If you drive past Guilford Road on Baltimore Ave. in College Park, you’ll see little more than a cleared piece of land. But some marketing material as one reader pointed out gives a better sense of the plans for the site.
Called the Southern Gateway, the development would be a $100 million mixed-use development, with nearly 400 apartments, 73,000 square feet of retail space and two parking garages.
The site would be anchored by two big tenants: a 20,000 square foot health club and a 15,000 square feet specialty grocery store. Both make sense, as Amazon-proof businesses that people often visit a few times a week which also attract a lot of students.
But the Route 1 corridor already has a lot of gyms, yoga studios and fitness centers and an already heated battleground in the grocery store wars. Some of the more obvious potential tenants — Aldi, Lidl, Whole Foods, Yes! Organic and Mom’s — already have locations in the area.
The exception: Trader Joe’s, whose stores tend to be on average about 15,000 square feet. That’s led some readers like Stuart Adams to speculate that one might be coming. But a representative of KLNB, which is marketing the site, told the Hyattsville Wire that no tenants have been signed as of yet and that delivery wouldn’t be until late 2021.
While Trader Joe’s would be a great addition, another smart move they could consider might be something like an H Mart, a fast-growing upscale Asian supermarket chain with locations in Falls Church, Fairfax and Wheaton. H Mart would appeal to the more than 6,000 international students at the University of Maryland from China, India, South Korea and Taiwan, and offer something different than the existing grocery stores in the area. H Mart has several locations near college campuses and stores as small as 15,000 square feet.
Another interesting detail: The marketing material shows a skyway linking two of the main buildings.
According to an earlier document about the requirements Trader Joes has regarding locations, they look for an “educated population that is willing to try unique and international foods.” Well, duh! We live in a culturally diverse area next to one of the nation’s premier universities and a research park. Yet, they felt RT. 29 in Silver Spring was a better option. Perhaps we are too cultured and would shame them for selling more processed/frozen food than fresh whole foods. We have options such as Whole Foods, MOMs, Yes! Organic, food co-ops, Asian, Latino, and Caribbean grocers – and now Lidl. That is a lot of competition. I used to be in the Trader Joes fan club. But when I look past all of the hype, I like our current mix of grocery options a lot better. I wouldn’t shed any tears if Trader Joes continued its ban on Prince George’s County.