Kimco Realty Vice President Geoff Glazer said he was excited about the new Wilde Lake Village Center redevelopment plan, which he presented to a packed house of nearly 200 residents Thursday night. But when he and architect Bryce Turner finished, the first question took the issue back to square one.
"I have one simple question," said Spence Lean, 25. "Where is the full-service grocery store?"
Glazer's tentative concept would demolish the long-empty Giant supermarket building, place about 200 apartments in two new five-story buildings close to existing tennis courts, eliminate an existing Crown gas station on Twin Rivers Road and place a two-story, 27,000-square-foot retail/office building where the defunct Produce Galore store sits, still partially boarded up after a small fire.
Overall, the design would open the 9-acre parcel, leaving intact two rows of small retail stores with offices above, but pushing about 80,000 square feet of office and retail to the fringes of the lot. The design would leave the village green intact but would not allow for a new supermarket, which many older residents have said they want most.
"If there was any interest by a full-service grocer to come to this center, we would have done it four years ago. There is no interest," he said. Later in the meeting, he repeated that as the same question arose time after time.
"There isn't a big food player that wants to be here," Glazer said.
Despite the complaints, some were more appreciative.
"Thank you. Thank you for wanting to spend this much money on our little neighborhood," said Tina Horn, 42.
Barbara Wright, a member of the village board, said, "I'm not an architect, but it looks like an improvement to me."
Residents and Kimco have wrangled for years over how to redevelop or renew the center, in the process killing an initial Kimco proposal to knock most of it down and build 500 apartments in midrise buildings and 50,000 square feet of retail space.
Attempting to help, the County Council approved a new zoning process last summer for major rebuilding of village centers that include some large-scale residential component. Thursday night's pre-submission meeting was the first step in a process that requires another community meeting before plans for what may be a $30 million project are submitted to the county. A staff and design review will be followed by planning board hearings and a recommendation to the zoning board, which will also hold hearings before voting, likely sometime in late 2011. Glazer said his most optimistic estimate is that work could begin in summer 2012.
Columbia's oldest village center has been in trouble since September 2006, when the 23,000-square-foot Giant, the center's anchor, closed. Later, Produce Galore, another well-known food store, followed suit, and other businesses have moved or closed. Modern supermarkets are typically more than double the old Giant's size.
Glazer told the crowd that a food store like the existing David's Natural Market, the fish store and perhaps a large-chain pharmacy that sells groceries, milk and bread, could fill some of their needs, but some were still not satisfied.
"I'll be driving to the Safeway," said Eva Skrenta, 68, who said she moved to her house near the center with the idea of being able to walk to a grocery store. "I will not go to your food store. I will not go to your drugstore." She said she wants a big grocery store where she can get everything she needs. The Safeway she referred to is just under one mile away in the Harper's Choice Village Center.
Mel Marcus, 67, said residents are now used to driving elsewhere. "We have no reason to go to the shopping center," he said. And David's Natural Market won't do it for him.
"That's for health nuts who want to spend a lot of money."
To that, Glazer had a simple message.
"You should support your existing village center."
He said the design he presented at Slayton House is preliminary and will be adjusted based on residents' comments over the next few weeks. No plans will likely be submitted to the county until early next year.
"We're very excited to finally be at this point," he told the crowd at the start. The idea, he said, was to improve the center in an economically viable way, while presenting a concept different from the dense urban redevelopment planned for Town Center, which is a half-mile away.
"This center is well-located, but it needs to evolve to the next generation," Glazer said. The apartments, he said to those worried about renters, will be expensive and should attract empty-nester middle-age residents and young professionals. Each building will have one level of parking below four stories of apartments. Kimco doesn't want to build condominiums, he said, so the firm can retain ownership of the land and continue making money from the units.
Kimco owns six of Columbia's nine village centers, though Dorsey Hall's center is not included within the new town zoning that rules land use in the unincorporated town.