipal legislation offering property tax credits to developers who pledge to build or preserve long-term affordably-priced housing units. The other would create a city fund, fueled by developer impact fees, a portion of which would be dedicated to “affordable housing” in some yet-to-be defined manner. 

The measures were discussed at Hyattsville City Council’s April 1 meeting. If they eventually become law – and this City Council seems broadly receptive to the idea – Hyattsville would be in pioneering territory. No similar program in Prince George’s County exists – though one once did.

College Park

Metro reveals new details of controversial College Park land sale

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The controversial – and not-yet realized – sale of a Metro-owned plot of land on Route 1 is part of a larger effort by the regional transit agency to capitalize on its property assets. This week, officials with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Administration revealed they hope to sell several property holdings spread across the region. The new information provides additional context for a College Park neighborhood association’s opposition to potential development of a WMATA-owned wooded tract of land immediately north of Riverdale Park Station under which Metro’s Green Line travels between Prince George’s Plaza and College Park Metro stations. WMATA announced this week it hopes to sell eight properties spread across the greater D.C. region. They are as follows, taken right from WMATA’s press release:

Baltimore Avenue, College Park, Maryland

Parcel is located at the intersection of Baltimore Avenue and Albion Road and adjoins the Riverdale Park Station residential and retail complex anchored by Whole Foods

Southern Avenue Metro Station Parcels, Temple Hills, Maryland

Two parcels adjoining the Southern Avenue Metro Station on the Green Line

Glenmont Metro Station Parcel, Silver Spring, Maryland

Parcel adjoins the Glenmont Metro Station west entrance on the Red Line

9400 Lottsford Road, Largo, Maryland

Parcel is ¼ mile from the University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center, in construction, and the Largo Town Center Metro Station on the Blue and Silver Lines

Branch Avenue Metro Station, Suitland, Maryland

Parcel is across the street from the Branch Avenue Metro Station on the Green Line

5708 Vine Street, Alexandria, Virginia

Pad site just off the intersection of Eisenhower Avenue and South Van Dorn Street

7100 Chestnut Street, Washington, DC

Single family lot

1100 Park Road NW, Washington, DC

Corner lot at the intersection of Park Road, NW and 11th Street, NW

12415 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland

Pad available for ground lease only next to the Glenmont Metro Station east entrance.

Berwyn Heights

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

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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.

Berwyn Heights
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

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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.

Commercial Real Estate

Remapping Prince George’s: Council tackles zoning overhaul

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Prince George’s County officials hope to release a draft version of a new zoning map for the county by the end of 2019. If all goes according to a timeline laid out by Prince George’s County planning officials, the county could have its new zoning ordinance in effect by early 2020. 

These zoning, land-use and development rules regulate what, where and how any land can be used or developed in Prince George’s County. These regulations cover such things as the distance buildings must be set back from the road and the development review process. The county’s currently-effective set of zoning regulations dates back more than 50 years. over time they have become a confusing, tangled mess, stitched together with decades-worth of zoning amendments.