RT. 1 Between College Park and Hyattsville Set To Look Very Different in 3 years. (vs, shops)

[RickyRoma]

Anyone going to Ritchie coliseum from 1-4:30 pm today? There is a presentation about the Metro parcels up for development and an update on the innovation district.

[adelphi_sky]

Originally Posted by RickyRoma

Anyone going to Ritchie coliseum from 1-4:30 pm today? There is a presentation about the Metro parcels up for development and an update on the innovation district.

Here's an article.

Developers converge on College Park to eye development sites - Washington Business Journal

[adelphi_sky]

Video of the first Target Express opening on the east coast.

Video Archive Player | WUSA 9

[RickyRoma]

County officials excited for "big opportunity" at College Park Metro station

[RickyRoma]

Interesting article and comments on the struggles of CP to being a top college town. Some are challenges that will be difficult to overcome, like the fact that rt 1 is so automobile-centric. Some positive comments and many negative. Some of the posters don't seem terribly informed but some good points about the types of establishments that are needed in a great college torn but are lacking - such as locally owned boutiques, coffee houses and restaurants.

Why isn't College Park a better college town? - Greater Greater Washington

[adelphi_sky]

Originally Posted by RickyRoma

Interesting article and comments on the struggles of CP to being a top college town. Some are challenges that will be difficult to overcome, like the fact that rt 1 is so automobile-centric. Some positive comments and many negative. Some of the posters don't seem terribly informed but some good points about the types of establishments that are needed in a great college torn but are lacking - such as locally owned boutiques, coffee houses and restaurants.

Why isn't College Park a better college town? - Greater Greater Washington

I think sometimes people try to impose what they think a great college town is based on other towns. This can be troublesome as those other towns grew into themselves based on different influences around them.

College park needs to focus on its strengths and get rid of its weaknesses and not necessarily try to emulate anyone else. What makes College Park a good college town is what makes a DC suburb a good DC suburb. Start there and I think you have what you need specific to College Park, MD and not a generic Anytown USA college town.

I definitely think College Park can extend what is happening in the Arts District and move it more northward. figure out a way to invite visitors to the city during the summer months. This can be done with Music/Film festivals on one of the many expansive lawns. Restaurant Week is a start, but the restaurant offering is a bit weak right now and is full of chains that won't necessarily draw people from outside the city.

College Park needs a good music scene. Music draws people in. Having one or two college bands in student bars wont' cut it. There needs to be a focus on bands for more older adults to enjoy. The Birchmere was supposed to offer that but it got squashed when the East Campus vision got squashed.

Food goodness sakes, there needs to be more white table cloth restaurants that draw people into the city. Not just any restaurants. make people want to visit. Not just because a fancy restaurant is there, but because it's the only restaurant that offers something unique in the surrounding area. Franklins does this beautifully.

Conferences at the new conference hotel will definitely help. It will draw people in who wouldn't ordinarily be in College Park for anything else. Art studios help. Clothing stores would help. there should be a clothing district where there are 4 or 5 shops dedicated to clothes. And not necessarily chain stores.

There needs to be more people living within the city. More non-student housing needs to be built. To lessen the impact of the cyclical summer slowdown in the city when school is out of session. Also increase the number of people who work int he area. The FBI would go a long way to help. But there needs to be more bodies in College Park on a daily basis who will then demand more things to do.

Time is running out on College Park's 5-year plan.

[TheJetSet]

Everybody is crying about what's wrong with CP but they never mention the one component that's always been missing, Office space. Let's just be frank about about its the highest and best use of land. Sorry but just having residential and retail wont create a vibrant center that will stand the test of time. Just look at Silver Spring and Bethesda it's the office buildings and companies there that make them such a force.

If College Park cant build out M square due in part to Maryland's lousy business climate perhaps they need to focus some of that space to route 1 and get their version of silicon valley going. It must say something that UMD cant fill their area with start ups from the University after all this time. Than Smith school of business and the rest of the University is doing something wrong.

[Mr Beco]

Eighteen acres next to the West Hyattsville Metro Station was sold, and a new development plan is in the works.

An investment group called West Hyattsville Property Company LLC paid $7 million for 5620 Ager Road, getting 18.4 acres just across the tracks from the Metro station. What’s in the offing is likely a community of attached product and apartments. The new ownership is still finalizing the design, but is expected to come in with a plan north of 500 units. The LLC will work within the guidelines of the zoning overlay created for Metro station developments like the Ager Road tract. A huge old warehouse of about 250,000 feet occupies the site now, but its time is long past, and the building would come down in any development program.
The plan that’s evolving – nothing has been submitted yet – is far different from the one that made its way toward site plan back in 2006, when Gunston Hall Realty was working with Centex Homes. The pair envisioned over a thousand units in high-rise construction. Then the recession – and a new reality – intervened, and the tract has lain fallow since.

In some ways, the Gunston Hall property mirrors the Kiplinger tract over at Prince George’s Plaza Metro Station. In both cases, buildings that house ‘old technology’ – you know, paper products - were rendered anachronistic by new technology, but lo and behold, they turned out to be well located. Kiplinger is now going into development with Fore Property doing the apartments and NVR the townhouses.

[Mr Beco]

New mini-Target in College Park hailed as a sign of what

[RickyRoma]

Could be up to ten years before route one is renovated from university blvd south, and no undergrounding of power lines:

Rt. 1 Undergrounding Utilities Off-table, for Now | KabirCares.org