It's Time for Lunch - and a Fast Food Court at Airport Square

By Mark R. Smith, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

There are thousands upon thousands of employees working in and around the Airport Square area, plus thousands more travelers passing through every week. But when their stomachs start to rumble around mid-day, they often look outside of the office development to grab a quick bite.
And while the lunch time options in that area have improved in recent years, choices are still a bit lacking - and driving to Linthicum's answer to a fast food row on the northern end of Nursery Road takes way too long for today's fast-paced business world.
But soon, that market should have more options, due to the efforts of local businessman Jim Mallary, owner of Mallary Carpet & Flooring. That's because he's redeveloping his carpet warehouse (and at least one adjacent building) on Elkridge Landing Road, near Nursery, into a food court.
"We're bullish on this site because, aside from McDonald's [also on Elkridge Landing] and Wendy's [on Nursery], there are about 15 hotels in the area and [while many have more formal sit-down restaurants, there are] very few other options," said Austin Curtis, an associate with Transwestern Commercial Real Estate Services in Columbia.
"If someone is in town for a meeting on Wednesday afternoon, unless they go to Ruby Tuesday, take a shuttle to Arundel Mills or know where the fast food places on Nursery Road are, they don't have many options," Curtis said, noting that a new Quizno's is already built out and ready for business. "This new food court should alleviate that problem."

A Simple Cold Call
The idea for the project gained momentum after a simple cold call from Curtis in April 2007 to the owner of the 9,000-square-foot building, Bob Shepherd, who once owned Arden Air Freight. In short, Curtis ended up with a signed listing agreement in three weeks, a contract in three months and closed the $1.3 million sale last September.
Mallary already owned the adjacent 4,000-square-foot white building (now occupied by Quizno's), having bought the property, which just appraised at more than $950,000, from Shepherd about 11 years ago. He has used it to house his carpeting and flooring company.
That kind of pace is "quite unusual in the commercial real estate business," said Judy Walters, assistant vice president for Transwestern.
Before the deal gained traction, Walters met with representatives from nearby NSA to assess the agency's needs. Since, she has been showing the property, which is being offered at about $25 per foot triple net, to prospective clients. "They include national tenants," she said, notably Indian and Chinese restaurants, coffee and a bagel companies, and a pizzeria.

Old Idea, New Result
The idea to build the food court was nothing new to Mallary, who just recently garnered the resources to follow through on creating the development.
He's now in negotiations to buy or lease a third building on the site and complete the project. "We're looking to get the second half of the first building leased, then the building behind it (which is still in use by Mallary at present), though he deemed it "almost" ready for occupancy at present.
"Then if we can lease or buy that third building, space will be available for six food businesses, possibly more," he said.
In addition to the NSA buildings and the surrounding office buildings that are heavily populated by contractors are hotels that are located within walking distance of the food court. They include BWI Airport Marriott, Hilton Baltimore BWI Airport, Red Roof Inn, Comfort Suites, La Quinta, Suisse Chalet and Hampton Inn.
So a hungry market awaits, said Peter Framson, principal with Green Light Retail Real Estate Services in Bethesda.
"Years ago there was nothing there as far as fast food restaurants go, literally," he said. "Now you have the [aforementioned options] plus a number of new offerings inside of the airport. But many of them are behind the security gates, so they're not really on the radar screen. So it's McDonald's or Wendy's, the hotel restaurants or a small deli - and not much in between.
"Then you have a diverse range of employees, from government people of every size, shape and economic background; hotel employees; state government workers, including airport employees; and the folks at the car rental facility," Framson said. "So someone who does a nice job and offers some other alternatives will certainly have a market."

All in Time
Indeed, the Airport Square business community sorely needs accessible, fast food options because workers and travelers "getting in their cars to drive to a restaurant takes time and costs more money than ever these days," said Lou Zagarino, board chairman for the BWI Business Partnership.
"Remember, many of those folks only have a half-hour for lunch," said Zagarino, who owned The Rose Restaurant in Linthicum for more than 25 years, when it was one of the few restaurants of any kind in the district.
"Our lunch business at The Rose had been a little off during the past several years. Even the executives don't have time [for a long lunch] anymore," he said. "The public now demands healthier choices, too. The days of the three martini lunch are long gone."
Today, Walters said, lunch is all about foot traffic, the kind available at Airport Square.
"We'll create a new community of NSA, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman and hotel employees that don't know each other yet. But they'll be congregating" at the food court, she said. "They want that convenience.
"We see this project eventually becoming a destination, due to simple supply and demand," Walters said, adding, "The hunger here has not been just for food, but small retail establishments, for many years."