Route 40’s Corridor Of Dreams: Build It And Shoppers Will Come

by Jacqueline E. Burrell

From the entrance to Patapsco State Park almost to Marriottsville Road, Howard County’s stretch of Route 40, some say, is like a field of dreams--retail dreams. Build it and the shoppers, who comprise Howard County’s very lucrative demographics, will come.

Signs boasting construction of a brand new Metro Food Market are within eyesight of the new Super Fresh supermarket at Route 40 and North Ridge Road. Both are only a short distance from Wal-Mart.

And Metro Food is gearing up for a major supermarket battle.

It plans to build a 65,000-square-foot store, with about half the space devoted to perishable items such as meat and produce.

"It will be our largest, one of our new super model prototypes," said Metro Foods president John Ryder.

In addition, Howard County shoppers will be treated to live piano music while they shop. A nutritionist will be on site. There will be a bank branch. And Ryder said he is currently negotiating with a "leading restaurant in Maryland" to open a café on the premises. "It will be extremely high quality," he said.

"Its a good piece of property, and the demographics are right," he added.

Richfood Holdings, Inc., the Virginia-based firm that owns and operates Metro Food, was recently sold for $1.5 billion to Super Valu Inc., a Minneapolis-based wholesale grocery supplier.

"We are now part of a $22 billion conglomerate, the largest wholesaler in the world," said Ryder. It also makes the combined companies the 10^th largest grocery chain in the country.

Metro Food already ranks second among Baltimore area grocery shoppers, according to Food World, a national trade publication based in Columbia. (Giant, with its 45 stores, is still number one, with Safeway’s 21 stores in third place. SuperFresh has 26 stores and holds the number four slot.)

"That is a very good location in Ellicott City," notes Food World editor David Callahan on the Route 40/North Ridge Road area. "Howard County’s demographics are very attractive. The amount of prime locations is not very high. And Wal-Mart is a draw."

When Metro is built, there will be a big battle, predicts Callahan. "That particular Super Fresh does very well. It may be hard to be the new kid on the block."

On the other hand, notes Callahan, Valu Food is very vulnerable while it struggles with financial reorganization. And it will be an interesting contest for Giant at Chatham Mall, he said, to be one of the older markets in the corridor amidst these big, bright and modern stores. "There will be shakeout," said Callahan.

"I love a challenge," said Ryder, Metro Food president. The new Metro will open June 1 next year. And when it does, there will be some 200 cellists on a platform playing symphony music. Metro Food is sponsor to the World’s Cello Congress, whose 15,000 members are expected to convene in Baltimore next June.

Right now the only negative about the Route 40/North Ridge Road location, he said, is the intersection, which has serious traffic problems.

A proposed capital project to connect the section of North Ridge Road off Route 40 with North Ridge Road off Town and Country Boulevard did not pass.

The connected road, which currently dead ends by Wal-Mart, would have allowed traffic to flow between Super Fresh at the top of North Ridge Road and Route 40 and residential communities including three retirement facilities and more than a thousand apartments off Town and Country Boulevard.

It would have also provided an alternate route to Wal-Mart and Super Fresh, helping to ease what has become a very congested situation.

"The thinking was that it’s best to fix the intersection first," said Joseph Rutter, director of the county’s Department of Planning and Zoning, on why the connection failed to be included in the budget.

In the meantime, Metro Food, which can be reached off North Ridge Road and via a connecting road further west off Route 40, must pay to add a fourth lane on North Ridge Road out to Route 40 to help ease congestion.

When that occurs, North Ridge Road will then have two right turn lanes, a through lane, and a left turn lane onto Route 40 east.

Other changes on Route 40 include a brand new Rite Aid drug store with a drive-through pharmacy window. It opened at the intersection of Route 40 and Rogers Avenue.

At the Golden Triangle Shopping Center is a new supermarket called Lotte Plaza, the largest oriental grocery store thus far in the county.

The store is the newest Lotte market in a national chain of six, owned by Hana Ellicott Oriental Supermarket, Inc., part of the Rhee Brothers’ Columbia-based growing companies.

Lotte Plaza covers some 37,000-square feet and offers a food court, catering services with ready made entrees, as well as a gift shop, all in addition to the supermarket, which features Chinese, Korean and Japanese delicacies.

The Golden Triangle Shopping Center is adding a building as well as making improvements to its access point with Route 40.

Plans are still being worked out for a proposed 22,000-square-foot shopping center behind the Nissan car dealership on Route 40, east of Rogers Avenue. Developed by Dave Moxley of Eco Development, Inc., the center is proposed to contain 17,000 square feet of retail space, a 5,000 square-foot restaurant and 6,000 square feet for a later addition. Construction had been slated to begin by summer’s end, but land use approvals are still being worked on.

Chatham Mall plans on entering the 21^st century in grand style. Though its longtime tenant Caldor closed its doors, the home improvement retailer, Home Depot, will take its place.

Caldor, which had a store in the mall since 1984, closed its doors in March after the chain filed for bankruptcy. The 94,000 square-foot store, together with the mall’s interior up to K-Mart, will be torn down to make way for the new freestanding Home Depot. And like other Home Depots, including one further east along Route 40, this one will have an outdoor lumber area.

Home Depot, which is headquartered in Atlanta, is expected to open sometime next year.

In the meantime, a new strip center will be constructed between current Chatham Mall merchants Kmart and Giant. Those merchants inside the mall will be relocated to the strip center. "We’re still working out the details," said mall manager Natalie Swirdovich.

The new Chatham Mall, which currently contains some 311,000 square feet of retail space, will actually be 10 percent smaller once all construction projects are completed, said Swirdovich.

Addressing all the changes happening up and down Route 40, Swirdovich noted that while small shops have always filled the corridor, for the first time "Large retailers have just discovered Route 40 in Howard County."

Friends of Enchanted Forest are hoping to revive the old theme park, making it once again a special place for children.

Currently the group is drawing up a site plan for the shopping center’s owner, Mid Atlantic Realty, and hope to re-open the park as a nonprofit by 2001.

"We need to raise close to a million dollars," said Rick Lepski, a member of the Friends of Enchanted Forest. The group is seeking state money through the help of State Senator Chris McCabe. It has already raised $160,000 in pledges from individuals.

Back in its hey day, the Enchanted Forest operated gas powered rides. The friends of the old theme park will use electric powered rides, making the park very child friendly, especially for those children with visual, hearing and physical needs.

Computer monitors will tell stories. Shows will be held in an amphitheater, where Cinderella’s castle stands. One of the designers of Adventure World is helping to plan this new version of the Enchanted Forest, which first opened in 1955, the same year as Disney Land in California. The new park will be geared towards children age 12 and under.

There won’t be any roller coasters, but a wetlands area may be turned into a nature study, said Lepski.

"By reopening the park, we think it will help to stabilize business for the shopping center. We think the park can bring 100,000 visitors to the area per season."

Lepski, who remembers visiting the old Enchanted Forest when he was four years old, wants to make the park as welcoming and enjoyable as he remembers it.

"We’re confident once we get out into the community we can make this happen," he said.