Retail properties in the Mid-Atlantic states have continued to grow in size and scope throughout the economic downturn of the past few years. Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and their suburbs, in particular, have seen increased retail activity as a result of continued job and population growth fueled by the expansion of the government, and the area remains one of the nation’s top choice locations for retail developers. The Carolinas and Virginia, as well, continue to grow at rapid speeds.

Washington-Baltimore

Bethesda, Maryland-based JBG Rosenfeld is developing The Royalton at King Street Metro, a mixed-use development in Alexandria, Virginia, anchored by a 45,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market.

Last year, metro Washington, D.C., saw the arrival of several new retail brands and several examples of urban revitalization and redevelopment projects. In 2003, the international clothing chain H&M opened a 27,000-square-foot flagship store in downtown D.C. at the corner of 11th and F streets NW. It also opened a second, smaller store in Georgetown Mall in the Georgetown commercial district. Across the street from the H&M location, men’s clothing store Jos. A. Bank also opened a new downtown location in 2003. The 7,500-square-foot store is currently being expanded by 1,500 square feet.

Best Buy recently opened a new 49,500-square-foot store at 4500 Wisconsin Ave. NW as a part of Madison Marquette and Roadside Development’s renovation of the old Hechinger’s store as a mixed-use complex. The 405,000-square-foot complex is still under construction and will contain 208 condominium units, a Container Store and a neighborhood hardware store. The project sits atop the Tenleytown Metro Station.

Gallery Place, a mixed-use development at the intersection of H and 7th streets NW will open this spring. Located on top of the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro station, it contains more than 650,000 square feet of dining, retail and condominiums. Developed by Western Development and John Akridge Companies, it will include a 14-screen movie theater, 237,000 square feet of office space, a Jillian’s, Washington Sports Club and 192 condominiums.

Another mixed-use project, Grid Properties’ DC USA in Columbia Heights, will have 540,000 square feet of retail space and will include the District’s first Target. Construction is scheduled to begin this fall.

Opening this year, Horning Brothers’ Tivoli Square, located one block from the Columbia Heights Metro station, will feature 77,000 square feet of retail space, anchored by a new Giant Foods store, 38 residential units and a complete restoration of the historic Tivoli theater.

The D.C. suburbs are also a hotbed of retail activity, with Loudoun and Stafford counties in Virginia becoming two of the fastest growing areas in the nation. Grocery-anchored centers are in demand in the area.

D.C.-based Combined Properties is redeveloping Charles County Plaza in the D.C. suburb of Waldorf, Maryland. Construction will be complete late this summer. Giant Foods is moving into the center’s former Kmart location, and this will be one of the grocer’s largest stores in the D.C. metropolitan market. A 43,520-square-foot Linens ‘n Things will also anchor the center.

Combined is also redeveloping Maryland City Plaza in Laurel, Maryland, after the center was damaged by fire in March 2003. The center will be anchored by Shoppers Food Warehouse’s most recent prototype store and will be reconfigured to accommodate Shoppers’ footprint, increasing the grocer’s square footage from 51,880 to 59,317.

Also in Laurel, Washington/Baltimore-based H&R Retail recently leased space to Michaels and Staples at Laurel Lakes Centre as part of a master plan to redevelop the 420,000-square-foot center. The stores will open sometime next year.

In Northern Maryland’s Westminster, Owings Mills, Maryland-based Greenberg Commercial is redeveloping the former Englar Shopping Center, which will be renamed Westminster Crossing. The $15 million project, which will feature 225,000 square feet of lifestyle retailers including CVS/pharmacy and Office Depot, will be complete this fall. Greenberg Commercial and KLNB Retail are overseeing leasing activities for the center.

Federal Realty Investment Trust, based in Rockville, Maryland, has plans to redevelop Plaza del Mercado, a Giant-food anchored, 96,000-square-foot center in Montgomery County, Maryland, that it acquired last year.

Retail along Charles Street in Baltimore is thriving.

Retail in the Charles Street area of Baltimore is thriving. Private businesses have invested $53.5 million in 21 new businesses in the historic Charles Street corridor from Pratt Street to North Avenue in the 2 years since Charles Street Development Corporation was founded, according to a study conducted in November by the company. About a third of the new businesses are retail.

