Howard County government has finalized the purchase of the shopping center in Columbia's Long Reach Village Center for $5 million, county officials said this week.
Plans to purchase of the shopping center were announced earlier this year, and the County Council approved legislation that created an exception, allowing the government to purchase the private commercial land because of its rundown condition.
County officials, and representatives from the village, will unveil plans to redevelop the retail space on Monday at 1 p.m.
The county closed on the purchase on Oct. 1, and crews from the department of recreation and parks have been on site, performing landscaping and other cleanup efforts, said county spokesman David Nitkin.
The state of the village center has declined in recent years, leading to the county's decision to declare it a blight zone. An independent study conducted this year -- and funded by two county agencies and the Columbia Association -- found that the center had a 65 percent vacancy rate.
Most of that vacancy is tied to the 55,000 square-foot anchor space that had been occupied by the Family Market and Safeway. Safeway, which left in 2012, sublet the property to the Family Market before evicting the grocer because of a failure to pay rent. The space has been unoccupied since July 2013.