From Bel Air Town Center:
Bel Air Town Center has received a facelift. The 93,000-square-foot neighborhood shopping destination, located at the intersection of Routes 1 and 24, has undergone a $1 million renovation and improvement program.
Owners, Christopher Kurz and Peter McGill of McGill Development Limited Partnership No.3, sought to provide a more colorful, Main Street village appearance and make the Center more user-friendly for customers and tenants.
Façade changes include adding decorative stonework to columns, installing fabric awnings over several spaces and widening the sidewalk to accommodate outdoor seating with umbrella tables by the Center’s restaurants and food tenants.
The improvements also include new merchant signs under the roof canopy, a lighting upgrade, new flower beds along the expanded sidewalks and additional landscaping.
“This redo of Bel Air Town Center represents a strategic decision not only to improve the façade of this Center, but in the long run, to enhance the landscape of this city center tract and to attract the type of tenants and retails specialists that the Bel Air community and government want to have in their neighborhood,” said Trish Heidenreich, director of Economic Development, Town of Bel Air.
Heidenreich gave those remarks at an Oct. 2 luncheon for Harford County and Town of Bel Air officials to showcase the rejuvenated center. Additional VIPs in attendance included Harford County Executive David R. Craig, Robert J. Reier
(vice chair/commissioner, Town of Bel Air) and James C. Richardson (director of Harford County Office of Economic Development).
Originally built in 1990 and expanded in 1998 and 2001, Bel Air Town Center was designed to cater to the smaller merchants. With a blend of local and national retailers and restaurants, it now comprises 20 tenants: AAA, Bel Air Hair Salon, Chili’s, C.R. Wings, FedEx Office, Golden Szechuan, Healthbridge, Lendmark Financial, Leslie’s Pool Supplies, Liberatore’s, Long and Foster Realtors, Only Nails, Open Door Café, Professional Vision, Spirit Halloween, T-Mobile, Taco Bell, Weight Watchers, Wireless Zone and Woodlea Bakery.
Starbuck’s has signed a letter of intent with Bel Air Town Center to open its first drive-through only location in Maryland with no interior seating. It will feature a walk-up window and exterior seating.
“The ‘Main & Main’ location of Route 1 and Route 24 has always provided Bel Air Town Center tenants with the ability to reach a large market share of potential customers,” said Thomas L. Fidler Jr., SVP/principal of MacKenzie Retail, LLC, which is handling the leasing of Bel Air Town Center.
“Its proximity to the core population base of Harford County has always offered the stability of continuous visibility and convenient access to Harford County residents,” he added. “Now, the added aesthetic improvements will only enhance the success of the Center and its tenants.”
For directions to Bel Air Town Center or information about its merchants, store promotions and other news, visit www.belairtowncenter.com. For leasing inquiries, contact Tom Fidler or Laura Christou at 410.821.8585.
About the Developers
Bel Air Town Center is the latest retail collaboration by Kurz and McGill. The two met in the 1970s while working for The Rouse Company: Kurz was development director and McGill, regional director-commercial leasing. Kurz left to become vice president of Maryland National Corporation and McGill became vice president-leasing at Federated Stores Realty, Inc.
The two met up again when they were both working in the World Trade Center. Kurz was vice president and regional manager of H.G. Smithy Co. and McGill had formed commercial real estate consulting and leasing firm, The McGill Company. Recognizing that both were interested in developing small retail centers locally and that they brought complementary skills, the two teamed to form McGill Development Co. Together, they developed 8989 Hermann Drive (a 40,000-square-foot flex building in Columbia), Columbia Business Center (a 158,000- square-foot retail and office park in Columbia), Columbia Corporate Park (an 88-acre mid-rise office park in Columbia), Robert’s Field Shopping Center (a 90,000-square-foot retail center in Hampstead) and Bel Air Town Center.
I know time marches on but I liked Betsy better…
Me too!
Me too!
That’s 1 million dollars that could have gone towards teachers getting a raise and not a private company. But wait. The head of the teachers union is quite the Marxist and his ideology is for such redistributive programs. So Ryan burbey, now you know why your teacher lemmings can’t get a raise. You can’t have it both ways you silly clowns
Reading Comprehension > You
Well this came out of left field at Orioles Park at Camden Yards….
its nice post…thnkx…
A private company spent their own $1M to improve privately owned real estate ….this has nothing to do with the government or teachers being under paid…
Just what we need . . . another coffee shop.
It’s a strip mall. Dress it up any way you want and it will remain a strip mall, like every other strip mall on nearly every thoroughfare in and around Belair.
I’ll take mine,,,,, two sugars and some cream please….(just waiting for Starbucks to add gas pumps next….LOL
It’s good to see in these tough economic times a property owner who can and does keep up their property. Yes it is another strip mall but look around at other areas that are blighted and decaying and be glad it’s not in our town.
Point taken – it’s a clean strip mall void of personality, an eyesore gash on the earth, a shades of grey amalgamation of blandness, friend to neither man nor beast but made easy for traffic and cars. Somehow the drive through Starbucks seems perfect; even better if they could come up with a way to collect money from you without stopping; something akin to EZ Pass for fast food vendors – and then toss the well-wrapped food through the open windows of your car.
Actually, I’ve thought for a while that it would be ideal to have the EZPass system built into the dash computer in your car, which would allow you to authorize and pay for all kinds of vehicle related transactions, like tolls, parking, fast food, park fees, etc, without ever getting your wallet out of your pocket or waiting in a line to pay, or paying for a person to man a window.
I’m not sure why the companies that make the ezpass system haven’t thought of this yet.
Noble –
They have thought of it.
Mobil Exxon has had Speedpass since 1997 (started by Mobil).
McDonald’s tested Speedpass and then ceased testing in 2004.
Mobile payments with your phone is the future in this sector.
I knew about those, but I meant specific integration with EZ Pass, since they already have your banking information and is by definition mobile.
I suppose you could do it by phone, but it’s usually illegal in most places to use your mobile device while you are moving in your car. Having an EZPass app or something built into your dash computer system would solve that problem. Perhaps a blue tooth link from your phone to your OSD in the dash…
noble –
The mobile phone is the ideal device and while you’re making QSR, parking, entrance fees your vehicle is not moving at the point-of-sale.
Most transactions require confirmation by purchaser and EZ Pass doesn’t have that functionality.
Cash works for me.
At least it’s not another Shitmart!
It’s Bane and Obama’s fault.
You’re right, they didn’t build that Obama did!