TESST Building Bought By Developers

Streetsense hopes to rent building space to commercial, office tenants.

The iconic but currently vacant TESST building in downtown Hyattsville could see new life in the near future. Streetsense, the Bethesda-based real-estate planning and development firm has recently acquired the property and plans on eventually renting it out to commercial tenants.  According to Marc Ratner, CEO of Streetsense, Hyattsville's downtown Route 1 corridor is fertile ground for redevelopment. Recent work to renovate existing city parking lots, expand on-street parking, and plans to construct a new parking facility along Route 1 are attracting attention among developers. "All of those things are very positive in terms of spurring additional development," said Ratner in an interview. "We remain extremely interested in wanting to …

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Poll: Parking in Hyattsville's Commercial Areas Has Some Scratching Heads

There have been a number of comments on Hyattsville Patch recently about parking at Streetsense's development at Baltimore Avenue and Jefferson Street. Let us know what you think about city parking with this poll.

How do you feel about parking in Hyattsville?  Some of you have mentioned that you don't think there's enough parking at the Streetsense shops (think, Busboys and Poets) on Baltimore Avenue and Jefferson Street.  With construction ongoing there, it's hard to tell if more parking is coming behind the shops—inquiries to Streetsense have not been returned—but in the evenings, the current parking spaces are generally occupied. At University Town Center, there are parking garages and one parking lot for patrons, but after a two hours you have to pay: If you’re going to the Royale 14 movie theater you can get your parking ticket validated at a rate of 4 hours for $1. There is also temporary parking along America Boulevard.   The Hyattsville City…

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What Do You Think Of Hyattsville's Arts District?

Hyattsville's Arts District opened late spring of this year. Patch asked locals for their reaction to the new site with one full season of business under its belt.

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Slice of Hyattsville Life

Slice: Developing Hyattsville From Within

With the new attention Hyattsville is getting there will be, of course, your occasional irritations especially when it comes to visitors.

Sometimes when I need to clear my head, I take a walk around the developing arts district. As I walked down Route 1, I noticed two women walking in my direction. I heard one of them say, “Oh no, all these new developments are going to attract tourists.” She looked like she would not be happy about the burst of new visitors to Hyattsville. I know that “change” can be a bit difficult when residents are comfortable the way things are. There may be some people who believe there is no need for new development. Then there are residents like myself who are excited about the change and improvement the city is going through. I bet that in two years it won’t be uncommon for a film crew to be filming on these streets. I’m not saying Hyattsville will …

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