Vacant building across Route 1 in north College Park
The City Council will be back to its sessions again this week after a brief summer recess in the past few weeks. However instead of usual Tuesday’s meeting, the Council worksession will be held on Wednesday, as the City will be observing the National Night Out (NNO) on that night.
One of the items on the Council worksession will be Route 1 marketing study. Back in late last year, the City of College Park and three other neighboring cities, Hyattsville, Riverdale Park and University Park, the University of Maryland and the Redevelopment Authority of Prince George’s County contracted with Bolan Smart Associates (BSA), Inc. to examine the existing and potential future development along Route One corridor from Hyattsville to Beltsville.
BSA released its study report in April 2012, evaluating future development proposals and future planning efforts along the Route One corridor. The study looks at the corridor as a whole, as well as four smaller geographic areas including the City of College Park.
The study found, among other things, that “the College Park submarket area ranks at the top of the consolidated Route One corridor for retail potential.”
The report also found that College Park needs to focus retail demand in downtown and south of MD-193. It also found that there is a deficit of grocery/convenience space on the order of 100,000 square feet, restaurant space on the order of 30,000 to 40,000 square feet. On the other hand it found there is a surplus of general retail space on the order of 262,000 to 346,000 square feet. They found City’s trade area vacancy rate is 8.99%.
The BSA will attend Wednesday night’s worksession, where Council will discuss the report’s findings further.