Friday, August 26, 2011
Hey Chris why can't we have a ...........around here??
Lets talk about rumors and what the reality is when it comes to some of the bigger name restaurants that people have asked me about. For a long period of time there have been rumors floating around about Waldorf getting a P.F. Chang's and a Cheesecake Factory. I will just start off by telling you they are completely false. It was a rumor that started when the Peterson company began planning the Waldorf Town Center, a "lifestyle center" that was supposed to be built in the former Stardust location on Route 301. The plans for that shopping center have been put on a definate hold because the Peterson company is currently working on the expansion of the National Harbor. Now the land is for sale and are looking for other developers. So anyway back to why we can't get some of these well knows places. The biggest problem....population. A place like the Cheesecake Factory requires a large daytime population to keep it running. The last time I spoke to them they wanted a population of 250,000 people within a 5 mile radius of the location to be built and we are nowhere close to that. We are just reaching 150,000 total in the county! We also have a problem here because of the amount of people that leave the county to work and that's not good for us. If we cant fill restaurants during lunch then they wont be able to survive. The dinner crowd just won't pay the bills. Other smaller places requested that I have looked into have another issue..franchise owners. If no one wants to run a Krispy Kreme or a Salad Works then we aren't going to get one. All I can do is call the franchise and offer my services to help someone find a location when the time comes. So if you are an entrepreneur and are ready and able to start up a new business, we are here to help you through the process.
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13 comments:
Thanks for sharing that information. As residents we need to demand our county leaders to develop a strategy to get more daytime jobs in Charles County, specifically Waldorf and create incentives for more entrepreneurs to open franchises. Otherwise nothing will change. At this point I have no expectation that anything will change; we can't even get a Super Walmart to open :)
To be honest, I could care less abuot a Chiangs or Cheesecake here, it would worsen an already bad weekend traffic mess around here. Maybe we need a park of some kind where the Stardust was, a little green space in Waldorf. And a few smaller businesses.
Chuck, greenspace could be included in the next design. We will have to see. If you have seen the design for the properties along 925 between acton and leonardtown road you will like what they have planned because it does include park areas. However it will be a while before that takes place.
Harris, We really need to keep people working closer to home and keep the money in the family of charles county. The super walmart isn't dead yet. But I think it's funny people think they are keeping both stores open in laplata even tho they said it would be filled up with new stores. They want to complain but don't even know the facts.
The SuperWalmart vote for Aug 23 was pushed backed to Sept. Hopefully it gets the green light. I do understand LaPlata's concerns but this would be a big deal for the county's economy. It would definitely attract other retailers and even more customers because it will be the only SuperWalmart in the area besides St. Marys. The old Walmart could have Marshalls, Nicks and/or Kohls which are all great. But I would actually love to see a movie theatre instead. When the movie theatre in Brandywine opens I don't see the one in Waldorf surviving (I don't even go there now because it is outdated and not appealing). Therefore a location in LaPlata would be perfect and restaurants will flock to be near a new movie theatre! And I agree with hammockbrain - not interested in a PF Changs or Cheesecake Factory but Charles County should capitalize on green space areas with small shops; something different than the typical strip mall. The new residents in my community are looking for these amenities and often go outside the county:(
The Waldorf theatre decided not to refresh their space a long time ago because at the time they felt they were the only game in town and held all the cards. Apparently they don't care about your comfort at all, you saw how long it took to have the monument sign replaced after it was damaged. Hopefully the new Brandywine theatre will give them a kick in the pants to fix things up. We have attempted to get a small theatre in the walmart space but have not had luck securing a qualified owner. I'd also like to answer a question I saw in the paper from Mr. Maynard concerning why Nick's didnt move down before when safeway vacated their old space. The reason is because Safeway still had a lease on that space and they restricted any other markets from subleasing the space. So there was no opportunity to move down before. People need to get their facts straight before firing off letters.
I don't know Harris, La Plata needs to have something Waldorf doesn't have, dare I say Trader Joe's, Wegman's or Whole Foods. What I really miss is Pizzeria Uno although Boston's isn't bad. And if they're going to do that movie theater in Brandywine, they need to do something about traffic. Last Saturday I went to Annapolis, then stopped at the NY Deli on Brandywine Rd. I live near St Charles town center and it took just as long to get home as it took to get to the deli from Annapolis. BTW, what is the status of the movie theater at Brandywine?
I get your point Hammockbrain...not sure if we can get a Wegmans or Whole Foods but Trader Joes would be a good fit for LaPlata. We are getting a MOMS in Waldorf and they are an excellent organic grocery store.
The traffic through Brandywine is just horrible! If I have to leave Waldorf on the weekend I try to leave early and return late to avoid the traffic. It will only get worse when the movie opens along with CarMax, Kobe Steakhouse and the high density housing. Also the vacant land across the street is also going to be developed.
Carmax? Kobe? My God, and what's going across the street? How are people who work at Andrews or anywhere else supposed to get home? BTW, what is the status of the movie theater? I don't see any sign of building yet.
All the zoning is in place for the movie theatre and they are just going thru the permit process which is more work than in Charles County. Once all the mobile office trailers are removed from the one lot they can start clearing the land for all the tenants harris mentioned.
I cant remember where I saw the plans for the vacant lots hammockbrain but I will see if I can find them and send you the link. I believe it is mostly ofc buildings though.
As for the Waldorf theatre I know that there were plans for a renovation. However when AMC acquired Loews they decided against moving forward with a renovation because of the shape it was in and the design of the theatre. AMC wanted to actually build a new theatre, attached to the mall but the mall pushed them to renovate instead. The current theatre's design is outdated but it is also not very functional for a movie theatre. There is not enough space and renovating and adding screens to that simply won't help. Plus whenever you retrofit to add stadium seating you lose a significant number of seats. AMC typically builds a new unit as opposed to renovating.
It's unfortunate that a new theatre is being built out of county but it will be a welcome addition. There is certainly not room for more than one theatre in the area so it will be interesting to see what ends up happening.
I was looking at the new drawing for Tanger Outlets that was released today and saw that Peterson Cos now has a blog. While reviewing the blog I noticed they added a new diagram for the Waldorf Towne Center project. Although the land is for sale are they planning to revive that project?
Just trying to come up with different ideas, sell parcels, sell the whole thing or develop pieces at a time. No solid plan yet. They still show delivery to tenants by 2011 on the flyer.
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