Kohl's Opens in Aspen Hill

Aspen Hill welcomed retailer Kohl’s to the neighborhood this week with grand opening sales and a Wednesday morning ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by county officials.

Kohl’s will anchor the Northgate Plaza shopping center. Lee Development Group “has invested several million dollars” to renovate the center, the company said in a news release.

Northgate Plaza also features a Michael’s craft store and a Rite Aid Pharmacy among its more than 30 tenants. The Lee family built the center, at 3901 Aspen Hill Road, in 1958.

The renovation includes expanding the space occupied by Kohl’s from 46,000 square feet to 60,000 square feet. Expanding the space cost about $2.5 million, Washington Business Journal reported.

The space had been occupied by a Super Fresh grocery, which closed in October 2010.

Kohl’s brings 125 new jobs to Aspen Hill.

“Kohl’s arrival in Aspen Hill not only brings a respected retailer to a community in need of options, it brings new jobs and renewed consumer interest at a critical time,” Bruce H. Lee, president of Lee Development Group, said in the release. “We are truly pleased to have them as a new anchor at Northgate Plaza Shopping Center.”

The Aspen Hill location is one of 12 new stores the retailer is opening in 10 states this week, The Business Journal reported.

The opening “is a vote of confidence that signals more good things to come” in Aspen Hill, Steven A. Silverman, director of the county’s Department of Economic Development, said in the release.

Kohl’s is the first new anchor tenant in Aspen Hill in decades, the release said. It’s also the latest example of retail growth at Rockville’s periphery.

Lee Development has proposed a Walmart on the former BAE Systems site at Aspen Hill Road and Georgia Avenue.

Meanwhile, plans for a Wal-Mart at the Pike Center on Rockville Pike have been put on hold after Chevy Chase-based JBG Rosenfeld sold the center to Weingarten Realty of Houston, The Gazette reported last month.