The multi-million dollar investments include $21 million in upgrades to One Charles Center, a 22-story office building; $7 million of renovations to Charles Plaza, an apartment tower with ground level shops; and $10 million of alterations to the former Masonic Headquarters, now referred to as the Tremont Grand, which will be converted to a conference center and shops and will be connected to the Tremont Suites Hotel.

In the Baltimore suburb of Catonsville, the 7- year renovation of Westview Center, formerly an enclosed shopping mall, will be complete this spring. The latest retailer to lease space in the center is Ross Dress For Less. Major tenants already in place are Sam’s Club, Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, Value City and United Artists Theaters. H&R Retail is handling the leasing for the center, which will include 611,000 square feet of space, and it is owned and managed by Fairfax, Virginia-based The Peterson Companies.

KLNB Retail brokered the sale of three shopping centers in the Baltimore area in 2003. Totaling 260,000 square feet, the centers sold for a combined $27.4 million. They were Lakeside Village, a 59,985-square-foot center in Owings Mills, Maryland; Golden Ring Plaza Shopping Center in Rosedale, Maryland; and Kent Island Shopping Center in Dover, Delaware. Continental Realty Corp. sold Lakeside Village for $9.6 million to GE Capital, Edens & Avant purchased Golden Ring Plaza for $15.9 million from Pence-Friedel and BBC Properties purchased Kent Island from the Applefeld family for $1.9 million.

In the D.C. suburbs of Virginia, Federal Realty is redeveloping Pan Am Shopping Center. The renovation of the 218,000-square-foot center in Fairfax, which will be complete in the fourth quarter of this year, includes the expansion of a Safeway from 32,800 to 65,000 square feet. Federal Realty also purchased several centers last year with plans for redevelopment in 2004. The centers include the 213,000-square-foot South Valley Shopping Center and the 257,000-square-foot Mount Vernon Plaza — adjacent properties in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Combined Properties redeveloped the Giant Food-anchored Bradlick Shopping Center in Annandale, Virginia, in fall 2003.

Combined Properties redeveloped Bradlick Shopping Center in Annandale, Virginia, last fall. The façade of the center, which is anchored by a 54,700-square-foot Giant Food, was completely overhauled and McDonald’s moved from an inline space to a new pad site in the center’s parking lot.

KLNB recently brokered the sale of McLearen Square in Herndon, Virginia, for $11.5 million. The 78,032-square-foot strip shopping center, anchored by Food Lion and CVS/pharmacy, was sold to First Allied Corporation by Canada-based Sun Life Insurance Company.

Bethesda, Maryland-based JBG Rosenfeld is developing The Royalton at King Street Metro, a mixed-use development expected to open next year in Alexandria. A strip shopping center was razed from the 2-acre property to make room for a 45,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market and additional retail and residential space. The site will also include 111 upscale condominiums situated on three levels above the retail portion.

Richmond/Hampton Roads

In the rest of the state of Virginia, retail development and leasing are also strong, especially in the coastal areas of Virginia Beach and Newport News.

Ziff Properties closed on the acquisition of Coliseum Corner in Hampton last December. The 49,444-square-foot strip retail center, which was purchased from Crown Life Insurance Company through Virginia Beach-based Divaris Real Estate Company, is anchored by the Rugged Wearhouse. Divaris, a Realty Resources firm, is leasing and managing Coliseum Corner. Late last year, Divaris also leased 30,187 square feet to Ross Dress For Less in the center.

In September, Divaris leased space in The Town Center of Virginia Beach to The Cheesecake Factory. This is the restaurant’s first full-service location in Virginia outside of the Washington metro area. The Town Center is a $500 million, 17-block mixed-use project developed by a public/private partnership. It is leased and managed by Divaris. Also in the Virginia Beach area, Divaris helped sellers dispose of three different sites of former Pizza Hut restaurants. The former Pizza Hut sites will be redeveloped for other retail uses.

Divaris also recently negotiated the sales of the 75,506-square-foot Dominion Marketplace in Chesapeake in November and the 391,785-square-foot Newmarket South Shopping Center in Newport News in December. Divaris is now handling the leasing for both centers.

