Ten years ago, there were very few coffee shops along the Route 1 corridor. You could get a cup of coffee at the Professional Coffee Shop, a much-loved diner across from what is now the Shoppes at Arts District Hyattsville, or at Starbucks in the College Park Shopping Center near the University of Maryland campus.

But over the past few years, a number of coffee shops and roasters have opened, followed not long after by hip new restaurants, upscale grocery stores and other markers of growth and development.

It’s a pattern that researchers have long noticed. A 2018 Harvard Business School study, which used data from Yelp, found that a new coffee shop, whether Starbucks or another cafe, was associated with a half a percent increase in housing prices in that ZIP code that year. And that neighborhoods where coffees shops were opening tended to be areas where there was an increase in the overall number of businesses opening.

That replicated the results of earlier studies using data from Zillow and San Francisco’s real estate market.

No one knows exactly what causes this. Do coffee shops tend to locate in up-and-coming neighborhoods? Do people want to live near cafes? Or are they just a convenient signal to homebuyers and potential investors that this is an area they should be moving into that creates the change?

Whatever the reason, it’s definitely happening here.

Consider: Zeke’s coffee shop and roastery opened in Woodridge in 2013, Vigilante coffee shop and roastery opened in Hyattsville in 2014 and expanded to College Park in 2018, Board and Brew opened in College Park in 2014, a Starbucks opened in Riverdale Park Station in 2017, Kahvie opened in Hyattsville in June of this year, Redemption Roasters opened in Brentwood’s Savor Food Hall in October, and Southeastern Roastery plans to open a shop in Riverdale Park.

The latest addition to the Route 1 corridor’s coffee scene is Lil Coffee Cabin, which recently opened in Hyattsville’s University Town Center.

Those coffee shops were all either part of a big new development or are located in an area that has since seen dramatic changes. Whether they were cause or just a correlation, they’re definitely a sign of how much the Route 1 corridor has changed already and what is coming next.

The variety of coffee options is also expanding in the area. You can get a turmeric-infused latte made with an exclusive custom-blend of coffee at Kahvie, espresso and chocolate topped with whipped cream and an orange slice at Busboys and Poets, or a Kyoto drip cold brew at Board and Brew.

Or you can pick up a chicory coffee at BeClaws, a Kalita pour-over at Vigilante, Vietnamese iced coffee at Banana Blossom Bistro, Ethiopian coffee at Shagga or a Chemex-brewed coffee at Zeke’s. And now you can get a campfire mocha made with toasted marshmallow at the new Lil Coffee Cabin.