AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler
Parking lots without a single car in a once-favorite shopping center or empty storefronts along a strip of Severna Park shops are slightly unsettling. They mean businesses you may have liked are gone forever and the property owners are looking for new tenants.
Change is inevitable and turnover has always been a feature of Severna Park’s retail scene but never has it seemed to move so slowly. The closure of businesses like the Food Lion supermarket (seen above) at 466 Ritchie Highway, A.C. Moore at Severna Park Marketplace and the service station at the corner of Ritchie Highway and Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard, to name a few, predate the COVID-19 pandemic and have been empty for more than a year.
During the same period, smaller retailers like the chocolate shop Coco Couture closed, leaving life in Severna Park a little less sweet. Following the holidays in December, 2019 candy maker Jessica Zaleskiwicz, (who ran the shop day-to-day with mother Laura Zeitz) decided to go in another direction. By then, she explained, more of their sales were coming from events than from the shop. Zaleskiwicz still makes a bit of chocolate now and then but she’s currently working elsewhere while finishing her bachelor’s degree.
The candy shop is in the former Howard Bank Square at 350 Ritchie Highway and has yet to find a tenant.
A stone’s throw away Howard Bank, for which the center was named, closed its doors too. The bank building looks unoccupied but the presence of cars out front may tell a different story.
Among several businesses swept away by the COVID pandemic was Paradigm Scratch Kitchen & Cocktails at Magothy Gateway Village. Across Ritchie Highway from that property, storefronts previously occupied by Yoga Works, BoHo Nation and We Rock the Spectrum kids gym sit empty.
“For Lease” signs are scattered throughout Severna Park – a situation Greater Severna Park and Arnold Chamber CEO Liz League has speculated about. She wonders if there is too much duplication of certain kinds of businesses and worries about commercial office space going unused.
“At a multi-chamber luncheon with Maryland Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford, we learned that so many government employees are working remotely from home that there may not be a need to rent as much commercial office space,” League said.
Matt Wyble, who heads The Matt Wyble Team of Century 21, has long been a part of the Severna Park business scene. He speculates that several factors are eroding the ability of brick and mortar retail shops to compete.
“I don’t specialize in commercial real estate,” Wyble said. “However, my guess would be that the overall shift to eCommerce for retail shopping, in combination with the COVID quarantine restrictions hit neighborhood businesses hard.”
But the retail and commercial property picture in Severna Park may be brighter than it appears according to John A. Rosso of Annapolis-based Rosso Commercial Real Estate Services, LLC. As Rosso handles many of the properties mentioned above, he has a unique perspective.
He’s quick to point out that commercial real estate transactions in Anne Arundel County take much longer than residential transactions. The average commercial real estate transaction – say for someone wanting to lease the former Food Lion – could take as long as four to six months due to imperatives such as obtaining permits and completing construction.
New leases for empty commercial properties may be in the works, Rosso says, but there’s a lag before it becomes evident that they’ve been leased again “so the public may perceive that a property is unoccupied for longer than it actually is.”
He believes part of the former Food Lion property may be under lease to another supermarket but we could not confirm that.
Rosso said he’s been working on the service station property at the corner of Ritchie Highway and B&A Boulevard for six months and has a new business lined up but the transaction is still in the works.
Like League, Rosso thinks duplication in the market is a factor in the closure of some businesses. That may have been the case for another property he’s handling that’s next to the service station and previously housed the Choice One Urgent Care clinic.
At Magothy Gateway Village, Rosso is working on leasing the former Paradigm Sketch Kitchen that had earlier been Pascal’s Chophouse. He said Paradigm Sketch’s timing in re- branding from a pricey chophouse to a made-from-scratch restaurant with a nationally known chef was unfortunate as the pandemic hit within weeks of its opening. He feels the location shows promise and there’s a lot of activity from people interested in the space..
Rosso does not handle the former Howard Bank but believes, even though the space appears vacant, there are paying tenants.
“My understanding is that Howard Bank is currently involved in a merger/acquisition process but still pays rent on the building and has made the property available for sublease,” he said. “With two years left on the bank’s lease, subleasing is complicated because it’s a three-party transaction between landlord, tenant and sub-tenant…. and most companies prefer a longer lease.”
Several of the shops neighboring Howard Bank are primarily food related. According to Rosso, Anne Arundel County requires anyone serving or preparing food on premise to have a 1,000 gallon grease interceptor (that can cost up to $20,000), three-compartment sinks, and mechanical and HVAC capaciity. Even though the infrastructure is there for Coco Couture and the other businesses, it’s outdated by county standards making opening another food business costly.
The former Sun Trust Bank at Park Plaza was demolished recently due to a merger with BB&T Bank. Construction is now underway on a Popeye’s that will join an already crowded field of fast food restaurants in Park Plaza and other shopping centers.
“My understanding is that Popeye’s signed a lease up to 18 months ago before the pandemic to secure the location and has been paying rent,” Rosso said. “They’ve finally begun the construction phase.”
According to Rosso, there’s a lot of activity in the commercial real estate market currently but it’s very difficult for companies to find commercial properties to buy. Leasing is the primary option in Severna Park where there are now a lot of national chains like Noodles & Company, Mod Pizza, Chipotle, and Chic-fil-A. “We’re as busy as we’ve ever been,” he added.
There’s more good news involving the final contract Rosso’s handling – the location that housed Partners In Care’s Upscale Retail Boutique at 6 South Ritchie Highway before they moved to Festival at Pasadena.
“I’m representing a buyer for that property and we have it under contract,” he said. “The buyer is a local business wanting to expand their exposure. They should be settling in the next 30 days.”
Rosso’s comments indicate that some of the now empty storefronts may soon bustle with business. But with mixed signs in the local and national economy, it’s unclear whether all of the spaces will find new retailers.
I am thrilled that we have a new independent bookstore in Severna Park, and hope we can keep it going. Now, if only we could get a full-service bakery and a fish market (like the old Annapolis Seafood).
I, too, would love to see a fish market and a butcher shop like the one my parents used for years. A full-service bakery would be nice too.