Planet Fitness Coming to Wildewood

Planet Fitness will be taking over the former 20,000 sf World Gym Space at the Wildewood Shopping Center in California, MD.  Renovations have begun but they do not have a new opening date yet.

UPDATE:  Planet Fitness is now open

Cafe Rio Coming to St. Mary's County

Cafe Rio will be a tenant in the new St. Mary's Marketplace with Harris Teeter.  The restaurant will have patio seating as well.  This will be their second location in Southern Maryland.

You Can't Have Your Cheesecake and Country Too

UPDATED 2019

I've posted this before but its so far back in the blog now its lost.  I often get asked for a few of the same restaurants over and over.  Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Changs are at the top of the list.  Then there are the high end grocery stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joes and Wegmans

Why don't they come?  What stops them from opening up here?  Well here are the requirements they look for:

Population - The biggest factor.  The entire population for Charles County is estimated around 159,700 Calvert 91,502, St. Mary's 112,667 (all as of 2017).  And for reference Prince Georges County has a population estimate of over 900,000.   Places like the above mentioned restaurants want a daytime population of somewhere in the area of 300,000 within a 3-5 mile radius of the location. Currently the estimated daytime population of the mall within 5 miles is estimated at around 92,000. They want the restaurant packed at lunch and dinner which is why they go to dense urban areas.  On a regular lunch day you can walk into almost any restaurant in Waldorf with no wait time and that's not good.

Wegmans Grocery says they want high daytime population because they depend on the lunchtime crowd to use their food bars.  The issue in our area is that 65+ percent of our workforce leaves the county for work.  Which means our daytime population is lower than what they want to see.

Demographics - workforce, high school and college graduates, number of households, average household incomes, retired or working, age, race, sex.  Our average household incomes are great but not enough houses. Also mentioned by some that we didn't have enough college graduates.  Did you know you needed a diploma to buy food?

Roads and transportation - Is the site on a major road? How many vehicles per day pass the site?  Does the site meet parking requirements? Does the company have a distribution site within a certain radius of the proposed location?

Government - Are they easy to work with? Do they want growth?  Are they business friendly? Any incentives to come to the area?  How long will the process take to get our site approved?

Attractions - What pulls people to the area? Historic sites, large venues, sporting arenas, tourism, casinos, amusement parks.

Land -  They want high profile corner sites with traffic lights and ease of access for their patrons.   They want sites along Crain Highway and we are running out of them.  Many that are out there have wetlands running thru them and you can't build near that.  Storm water and environmental regulations are constantly changing and take up more of the land so you either build a smaller space or have to buy a larger site which comes at a higher price.

So we either have to build houses and apartment and become a densely populated area which is not going to happen because nobody wants that, or stay a little country, a little city and be happy.

Dunkin Donuts Open in Leonardtown

Dunkin had its ribbon cutting yesterday and it's open for business.  The new Dunkin Donuts is located on 22845 Washington Street in Leonardtown, MD.

Hobby Lobby Coming to California, MD

Hobby Lobby will be taking over the former K-Mart location in California, MD.  I am waiting on confirmation from my source but they should open later this year in time for the holiday season.
Hobby Lobby owns 700 stores in 47 states.  They also offer one of the highest wage rates in the industry with full-time employees earning $15.35 an hour and part-time employees receiving $10.23 an hour.  Not to bad.  They are still looking for a spot in Waldorf and we have given them a few places to look at.  So we will see what happens.

UPDATE 11/17/16:  Landlord has started construction on the facade work of the building.  Opening wont be until early 2017.

UPDATE 3/1/17:  Grand Opening date is April 17, 2017

ALDI opens in California, MD

ALDI - California, MD will open its doors November 5th 2015 at 44755 Oak Crest Road.  Ribbon cutting will be at 9 a.m.  The first 100 shoppers will receive a golden ticket containing gift certificates of different amounts.   Hours will be 9-8 Monday thru Saturday and 9-7 on Sunday.

Harris Teeter Coming to St. Marys Marketplace

A 58,000 square foot Harris Teeter will be the grocery store for the new St. Mary's Marketplace Shopping Center that is under construction at the corner of Rt. 4 (St. Andrews Church Rd.) and Route 235.   A Pharmacy is planned for the center as well as more retail and pad sites. 

Update: 11/1/16 Construction has started on the shopping center

Update 2/21/17 Cafe Rio, Great Clips, Nail Trix, and Bay Country wine and spirits has been added to the tenant list.  Updated site rendering

Update 11/9/17 Harris Teeter is set to open January 24th 2018.   Batteries Plus and Starbucks are also signed.

Krispy Kreme Coming to Lexington Park

Looks like Krispy Kreme has got their sights on a location across from the San Souci Plaza in Lexington Park.  Not much more information to give right now.  Updates as we get them.

UPDATE 3-23-16 :  Still looking for some sign of progress but nothing has happened.

Urban BBQ Coming to Leonardtown

Urban Bar-B-Que Company is coming to Leonardtown, MD.  The current Waring-Ahearn Insurance building at 25805 Point Lookout Rd. will be demolished and a new retail building will be constructed. There will be space for two other retail users in the same building.  Currently they have 8 locations and this is the first for the Tri-County area. 

Dunkin Donuts coming to Leonardtown

The former Bell Motors car lot on Washington St. has been purchased. The property will be redeveloped into retail pad sites and the building will be renovated into retail spaces.  Dunkin donuts will be on one of the pad sites.  This project is in the early stages and still must go thru approvals.


UPDATE 7-26-16 : Dunkin donuts is now open!

New Retail in California, MD

Two new stores will take the place of the former Blockbuster Video in front of the Laurel Glen Shopping Center in California, MD.  The building will be reworked to add a drive thru for the restaurant. Look for them to open mid 2015.

R/C Theater Breaks Ground in St. Marys

We attended the ground breaking for the new 45,000 square foot R/C 12 screen theater this week.  It will be located in the new Lexington Exchange Shopping Center in Lexington Park, MD across from Wildewood Plaza.  It should take approx. 9 months to build.  We have also brought Aldi Market to the same center.  We will keep you updated on further progress.

DSW Shoes coming to St. Mary's

DSW Shoes will open a location this summer in the Wildewood Shopping Center in California, MD.  They will take over what is left of the former McKay's store that the Bed, Bath and Beyond didn't use.

Bed Bath & Beyond coming to St. Mary's

 

Bed Bath & Beyond will be taking over a large portion of the former McKay's space in the Wildewood Shopping Center in California, MD.  Look for a grand opening sometime in the spring of 2014.

Mission BBQ

Mission BBQ will be opening on or about the 22nd of July 2013 in the San Souci Shopping Center in California, MD.  They focus on honoring public servants and they play the national anthem at noon every day.  They hope to open up to 40 locations in the future.

More Updates

Back from the big convention in sunny Las Vegas with news from the retail world.

Potbelly will open May 29th in Lexington Park at 23064 Three Notch Road

Mission BBQ & Golden Corral will be coming to San Souci Plaza in California, MD

Jimmy Johns says they will open the Waldorf location in approx. 6 weeks