In Richmond, Nations Capital Realty of Fairfax, Virginia, is currently selling the Glen Lea Centre, a 78,493-square-foot Winn Dixie- and Eckerd-anchored center. Nations Captial also recently facilitated the sale of Downtown Short Pump, also in Richmond. Inland Group purchased the 125,533-square-foot center for $33.6 million.

Federal Realty Trust is redeveloping Leesburg Plaza in Leesburg, Virginia. Federal Realty bought the 246,000-square-foot Plaza in 1998 and plans to add Office Depot as an anchor.

Virginia Beach-based Coastal Capital Partners recently acquired Port Crossing Shopping Center in Harrisonburg. A 45,000-square-foot Food Lion anchors the 65,000-square-foot center.

North Carolina

Developers in North Carolina are remaining confident about a return to healthy market conditions this year, as more power and mixed-use centers come on line, especially in the Raleigh-Durham area, this year.

North Hills is a mixed-use center under development by Kane Realty in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Kane Realty Corporation is developing the mixed-use North Hills project in Raleigh. The development is being built on the site of North Hills Mall, which was the first two-level mall to open in the area between Tysons Corner Center in Northern Virginia and Greenbriar Mall in Atlanta back in the late 1960s. Target, JC Penney and a 14-screen Marquee Cinema will join a 150-room hotel, a Gold’s Gym athletic club and Harris Teeter as retail anchors for this open-air, three-city-block project featuring Class A office space and 380 luxury condominiums, in addition to 340,000 square feet of street-level specialty retail and restaurants. North Hills is scheduled to open this fall.

At Cleveland-based Richard E. Jacobs Group’s 1.4 million-square-foot Triangle Town Center, which opened in 2002 in Raleigh, three new restaurants have opened — The Twisted Fork, Bamboo Club and Ted’s Montana Grill. As far as new retail at the center, Saks Fifth Avenue will open its first store in North Carolina at Triangle Town Center this fall. Dick’s Sporting Goods is under construction with its 75,000-square-foot flagship store to open later this year, and Bed Bath & Beyond has just announced that it will build a store, opening this fall, adjacent to Dick’s.

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Crosland Inc. has announced the first two retail tenants for its mixed-use Poyner Place in North Raleigh — a 30,000-square-foot Ross Dress For Less and a 12,000-square-foot Pier 1 Imports. Both retailers will open this summer. The center’s SuperTarget opened early this year. Poyner Place is a 460,000-square-foot joint venture between Crosland and Capital Land Investment Company.

In Durham, Cincinnati-based Midland Atlantic Properties’ Raleigh office is set to begin construction of Renaissance Village this summer. Anchored by a SuperTarget, the center will include 112,000 square feet of additional retail space, approximately 106,000 square feet of office space and a hotel. The project is scheduled to open summer 2005.

Midland also recently opened its Renaissance Center, also in the Southpoint area of Durham. Tenants include Target, Linens ‘n Things, Pier 1 Imports, Cost Plus World Market, REI, P.F. Chang’s, Chili’s, David’s Bridal and Ted’s Montana Grill. The current master plan for Renaissance Center brings together a mixture of uses, including 188,640 square feet of retail space, a 150- to 200-room upscale hotel and 186,000 square feet of office space.

In Tarboro, near Rocky Mount, Coastal Capital Partners closed on River Oaks Landing in early January. The Wal-Mart Supercenter shadow-anchored center includes 32,800 square feet of retail space and has tenants such as Dollar Tree, RadioShack and Cato.

In Wilmington, Brody Zimmer Development will soon open Mayfaire Town Center, the first lifestyle center for Wilmington. Anchored by a 140,000-square-foot Hecht’s, the 400,000-square-foot center will also be anchored by Linens ‘n Things, Barnes & Noble and Williams-Sonoma. Other key tenants include Michaels, Ann Taylor, Coldwater Creek, Wolfgang Puck Express and Starbucks. An adjacent community center, anchored by Harris Teeter, will begin construction this fall.

Greensboro, North Carolina-based Kotis Properties is developing Willowlake Towne Center in Greensboro. The phased project, located at the intersection of U.S. 70 and the newly constructed Interstate 840, will eventually host more than 300,000 square feet of retail with two outparcels.

Also in Greensboro, Kotis recently unveiled plans for a 7,000-square-foot expansion to the 110,000-square-foot Westover Gallery of Shops, which should be complete by late this year.

