October 17, 2006
By JEN DEGREGORIO,
Daily Record Business Writer
Plan is to turn 24-acre property into a town center with 800 homes and retail space
Three Maryland companies plan to develop a $150 million town-center project near the Odenton MARC station, culminating nearly 40 years of planning for growth in the area.
At a news conference held yesterday beside the station’s train tracks, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said The Bozzuto Group, Osprey Property Company and Reliable Contracting Co. Inc. won a bidding process to develop 24 acres of government-owned land.
The development could change the sleepy town near Fort George G. Meade into a bustling destination, said Doreen Strothman, chair of the Odenton Town Center Oversight Committee.
“In Odenton … there is no town center or a place where everyone comes together,” she said. “There aren’t many entertainment options.” But she hopes the Odenton Town Center project – which would include more than 800 homes, 74,000 square feet of retail space and a hotel – will change all of that. “This is something that can give Odenton a sense of identity, a place where you can run into your neighbors,” Strothman said.
The project will also help absorb residential growth predicted to follow the transfer of thousands of government jobs to Fort Meade due to last year’s federal Base Realignment and Closure process.
Odenton Town Center will be built on state- and county-owned land near the intersection of Maryland Route 175 and Morgan Road. The property is now occupied mainly by parking lots and some trees, said Jack Cahalan, a spokesman for the state transportation department.
“This is truly a goldmine,” Ehrlich said yesterday, his voice competing with the din of passing trains. “This is mixed-use in the classic sense,” he said. “It increases quality of life, and it helps the retail sector.”
Anne Arundel County Executive Janet Owens applauded the state for pushing forward a plan that dates to the late 1960s, when the county designated Odenton as one of three growth areas.
A number of town-center plans were floated since then, but they stalled for various reasons, Strothman said. But with so many new jobs slated for Fort Meade, developing Odenton became a greater priority for the state and county governments, she said.
Odenton Town Center will extend Greenbelt-based Bozzuto’s reach into Anne Arundel, where it has already built about 1,000 homes, said John B. Slidell, the company’s vice chairman.
“We’re focusing a lot of our efforts on revitalization,” Slidell said.
It also fits Bozzuto’s interest in developing housing near mass-transit lines. The company has other such projects, including two apartment and townhouse developments near the Wheaton Metro station in Montgomery County.
Ehrlich, too, has touted his strides in transit-oriented development. In August, his administration announced a $175 million project planned near the Savage MARC station. Last year the state announced an initiative to redevelop a state office complex in Midtown Baltimore into a mix of housing and commercial space. The $800 million State Center project, near a Metro and light rail stop, is being spearheaded by Baltimore developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse.
“We do not believe in sprawl,” Ehrlich said yesterday.
Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, who is running for governor, has attacked Ehrlich for being soft on environmental issues.
Slidell said it could take between three and five years before developers can break ground on Odenton Town Center. Two parking garages with more than 4,700 spaces would likely be developed first, he said.
The project could help Odenton “become a center for growth and development in Central Maryland,” Owens said.