Maryland Real Estate

2nd Downtown Columbia Exxon Closes

The Exxon station on the corner of

Sterrett Place and Little Patuxent Parkway closed this week making this the 2nd gas station and the second Exxon to move out of downtown in 2009.

No sign of change at downtown site of Columbia Exxon

The property at 10611 Little Patuxent Parkway sits empty as it has for several months. The original Columbia Exxon, a Howard County landmark for over 42 years quickly and mysteriously closed it’s doors and most in the real estate community know nothing about it’s future. I called a few commercial Realtors….none knew. I asked around to several people in the “know”-they knew nothing either. No commercial “for rent” sign or “for sale” sign exists on the property. The piece of land the old structure sits on is huge so I can imagine the list of possibilities is large for that corner.

Photos supplied by http://www.columbiafutureblogspot.com/

Zepp Plaza foreclosure auction yields no contract

Last Monday the Auction of the Zepp Plaza in Clarksville yielded no sale.

Howard Bank, the current owner, foreclosed on the property after it’s builder and original owner, Zepp Plaza LLC, was unable to keep up with the terms of it’s original 3.3 million dollar loan. Zepp Plaza struggled to find tenants for it’s retail and office space. The housed 3 tenants; Clarksville Nails, Filiz Hair Design and Zepp Plumbing and Heating. All 3 tenants appear to be still in operation. Since Howard Bank was unable to sell the property at auction it has decided to keep it as a company asset and fill it with tenants.

According to the commercial website Loopnet , Zepp Plaza’s next door neighbor which houses Artie’s Icecream is up for sale as well.

$1,690,000.00 for 2700 finished square feet consisting of the Artie’s space; breakfast, burgers and more plus some rented office space above.

River Hill’s 9th Bank

Looney’s in Maple Lawn packs the house while Bellisimo Flowers and Daily Grind bail out

Maple Lawn in Fulton saw the departure of two major tenants recently with Bellisimo Flowers packing it’s bags and the Daily Grind coffee shop breaking camp as well. While both businesses opened with major fanfare it seems that the traffic count just wasn’t enough to stick around. Maple Lawn’s website http://www.maplelawnmd.com/ advertises “the ultimate in urban life without the traffic”. That got me thinking………traffic……..that’s not good if you have little kids running around outside but it’s a bad thing for retail business. I guess if I were a home buyer I would like that advertisement but if I were a small business owner it might not be as attractive.

Seems that the retail part of Maple Lawn was premature. In hindsight all these businesses would have survived better if the critical mass of the neighborhood had been in place when they opened. I’m sure everyone thought that all the new homes in Maple Lawn would all have been sold by now . Surprising to many the Howard County home market came to a halt and Maple Lawn had tons of great retail with no consumers to spend money there yet. I’ve been told that the landlord has allegedly been bending over backwards to help the retail tenants out with their plight but for these two tenants it obviously wasn’t enough of a cure.

Looney’s Pub on the other hand is creating traffic of it’s own. I went there with my daughter on Saturday night to try to get a quick plate of chicken fingers and fries around 6.00 p.m. and the hostess told me the wait for a table of 2 was over an hour. I saw my sister and her husband there sitting at the bar. They were on the waiting list too and from the looks of it there wasn’t a single open bar stool and that is at two massively long bars. So it looks like Looney’s won’t be needing any rent concessions this year and it looks like good news for the tenants that are still active , hopefully Looney’s will help draw business to them. I know I went and spent some money at Pizza Fresco because we didn’t have time to wait.

N.V. homes recently filled a ton of vacant lots with for sale signs and opened a sales center near OZ Chophouse and Ranazul. Looks like they are coming in starting in the mid 400′s for a 2300 square foot town home. Since 87% of the homes in Howard County are selling under 600k now , it’s seems that N.V. is taking on the same strategy that Looney’s took on.

Giving the average person what they want and what they can afford.

Columbia Mall’s sister in New Orleans faces foreclosure

General Growth Properties, owner of the Columbia Mall, Laurel Mall, Owings Mills Mall, Towson Towncentre , Harbor Place and the Gallery in the Inner Harbor and the buyer of the Rouse Company 5 years ago, is significantly late on it’s balloon payment on another of it’s malls in New Orleans called the Oakwood Center. The lenders of that mall have filed to foreclose.

See attached article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/30/AR2009033001049.html

Some analysts are predicting bankruptcy for General Growth Properties and should that occur it will be among the largest real estate failures in the nation’s history.

Howard County commercial real estate begins to draw it’s bath

If you study any bear real estate market you’ll see that they fold out into 3 stages. Or should I say the foreclosure rates on loans come in 3 stages in a real estate recession.

Stage 1- Resale Homes
Stage 2- Builders/Developers
Stage 3 -Commercial

Proof that stage 3 is starting in Howard County is:

Trapeze Restaurant
Urban Chic
Quizno’s Sub
Filene’s Basement
Rocky Run Tap and Grille
Lone Star Steak House
Tweeter
Expo
Mammoth Golf
Blockbuster Video
Jesse Wong’s Hong Kong

then what happens if these spots don’t get leased again soon is the owners or the centers start to default on their loans. Enter stage 3 foreclosures.

FBI seizes River Hill Sports Grille?

A reader of my blog sent me this interesting bit of information about Ray Miller, the owner of the River Hill Sports Grille in River Hill Village Center in Clarksville. Evidently Ray got busted and must forfeit over 22.5 million (that ain’t chump change) and the restaurant. It’s really too bad because in the 15 or so years that there has been a restaurant there , The River Hill Sports Grillle has had the best food and best weekend crowd ever. Does this mean the waiters will be all wearing dark blue suits and sunglasses? If anyone knows anything about this please let me know.

http://jacksonville.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/bondfraud121108.htm

Looney’s in Maple Lawn

I understand Looney’s is going to open in Maple Lawn where Trapeze used to be. Sad what happened to Trapeze. I remember when it was the first restaurant in there and it was all the buzz……………..the owners of Nottingham’s are opening a restaurant in Maple Lawn. I heard yesterday that they lost 2 million dollars on that venture. I wonder if that was all they made on their Nottingham’s venture. Nottingham’s is profitable because there space is office space and it’s off the beaten track………it’s what you would call a “destination”. I bet the rent for Trapeze was 4 times that. How can you make 4 times the profit?. Now it looks like Looney’s is going to move in (and probably pay Stuart Greenbaum half the rent Trapeze was paying)(and use all the interior improvements that Trapeze made). And to add salt to the wound I heard Looney’s is building a massive stage in there………….which will take away much of the band crowd that Nottingham’s gets on the weekends!!! Talkin about kickin a man while he’s down. I guess it’s not Bill Larney and Looney’s that’s doing the kicking it’s the way of the American markets and free enterprise system. It’s all part of the game. I sure have hecked learned that in the last few years. It’s always keeping us small business people competitive and on our toes. I wish Looney’s well……….the competition is already fierce with OZ and Ranazul……..but Looney’s , I think will be catering to a broader audience. Families!! which is good. Give the people what they want…….french fries and diet coke. That entire Maple Lawn commercial section is very interesting to watch. What with Quizno’s and Urban Chic going under too. You know the most profitable business in there is the BP station…….why?……..cause it does what Looney’s will do……….caters to a larger audience and gives the people what they want…….low cost necessities. And in my house , I can tell you , french fries and diet coke are major low cost necessities!!!!