Friday, September 16, 2011
The City Council supports the market's lease but is divided on whether its name should be on the Town Square Plaza pavilion.
Rockville City Council members who often disagree on big issues were unanimous on one this week: Monday’s announcement that a lease had been signed to bring Dawson’s Market to Rockville Town Square is a big win for the city. “It’s fantastic,” Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio said. “It’s been four years in the making—like a Cecil B. DeMille extravaganza.” Councilman Piotr Gajewski, who is opposing Marcuccio for mayor in the Nov. 8 city election, agreed that the lease was a long time in coming. The owners of Richmond, Va.-based Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market plan to open Dawson’s sometime in the spring, Federal Realty announced. “We’re thrilled,” Gajewski said. “It seems like it’s a very good fit for Rockville. It seems like it’s very community-…
Monday, September 12, 2011
Federal Realty: The store will open in spring and will be called Dawson's Market.
The long wait for a grocery store in Rockville Town Square should be over in early spring. Federal Realty Investment Trust announced Monday that it had finalized a lease with the owners of Richmond, Va.-based Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market to bring an organic market to the commercial and residential district in Rockville Town Center. The new market will be named Dawson’s Market. The name is a nod to the family that owned a farm with a homestead in what is now the Hungerford neighborhood of Rockville. Another family home, the Beall-Dawson House, is on West Montgomery Avenue near Town Center. It is the home of the Montgomery County Historical Society. "We look forward to partnering with local vendors, farmers and artisans, and working with …
Friday, August 19, 2011
With signs approved and an appeal of the proposed store's beer and wine license in the offing, lease negotiations continue.
The owner of a Richmond, VA-based grocery store that wants to open in Rockville Town Square said this week that things are moving forward in spite of an appeal of the store’s beer and wine license. “The lease is contingent on that [license],” said Rick Hood, owner of Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market, in an interview with Rockville Patch. “We’ve got the license and we’re going forward.” The Montgomery County Circuit Court is expected to hear the appeal in the fall. The appeal, by Tiger Beer Wine & Deli, has proven to be a bit of a speed bump in a projected opening date. “We’ve just been looking at the beer and wine situation,” said Hood, who was in town for Monday’s Rockville City Council meeting. “The discussion took a couple weeks. So […
Friday, July 22, 2011
Grocery wants its name on the pavilion and could hold naming contest.
Naming rights for the Rockville Town Square Plaza pavilion have emerged as a sticking point in the ongoing negotiations to bring a grocery to the retail center. But before the City Council grants the grocer those rights, as part of an agreement on signage that the council must approve, council members say they’d prefer to know just what the name on the pavilion—and on the market—might be. Federal Realty Investment Trust, the owner and operator of Town Square, and Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market, the prospective tenant for the grocery space at 255 N. Washington Street, have worked out the style and location of signs for the market, Robin McBride, vice president and Mid-Atlantic region chief operating officer for Federal Realty, told the …
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Tiger Beer Wine & Deli is appealing a county board's decision to grant a license to Ellwood Thompson's.
When the county licensing board granted a beer and wine license to a proposed Rockville Town Square grocery earlier this month, those working to bring Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market to the city’s fledgling retail and residential center said that the Richmond, VA-based market had cleared “the major hurdle” to finalizing a lease agreement. Now it appears that the hurdle might still be standing in the way. On Monday, Tiger Beer Wine & Deli filed an appeal of the license in Montgomery County Circuit Court, said Steve Wise, an attorney for the small store in Rockville Town Center. Tiger Beer Wine & Deli also asked the licensing board for a stay of its decision. The board declined to act on that request, a county spokeswoman said Thursday. The …
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Last week's hearing on a beer and wine license for Ellwood Thompson's Local Market turned up new details about, and some opposition to, the proposed store.
The county licensing board on Thursday granted a beer and wine license to Ellwood Thompson's Local Market, clearing a hurdle that had foiled previous attempts to open a grocery store in Rockville Town Square. The sworn testimony of the hearing revealed details about the proposed market and the hurdles that still lie in its path as its owners work to finalize a lease agreement with Federal Realty Investment Trust. The following are some basic—and some unresolved—questions about the proposed market, along with answers found in Thursday's hearing. This is the second of two parts. Click here to read Part I. Who wants Ellwood Thompson’s in Rockville Town Square? City officials, Town Square landlord Federal Realty Investment Trust and at least …
Last week's hearing on a beer and wine license for Ellwood Thompson's Local Market revealed new details about the proposed store.
Rockville residents might’ve been most interested in two tidbits from Thursday’s county licensing board hearing. First, Ellwood Thompson's Local Market was granted a beer and wine license, clearing a hurdle that had foiled previous attempts to open a grocery store in Rockville Town Square. Second, Ellwood Thompson’s owner Rick Hood said that the market could open for business in February “at earliest.” But the sworn testimony of the hearing revealed other details about the proposed market and the hurdles that still lie in the path of Federal Realty Investment Trust and its prospective tenant even as the two sides say they are close to finalizing a lease agreement. The following are some basic—and some unresolved—questions about the …
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
"Complex" engineering cited in rink delay; Grocery deal hinges on alcohol license
First, the bad news: Federal Realty Investment Trust has informed the city that it will not install an ice rink at Rockville Town Square this winter, Assistant City Manager Jenny Kimball told the City Council on Monday. "They indicated that they appreciated the city's cooperation on the project but found that the engineering was much more complex than they anticipated and they weren't able to pull it off in a timely manner," Kimball said. The company will continue working "with all intents and purposes on doing it next year instead," she said. Next, the good news: Federal Realty is closing in on a lease agreement with a grocery store for Town Square, Kimball said. Now, the catch: "The finalizing of the agreement will depend on obtaining …
Jeff Hawkins
11:03 am on Monday, September 19, 2011
The name "Dawson's Market" sounds like a good fit. That name has so much Rockville history associated with it. I remember as a kid snooping around the "barn" behind the Dawson's house on Rockville Pike. Carroll Smith, the old caretaker of the property would occasionaly let us "have it" with a couple of barrels of "rock salt" fired from his shotgun. Rose Dawson was a wonderful lady who shared many… more ›