Merry Christmas from Stellar

It's been a busy year at Stellar's world headquarters. It seems we've barely got into our stride for 2011 and all of a sudden it's the 23rd of December!

So we'd like to take this opportunity to thank our customers, partners and our team members for their support and offer our hearty 'Compliments of the Season' to you.

Whatever your religious persuasion, Christmas is a great time to kick back and relax, spend a bit of quality time with your family and close friends and reflect on the year that was. The team at Stellar is going to take time out to do exactly that and we'll be re-opening the office on the 9th of January to kick off our new year with a hiss and a roar.

So regardless of your plan for the holidays remember to drive carefully, be nice, wear sunscreen and most importantly, chill out and don't think about work too much!

Merry Christmas!

Grant, Travis, John & Grant

Solo Cup Factory: Great Potential

Not to be outdone by the wonderful news that Owings Mills Mall will be redeveloped and that Metro Centre has finally broken ground, there has been still more great news involving Owings Mills; It's getting a Wegmans! Where? In the newly shuttered Solo Cup Factory, that's where.

I have been wanting to do a post on the Solo Cup factory for quite some time now but I had no angle on how to write. Now that there's good solid news on its future the post pretty much writes itself.

The Solo Cup Factory, located predominately at the intersection of Reisterstown Road and Painters Mill Road has long since been an anomaly in Owings Mills as industrial uses here have long since given way to Retail, Office, and Residential uses. Still, the Solo Cup factory has soldiered on as the lone industry in Owings Mills. I have always found its location odd and an eyesore to the surrounding Community.

Although Solo Cup has only been in the area since 2004, the factory known as Solo Cup has been a Baltimore County Staple for over 80 years. Before 2004 it was known as the Sweet Heart Cup Factory then Solo Cup purchased that company giving it the Solo Cup Name. It wasn't all that blog worthy until 2010 when I hear that the factory will shut down in 2012 resulting in a loss of 540 jobs.

The news was bitter sweet to me, on the one hand I don't ever want to hear that layoffs will take place but as a follower of development in the Greater Baltimore Area, I saw it as an opportunity to redevelop and improve the whole Reisterstown Road and Painters Mill Road corridor.

Despite Baltimore County's efforts to have the factory occupied by another Industrial Tenant, there were no takers. But don't worry, the factory won't sit vacant long by any stretch of the imagination. With the closure just months away there has already been interest in redeveloping the old place. None other than upscale Supermarket Wegmans has set its sites on Owings Mills and its preferred location is none other than the Solo Cup Factory! The Wegmans is set to open in 2014.

The new development known as Foundry Row will provide lots of competition to the exisitng Grocers in Owings Mills such as Two Giants, a Safeway, a Food Lion, and a Wal Mart to name a few. Now the competition of Wegmans is not that great of a concern to me. What is a great concern to me is how this will effect TOD efforts being made at the Mall and Metro Centre. The whole corridor of Painters Mill Road, Reisterstown Road,and Owings Mills Boulevard needs to be refocused as part of the development of the Metro Station Area.

This Retail has currently turned its back on the Mall and the Metro Station and in order stop that from happening again, the County, Developers, and the MTA must be proactive to make the entire Owings Mills Community centered on the Metro Station in the coming years.

Owings Mills Mall Has Died

Well here I am in the County, in order for Baltimore City to be the best it can I feel the County must also operate the best it can. Now what brought me out to the suburbs this time? I'm mourning the loss of what was supposed to be a major Retail draw for the Baltimore Area and
beyond; Owings Mills Mall. Early this year, I penned a post that Owings Mills had been dying a slow death almost since it opened in 1986 but it wasn't until the early 2000s that the illness known as Retail obsolescence began to show.
Now with the Mall on life support and its owners' financial woes improving, the decision was made to kill the Mall. The Owings Mills Community has turned its back on its beloved Mall much like Hunt Valley had done years earlier. Hunt Valley Mall was torn down except for its occupied anchors in favor of the new Hunt Valley Town Centre featuring a Wegmans and lots of new Specialty Shoppes laid out as a two level open aire plaza. This has been a huge success.
Now what does this have to do with Ownigs Mills and its dead Mall? Now that our economy may show signs of improving in the coming years, Owings Mills Mall will be demolished. Like Hint Valley, the renaming anchors are set to stay as well as the Movie Theatres and adjacent
Housing Development. Also like Hunt Valley, the plans for Owings Mills includes an open aire lifestyle center which may include some of the same shoppes that currently has shoppers flocking to Hunt Valley. One business that surely won't be coming to the new Mall is Wegmans. Don't worry the Community of Owings Mills will eventually enjoy a Wegmans only at the soon to be shuttered Solo Cup less than a mile away.
Sicne this announcement has been made very recently, it is unknown what Retailers will ultimately end up at the new Mall. One thing we do is that construction is set to begin as early as January 2013 and if all goes as planned will be finished by late 2014. Owners of the now desolate Mall feel confident that in spite of our economic down turn that the new property will be marketable to Retailers of all kinds and that leases will be signed before and during construction and by the time construction is done, the new Mall will be 100% leased.
Although the new Hunt Valley Mall has been renamed Hunt Valley Town Centre, I don't feel the new Owings Mills Mall should follow in its foot steps. I think the new Mall should be looked at as part of a greater Town Centre. Owings Mills Town Centre, from 1986 until now has always been planned as both the (in what form it's in) and the Metro Stop. As Owings Mills has been flourishing with promises of new development, the Metro Stop and the planned Metro Centre development is as old as the original Mall.
Finally. a good five years after the initial parking garages were built, a ground breaking ceremony was held to get Metro Centre underway. Coupled with the Mall, Metro Centre will make a true Town Centre for Owings Mills. Although additional Retail, Residences, and
Offices are planned, the new Library and Community College Branch will be the main draw for Metro Centre other than the Mtero Stop itself. One must realize that in order for Owings Mills to have a true Town Centre that both the new Mall and Metro Centre must be master planned
and developed together.
Indeed, this has the capacity not only to make Owings Mills the Retail destination it has been aching to be but in the future it can be a true TOD haven. Now why isn't it a TOD haven now? I mean the Metro Stop is there amd isn't going anywhere right? Right BUT TOD is only as
good as the transit it serves. Baltimore's Rail Transit doesn't have the drawing power as of yet to make for true TOD. In order for that to happen both the Red and Yellow Lines need to be funded and built, the Green Line whose western terminus ends at Owings Mills must be
expanded Northeast from Hopkins to White Marsh to Martin State Airport, the MARC Lines need to be localized careting the Orange and Purple Lines, and the current Light Rail Line (blue line) needs to truly meet the Green Line at Lexington Market and the State Center/Cultural Center. Then and only then can Baltimore have TRUE TOD.
Well to sum the necessity of this post, Owings Mills Mall has died, and although I'm mourning said passing and the gold mine of blogging material it has given me over the years, it's time to move on to bigger and better things such as redevelopment, Metro Centre, Rail Transit Expansion, and finally true TOD. Lets do it right this time!

