Town Square Grocery's Identity Revealed

A Richmond, VA-based grocer that markets itself as a socially conscious, community-focused business is Federal Realty’s pick to bring to Rockville Town Square.

After years of searching for a tenant and months of negotiations, the management company has a preliminary agreement to bring Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market to the vacant space in the fledgling residential and retail center, Rockville city manager Scott Ullery said during the City Council meeting on Monday.

“They have not yet signed the final lease,” Ullery said.

The market has applied for a county license to sell wine and beer for off-premise consumption, as well as for on-site wine tastings, he said. A hearing with the Montgomery County Board of License Commissioners is scheduled for July 7.

“The local market will feature local and organic produce, meats, cheeses, prepared foods and baked goods,” Ullery said.

The market plans on operating under the business principles of its Richmond location, he said.

“That would be to be a leading source of healthy and local foods, working directly with local farmers, supporting the local community through business choices, animal welfare, environmental consciousness and supporting of the arts—and selling groceries,” Ullery said.

Ullery called the developments “great news for Town Square.”

Plans for a grocery store unraveled in March 2010, when The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, Inc., of Montvale, NJ, better known as A&P, announced that it would not open a store in Town Square despite signing a 20-year lease in 2007.

The company had sought to bring a Super Fresh with a small in-store beer and wine section to the nearly 34,000-square-foot grocery store space at the retail center between Middle Lane and Beall Avenue.

The deal began to unravel in 2009. A bill to grant an exception to a state law that bars chain stores from acquiring new alcohol licenses failed to win support from the Montgomery County delegation to the General Assembly.

The bill faced opposition from owners of mom-and-pop beer and wine stores in the city and from the powerful alcohol lobby in Annapolis.

A&P announced in December that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

This would be the first Ellwood Thompson's Local Market in Maryland and, as such, the store would not need a legislative exception in order to be eligible for a license, Ullery said in December.

“I think everyone that’s had any relationship to the bringing of this grocery store to this city should feel very proud about it because this has been quite a task,” Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio said. “What is it four years we’ve had of hoping and wishing and crying and pulling? I have to say that’s just absolutely superb.”

Marcuccio asked if the City Council should do anything in support of the store’s liquor license application.

“I don’t see any issues coming up, but if I do get any vibrations about anything, we’ll definitely be weighing-in in a positive weigh if we can,” Ullery said.

Federal Realty has yet to issue a news release about the deal and is not likely to have much to say until the lease is finalized, he said.

Additional details have been provided as talking points to the City Council and appear in the latest edition of the Rockville Reports newsletter that should arrive in residents’ mail this week, Ullery said.

“Hopefully in not too many more weeks Federal Realty will issue their press release,” he said.

“I wish there was a way we could put something in the parade on Memorial Day that said ‘Believe it or not, we have a grocery!’” Marcuccio said. “I’m sure that’s not possible.”