Berwyn Heights

Beltway Plaza owners add to Greenbelt Road holdings

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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.

College Park

To block development, group wants College Park to buy Route 1 Metro property

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Just north of Riverdale Park Station, a wooded tract of land sits for sale. On state property records, its listed at 4535 Albion Road. If you’ve ever driven between College Park and Hyattsville on Baltimore Avenue, you’ll recognize it by the grove of bamboo that fronts the eastern edge of the roadway. It is owned by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which purchased the land for just under $432,000 in 1989 as it prepared to construct Metrorail’s Green Line out to Greenbelt. Underneath, tunnels carry trains between College Park and Prince George’s Plaza Metro stations. WMATA has recently listed the 12-acre property for sale.

Business

Mount Rainier Artist Lofts has serious structural flaws

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Critical structural issues are affecting a Mount Rainier mixed-use affordable housing complex for working artists. Mount Rainier city officials criticized county building inspectors for approving work they allege has since been revealed to be below-standard. As a result, Mount Rainier city officials now want to be reimbursed by county officials for engineering assessments paid for by the city and carried out to gain a better understanding of the problems facing the building. 

The building is the Artist Lofts affordable housing complex at 3311 Rhode Island Avenue in downtown Mount Rainier. It opened in 2004. It’s a four-story building that includes 44 affordably-priced live-work apartment units for artists and ground floor retail.

Beltway Plaza

Doc Drop: Beltway Plaza conceptual site plan application filed

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A conceptual site plan application for the redevelopment of Beltway Plaza was officially accepted for review by Prince George’s County Planning Officials Dec. 10, 2018.  Key documents from that application are attached below this article. Development Review 101 

That now kicks off a 70-day timeline for the application to be considered by the Prince George’s County Planning Board, though the timeline can be stretched through appeals and requests for delay. The first planning body to consider the proposal is the Subdivision Review Committee, scheduled for its Dec. 28, 2018 meeting.

Commercial Real Estate
A two-story greyish brick building stands on a corner lot in an older suburban streetscape. It adjoins a red single-story building that houses a retail storefront with a sign reading Hyattsville Vacuum Service. The sidewalk is cracked narrow, receding left to right into the distance. It is and stained from years of brick erosion. Infront of the buildings, at the corner crosswalk, is a crosswalk sign.

Liberian presidential candidate owned key Baltimore Ave. property

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Here’s a weird footnote in Hyattsville’s development news: a decrepit downtown Hyattsville building was, until recently, owned by a man who twice campaigned to be president of Liberia. The building is 5223 Baltimore Ave., a two-story brick shopbuilding dating to 1932. A few weeks ago, it was bought for $505,000 by investors who hope to redevelop the site. Its previous owner was a husband and wife named Kennedy and Eugenia Sandy. Kennedy Sandy ran for the presidency of Liberia in 2011 and 2017, according to media reports.

Letter from the Editor
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.

Reporter’s Notebook: Big development news last week

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It may be repetitive, but once again, I start another Reporter’s Notebook with a big hearty thank you to all of Route 1 Reporter’s subscribers! Last week was a busy one on the news front, especially if you are into development. For starters, Route 1 Reporter was the first news outlet to report on new development activity at Riverdale Park Station, where hundreds of new apartments are either about to start construction or enter the development review pipeline. In all, more than 850 apartment units are planned for the development on parcels closest to the CSX tracks. More on this story below.

Berwyn Heights
Cars drive along a moderately-congested Greenbelt Road, a six-lane suburban throughway overlooking a green horizon.

With Beltway Plaza redevelopment in play, a new vision for Greenbelt Road emerges

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As long-term plans to redevelop Beltway Plaza gain inertia, economic development and planning officials are developing planning and policy strategies to reshape Greenbelt Road to be a more pedestrian, cyclist and transit-friendly corridor. Guiding those actions for now is a report compiled over the summer by the Urban Land Institute, released October 2018. 

“The Greenbelt Road corridor is at a crossroads. Like many suburban commercial areas, it has lost some business to newer, outlying shopping centers and grapples with some disinvestment and traffic congestion,” reads the report. “Many community members express a desire for a greater variety of retail, but there is no singular vision for how the area can attract that.” The full report can be read here.

Homepage Featured
A two-story greyish brick building stands on a corner lot in an older suburban streetscape. It adjoins a red single-story building that houses a retail storefront with a sign reading Hyattsville Vacuum Service. The sidewalk is cracked narrow, receding left to right into the distance. It is and stained from years of brick erosion. Infront of the buildings, at the corner crosswalk, is a crosswalk sign.

Developer buys prime Hyattsville properties, but plans uncertain

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A developer has assembled a contiguous block of properties in downtown Hyattsville with the intention to redevelop it. The properties are just south of the EYA Arts District development and across the street from the proposed Hyattsville Armory development. But according to a senior Hyattsville economic development official, plans for the property have yet to be fleshed out. Further complicating matters are the city’s own long-term – but still fuzzy – plans for the area, such as a potential need for a new municipal building or parking garage. According to state property records, a series of holding companies registered to College Park resident Phillip Attia now owns the buildings fronting the eastern side of Baltimore Avenue’s 5200 and 5300 blocks.