Between Pinehurst and Tarrytown, the Olmsted Village Company is in Phase I construction on Camellia Parke Shoppes, an upscale lifestyle center set to open this fall. The Shoppes will include 100,000 square feet of retail space.

Kotis Properties is expanding Spring Lane Galleria in Sanford, North Carolina.

In nearby Sanford, Kotis has begun work on a 28,000-square-foot expansion to the Spring Lane Galleria. The Lowes Foods-, OfficeMax- and Pier 1 Imports-anchored center could see the expansion completed by early next year.

Greenville, South Carolina-based Realticorp disposed of NorthLite Center in Concord, North Carolina, last year. Originally a 110-acre site, initial sales were made to Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Logan’s, Ruby Tuesday’s and McDonald’s in 2002. In 2003, there were six additional sales, totaling $13.17 million. With a sale in September 2003 to MHW Developers, this project has sold out.

In Charlotte, Edens & Avant is continuing to develop Kenilworth Commons, a 99,215-square-foot center in the Dilworth section of the city. The Harris Teeter-anchored center contains a unique mix of small shops as well.

South Carolina

Heading down to the southern Mid-Atlantic, mixed-use, multiphase retail centers are the trend throughout the state of South Carolina.

Crosland recently closed on the purchase of a 71-acre site on which it will break ground this spring to develop a $64 million, 600,000-square-foot regional center — The Shops at Greenridge — in a joint venture with Core Properties in Greenville. Best Buy will serve as a junior anchor and negotiations are being finalized for a 116,000-square-foot Lowe’s anchor. The project’s signature element will be a 103,800-square-foot village area in the center of the property. Interwoven among specialty shops and restaurants will be an outdoor plaza featuring pedestrian pathways and sitting areas.

Grubb & Ellis|The Furman Company is developing a mixed-use project called Bookends in downtown Greenville. Approximately 6,200 square feet of retail space will occupy the street level. Construction is expected to be complete by this summer.

Construction on the first phase of the Village at Sandhill is underway in Columbia, South Carolina, by Kahn Development.

Construction on the first phase of the Village at Sandhill is underway in Columbia. Being developed by Columbia-based Kahn Development, Sandhill will be part of a master-planned, 300-acre development that will include retail, residential, senior housing and office space. Phase I has three components. The Marketplace component will include Bi-Lo as the anchor and 40,000 square feet of additional retail space. The Forum component will feature a Rhodes Furniture- and Cost Plus World Market-anchored power center. Both the Marketplace and Forum sectors will open later this year. A third lifestyle center component will open early next year and will feature a theater and retailers such as Ann Taylor, Casual Corner and Yankee Candle, along with restaurants like Nestle Tollhouse Café, Moe’s Southwest Grill and Marble Slab Creamery. Phase II of the Village at Sandhill is currently in the planning stages.

Also in Columbia, Edens & Avant has redeveloped and expanded The Shoppes at Woodhill into a town center development anchored by Bed Bath & Beyond and Cost Plus. A newly redeveloped Target will open adjacent to the center later this year.

In Florence, Edens & Avant has redeveloped and expanded Florence Mall, a 312,928-square-foot center anchored by Stein Mart, Books-A-Million and Piggly Wiggly.

In the coastal region of the state, Stafford Properties completed Phase II of Low Country Village in Bluffton, South Carolina, near Hilton Head, in January. Tenants include Ross Dress For Less, Michaels and PetsMart. Phase III construction will begin this summer.

Kotis Holdings will begin construction in the first quarter of this year on approximately 53,000 square feet of retail space at The Shoppes at 501 Power Center in Myrtle Beach. Phase I should be complete by the fourth quarter of this year. Also in Myrtle Beach, Nations Capital Realty recently brokered the sale of Kings Festival Shopping Center. Kmart anchors the 135,000-square-foot center, which sold for $6.1 million.

The biggest development to hit Myrtle Beach — and one of the biggest in the Carolinas — is CBL & Associates’ Coastal Grand Myrtle Beach, a 1.5 million-square-foot center anchored by Belk, Dillard’s and Sears. The center, opening this month, promises to deliver a first-class center for one of the fastest growing areas in the Southeast.

©2004 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.