The Rebirth of Garrison Boulevard

Similar to Liberty Heights Avenue, Garrison Boulevard is a mixed use thoroughfare that provides quick access from Leakin Park all the way to Pimlico. Above Wabash Avenue, it is known as simply Garrison Avenue and is thought of as much more of a local street. This post will
discuss the section between Liberty Heights Avenue and Bloomingdale Road. Long story short Garrison Boulevard is due for a rebirth.
Garrison Boulevard grew up with the Neighborhoods it serves. All Neighborhoods that it has access to have a diverse array of housing options for incomes of all levels and Families large and small. Garrison Boulevard is a mircosm of all the Neighborhoods. If it serves as sort of a "Gateway" to the Community I think it should streamlined and given a master planned approach to redevelopment that will make for a more attractive and modern corridor.
I'm not opposed to diverse array of housing options, but in the case of Garrison Boulevard, the housing available has no direction to it and in the case of higher density housing, the vacancy rate and demolition rate is all too high. There are blocks that were once full of row homes but vacant homes have since made way to vacant lots and appear to be "stand alone row homes." Redevelopment will address these issues on both a micro and macro level.
Similar to the roe house situation there are small Apartment Houses that appear to have once been large mansions that have since been divided. There is a high vacancy rate amongst these multi family dwellings and their dated appearance shows that simply reinvesting in them and trying to sell or rent them out as is would not be a worthwhile endavor. Like the isolated row homes, redevelopment appears to be the only alternative.
One particular property that needs to be addressed is the Garrison Woods apartment complex. These garden apartments have been boarded up for quite some time and appear to be slated for demolition. There are still signs showing that there are Apartments available for lease but
the boarded up windows, the fence surrounding them, and the overgrown landscaping, this development has been abandoned and the lack of action regarding demolition shows that there is little developer interest in the land.
Most of the blocks on Garrison Boulevard are for Single Family Homes. A lot of the Single Family Homes have fallen into disrepair resulting in being condemned by the City only to sit vacant indefinitely. Fortunately there are signs of life in a few instances. There are probably half a dozen new Single Family Homes that have been built in the past few years most likely on the lots of delapidated homes that have since been torn down. These new homes show that there is an
outside interest in the area and redevelopment will provide growth to the area and will be an assest even if Single Family Homes will no longer be the primary land use.
There is a small amount of Retail along Garrison Boulevard as well as the Garwyn Oaks Medical Center. The Retail, like the housing has become blighted and distressed. Retail is also one story which in urban planning makes for a waste of space. Retail in an urban area should always have either Offices or Apartments above it.
The Garwn Oaks Medical Center is a vital asset to the Community and is very busy. The complex has become dated and since I'm writing a comprehensive redevelopment plan the new Medical Center should be located above new
Retail.
Now that I've discussed current land uses and their failures, it is now time to tear it all down. In order to give Garrison Boulevard a proper rebirth it has to die first, it's been dying a slow death for a good 25 years so demolition will serve as a final nail in the coffin. New Single Family Homes will be spared as well as the Senior Apartment Building (pictured above.)
New housing will be almost all Apartments and Condos with Garrison Boulevard frontage. Around the intersection of Garrison Boulevard and Gwynns Falls Parkway, there will be Ground Floor Retail as well as the new Garwyn Oaks Medical Center. Buildings will be four to five stories
high with efficiencies, 1, 2, and 3 bedroom Apartments with all the modern conviences afforded with new construction.
The income mix will be as follows; 55% Market Rate Home Ownership, 30% Market Rate Rentals, 10% Affordable Home Ownership and 5% Affordable Rentals. In the case of plots of land that go back behind Garrison Boulevard like Garrison Woods Apartments and Concerned Citizens of Forset Park, Town Homes will be built (pictured above).
The road itself will also undergo a drastic rebirth. A landscaped median not unlike new ones built along Fulton Avenue (pictured above)and Edmondson Avenue will be added. Traffic signals will be rebuilt with pedestrian walk and don't walk signs along with count down timers in every direction. There will also pedestrian shelters built in the median. Sidewalks and curbs will be re cemented and leveled and new Bus Shelters will be added.That just about does it for Garrison Boulevard, hopefully that will give the Neighborhood of Garwyn Oaks a much needed shot in the arm towards revitalization. Garwyn Oaks as of the 2010 census is 40% vacant. I almost forgot! The Forest Park branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library will be rebuilt.