Business & Tech

Grocery Store Could Finally Come to University Town Center

Developer proposes 66,000-square-foot grocery and retail complex to front East-West Highway

After years on the drawing board, a grocery store could be coming to University Town Center, but developers want to nix a large residential complex which was planned to be built alongside it. 

A grocery store had been a part of the plans for University Town Center when the project was approved and construction began in 2006. But a tanking economy shelved the realization of the full design for University Town Center and saw many of the development's properties broken up and sold off at foreclosure auctions.

"It died when the economy died, and it got put up in mothballs, but Safeway had a continual interest to locate in this area, and the opportunity was brought to us less than a year ago, said Jim Castillo, senior director of development and construction with Echo Realty, the development firm which seeks to finally bring a grocery store to University Town Center. "With Safeway's interest, we felt we could make it work this time."

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Business owners in University Town Center have long blamed low foot traffic in the complex on the lack of a large anchor tenant in the complex, and the development's lack of visibility from East-West Highway. 

The proposed grocery store and retail center could overcome both shortfalls, said Castillo, expanding the University Town Center into what is now a parking lot located along East-West Highway between Democracy Avenue and America Blvd., bordering property owned by the Hyattsville Church of Latter-Day Saints.

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"I think Safeway by itself is an amenity which will bring people to the main street. I think we'll have some retail and restaurants on two buildings also on the site," said Castillo. "Some new retail would really go a long way towards getting some excitement on the street down there."

The project includes a new 60,000-square-foot grocery store and 6,000 square feet of additional retail space. Parking would be provided by a two-level, 660-space parking deck, with most of the parking located on the roof of the grocery store. 

Representatives of Echo Realty are planning to file a request with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planninc Commission Planning Board to amend the original 2006 detailed site plan for University Town Center to remove a 206,000 square-foot, 176 unit condominium complex originally conceived to compliment the grocery store. 

The public got its first look at plans for a proposed 66,000 square foot Safeway grocery store and retail center at the University Town Center during a meeting of the Hyattsville Planning Committee on Tuesday evening.

With minor conditions, mostly relating to concerns about how traffic would enter and exit the property along East-West Highway, the Hyattsville Planning Committee approved the developers request to amend the 2006 detailed site plan. The proposal next goes before the Hyattsville City Council for consideration.


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