A former Sunoco station near the Hyattsville Crossing Metro station will become a 7-Eleven.

Located at 3599 East-West Highway, across from the Mall at Prince George’s, the gas station with a small interior convenience store is being completely redone.

It will reopen as a 7-Eleven, as the Texas-based chain undergoes another expansion, building 500 new stores over the next two years.

Some of those stores will be part of a newer store design that includes freshly prepared, made-to-order and frozen foods and an expanded merchandise and technology.

It’s unclear yet whether that will include the Hyattsville Crossing store.

The Route 1 corridor already has a number of 7-Elevens, from Hyattsville to Riverdale Park and College Park.

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Construction work will finish next year on Hyattsville’s new police station.

Located at 3505 Hamilton St. next to the Bestway Supermarket, the new public safety building will include a large public meeting room, space for the department’s K9 dogs, a computer lab for training and a dispatch center.

The 35,000 square foot building includes separate entrances for victims and suspects so that they don’t accidentally interact and a a dedicated office for the police department’s mental health services available for people who walk-in seeking help.

The $26.2 million project has been in the works since the city bought the former BB&T bank regional headquarters in 2010, though construction didn’t begin in earnest until 2022. The cost has risen from an original estimate of $19.9 million.

The bulk of the funding for the project came from city bonds, but state and federal grants account for about $2 million of the funding.

In addition to the new building being centrally located to major roads, the current police headquarters at 4310 Gallatin St. is on prime real estate in south Hyattsville, where new apartments and shops have been going up in recent years.

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A new apartment building in Hyattsville features a giant mural from a Washington, D.C.-based artist.

Located at 6601 Melville St. just off Toledo Road, The Devon features studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom luxury apartments with rents up to $3,585 a month. It is part of a wave of new apartment buildings within a half-mile of the Hyattsville Crossing Metro station.

One side of the building features a mural with blue, purple and yellow shapes from muralist Joel Bergner, his first on the Route 1 corridor.

Bergner told the Wire that he landed the project through the online platform Wxllspace, which connects real estate developers with muralists.

“They were specifically looking for an abstract piece, which I had never done before on a large scale, as my usual work includes portraits and other figurative elements,” he said. “I decided to get out of my comfort zone and give it a try!”

Bergner’s typical work often involves colorful close-ups of human faces. His other murals have been in 30 countries on five continents, including a Syrian refugee camps, a Brazilian favela, a rural Ugandan settlement and the D.C. Metro headquarters.

Through his nonprofit, Artolution, he often works with young people and other community members to create the murals. In this case, he painted the mural, called “Unity in Orbit,” by himself in about two weeks.

“I love working with young people and community members of all ages on most of my mural projects,” he said. “With this project, as it was very high off the ground and could only be reached by lift, it wasn’t possible.”

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Shake Shack will open in College Park on Wednesday.

The popular New York-based burger chain will open its newest location in the greater D.C. area at 4350 Knox Rd.

The location is on the first floor of the new Union on Knox student apartment building, a $140 million complex on the old site of the 7-Eleven that will house 800 students.

Since its founding in 2004, Shake Shack has grown to over 400 locations and has something of a cult-like following for its premium burgers, crinkle-cut fries, and shakes.

The restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

For the first day in business, customers will receive custom tumblers, and Shake Shack will donate $1 for every burger sold to the University of Maryland Campus Pantry.

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Developers plan to update and refurbish an aging apartment building in College Park, in the latest sign of the city’s rapid change.

New York-based Cape Advisors, Inc. announced that it has gotten a loan to purchase the University Club apartment building.

Located at 4800 Berwyn House Rd., the 135-unit complex is just down the street from the Campus Village Shoppes property, which is being torn down to make way for more student housing.

Built in 1965, the 152,000-square-foot brick building has long served as off-campus housing for University of Maryland students, but it lacks some of the amenities that newer options like The Varsity nearby.

Cape Advisors told the Hyattsville Wire that it is planning for “modern finishes” and “enhanced amenities,” with a complete overhaul of the individual one- and two-bedroom apartments. About half of the units will be retrofitted with high-end furnishings, it said.

The $25 million deal is a sign of the rapidly changing landscape in College Park, as a university-led effort to make it into more of a college town and shift away from being a commuter school has taken hold.

It is unusual, however, as developers have torn down or planned to tear down other older buildings in College Park.

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A number of small and local businesses on the Route 1 corridor are holding special events on Saturday, Dec. 7, for the holiday shopping season.

As part of “Shop Small, Taste Big” from noon to 5 p.m. today, businesses along Route 1 and in West Hyattsville will be holding pop-up markets with artists and crafters, playing music, and offering cookies and cocoa with Santa Claus.

There will be an artisan market at Hamilton Street and 31st Avenue in the Queens Chapel Town Center near the Aldi grocery store, including holiday music from DJ Flako G and a dance performance from Adagio Dance Studio.

You can take a free shuttle from the Acapulco Spirit restaurant to Route 1, where there will be a Snow Crane Japanese ice cream pop-up at Vigilante Coffee, caroling from the College Park Chorale at My Dead Aunt’s Books,  and a “Santa Paws” holiday photoshoot at Will’s Decorating.

You can also stop by Artist & Craftsman Supply at 4902 43rd Ave. from noon to 5 p.m. to try snow-globing and cross-stitching.

All of these local businesses on the Route 1 corridor will also be open throughout the holiday season for your gift-shopping needs.

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A new apartment building within walking distance of the West Hyattsville Metro station is now accepting tenants.

Located at 5685 Little Branch Run, the Sovren apartments are the latest addition to the Riverfront at West Hyattsville community.

The five-story building has 293 apartments in one-, two- and three-bedroom layouts, 2,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space and a parking garage with a new mural from Hyattsville native MISS CHELOVE.

Thanks to a partnership with Amazon and Prince George’s County’s Department of Housing and community Development, 147 of the apartments are reserved for people making 80% of the area’s medium income, which is $85,800 for a family of three.

Amenities include smart-home technology, washers and dryers in apartments and open-concept layouts.

The developer, Gilbane, also built the new Atworth apartments near the College Park Metro station.

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