Kimco might learn a thing or two from Long Reach center

The paths of two of Columbia's ailing village centers present a study in contrast. In both cases, the centers' landlords did some outside-the-box thinking to tackle their problems, but their respective approaches differ radically.

For years now, shiny new mega-marts have been drawing many single-family-home-dwelling, dual-income-commuting families away from the aging village centers. In many cases, the bulk of the remaining customers are the people who live in the nearby apartments and townhouses, who more often depend on public transportation and have fewer practical choices when it comes to grocery shopping.

These customers, loyal as they may be, likely aren't enough to sustain a traditional supermarket, at least not in a way that Safeway, Giant and other big chains would deem sufficiently profitable. They're after volume and shoppers with some disposable income.

Last week we learned that the long-suffering Long Reach Safeway will close Nov. 5. This week America's Realty, the company that owns the the Long Reach Village Center, which the Safeway anchors, told us the firm has made a deal to bring an international food market to the space.

The Long Reach center has endured the same kind of decay seen across town at the Wilde Lake Village Center as retail trends and the economic doldrums of the past three years have conspired to erode the practicality of the whole village-center concept, so central to Columbia's history. But while Wilde Lake has languished without an anchor store for five years now, Long Reach will barely miss a beat.

Kimco Realty owns the majority of Columbia's village centers, including Wilde Lake's. Kimco's answer to that center's woes is a radical reinvention, a conversion to a hybrid of retail and high-density residential. To make it happen, Kimco has had to hack its way through Columbia's peculiar approval process and fight determined opponents who want a traditional grocery and say the proposed apartments will overload local infrastructure. Remember, this process hadn't even begun when the Wilde Lake Giant closed in 2006, and construction is still a long way off.

America's Realty, on the other hand, seems to have responded much more nimbly, clearly recognizing that Safeway's time in the Long Reach center was drawing short long before the chain officially pulled the plug. The center's owners certainly weren't waiting for the space to go vacant before going to work on a practical alternative, one that takes into account current commercial realities and the markets they can reasonably expect to crack.

The new tenant looks like a win-win for America's Realty, the surrounding neighborhood and Columbia, which ought to be able to support a larger ethic market as well as Ellicott City supports Lotte Plaza.