The Merriweather Post - January 2025 Edition
Kimco's New Plan for the Hickory Ridge Village Center, Howard Hughes in 2025, In Defense of Bill Ackman, County Budgets, and Beer & Wine sales in Grocery Stores
Introduction: Welcome to The Merriweather Post, now on Substack, as an e-mail newsletter! For a variety of reasons (predominantly, cost, but also because it’s much easier to use and a better platform for my newsletter-style news blog), I’m moving The Merriweather Post from the current website built and hosted using Wix to a Substack newsletter.
Fear not, The Merriweather Post will remain free. I have no intention of using Substack’s paid-subscription function. Also fear not, I completed the tedious task of moving all prior TMP articles (dating back to December 2019) into Substack so you find and read my back catalog of older posts here. Unfortunately, comments and page views of articles on themerriweatherpost.org have not transferred.
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Now, let’s get into the January 2025 edition of TMP.
Kimco Update on Hickory Ridge Village Center
Representatives from Kimco Realty, owners of the Hickory Ridge Village Center, attended the Hickory Ridge Village Board meeting on December 12, 2024 to update the community on their plans for the Hickory Ridge Village Center. Representatives Greg Reed and Abbey Oklak, stated during this meeting that Kimco has no plans to add residential units to the village center. They acknowledged that their court case remains ongoing (for more, see The Village Center Edition of TMP, June 2024), but made it clear that even if they were to win court approval to add apartments at the village center, they have no plans to do so at this time. Instead, they are focused on leasing up the remaining vacant retail spaces in the village center and noted that they have recently signed long-term leases with two new tenants - Ranazul and Celia’s Cuban Cuisine.
Currently, the village center is at 93% occupancy and there are 5 vacant spots totaling ~6,500 SF. Kimco cited ongoing discussions with an unnamed national brand about leasing the spot next to Decanter Fine Wines that contains a drive-thru (2400 SF space that was last occupied by Howard Bank and was Taco Bell before that), but noted the prospective tenant’s concerns about visibility of this space. To increase desirability of this and other empty spaces, Kimco plans several exterior alterations to the village center to make it more attractive to potential tenants, and they are seeking the support of the Hickory Ridge Community Association to make these improvements.
Specifically, Kimco wants to modify the village center to increase visibility in two ways:
Signage Add new prominent signage throughout the village center, including LCD screen directories and large signs visible from the parking lot listing the tenants in the interior spaces along the avenue. Also, remove faded yellow awnings.
Landscape Improvement. Remove dead trees and overgrown trees alongside parking lot that block storefront visibility and replace with new sapling tree plantings. Note that all the trees in the central “avenue” would be maintained. They also want to replace overgrown landscaping bed in front of the aforementioned former Howard Bank space with new landscaping.
In order to make these modifications, Kimco will need the approval of the Howard Hughes since they control the Columbia’s Architectural Review Committee, the legacy body established via Columbia’s original covenants that has authority to approve or reject exterior changes to the certain commercial properties in Columbia, including village centers. Yes, that is as absurd as it sounds. Through the quirks of Columbia’s foundation and various business transactions over the years, Kimco needs approval from Howard Hughes if they want to put up new signs or change the landscaping on their own commercial property. The Kimco representative frustration with this procedure was evident when Reed bemoaned the length of time (1.5 years) that it took Kimco to negotiate with Howard Hughes when they sought to make similar improvements to the King’s Contrivance Village Center. Kimco is seeking the Hickory Ridge Community’s Association’s support as they hope community support will help expedite the approval process with Howard Hughes.
Kimco also floated the idea for Village Board consideration about potentially adding pad-mount sites to the Hickory Ridge Village Center. Pad-mount sites are retail spaces for small standalone building with a single tenant (possibly with a drive-thru), most commonly leased by a fast-food restaurant. They specifically cited the vacant bank ATM drive-thru (formerly Sun Trust Bank) and the parking lot alongside Cedar Lane as two potential locations for a pad-mount site.
Personally, I’m pleased to see that Kimco has refocused efforts on leasing out the village center and I’m supportive of the landscaping and signage plans that they presented, but I’m less enthusiastic about adding fast food restaurants. As I opined last June when I wrote extensively about village centers, I would prefer that village centers focused on small locally owned-businesses instead of national chains, though I will reserve final judgement until I find out exactly what fast-food style chains they can sign! I also think now that Kimco’s has expressed a desire to update and improve the village center, it would be a perfect opportunity for the village board, in consultation with the Hickory Ridge community, to insist on other improvements to the center that the community would like to see (for example, better lighting, ADA accessibility, bike/pedestrian improvements, etc.).
In terms of Kimco’s abandonment of pursuing a residential addition to the village center, call me skeptical that this is the last we hear about adding residential to the Hickory Ridge Village Center. HoCo By Design, the County’s recently updated master plan, specifically identifies Columbia’s village centers as activity centers prime for new housing growth, and the County has just issued a request this month to hire a facilitator that will oversee the County’s revision of New Town zoning, a process that could result in making it easier to add residential units to village centers by modifying the arduous approval process that ultimately sunk Kimco’s recent attempt to add residential to Hickory Ridge. While I believe Kimco that they have no immediate plans for moving on major redevelopment of Hickory Ridge, let’s see where things stand 5 to 10 years from now.
Howard Hughes Update on their 2025 Plans
The Baltimore Business Journal interviewed Kristi Smith, President of the Maryland region for Howard Hughes about their plans for 2025. (Faces to Watch 2025: Exec looks to lease up Downtown Columbia, January 10, 2025). In the article, Smith revealed that Howard Hughes will not kick off any new construction in Columbia in 2025. Instead, Howard Hughes will focus 2025 on leasing its existing office space. The leasing effort will focus on filling existing vacant office space in the buildings that make up the recently revamped Merriweather Row office complex on Little Patuxent Parkway and the newly opened Medical Office Building next to Whole Foods at 10285 Little Patuxent Parkway. 50% of the Medical Office Building is currently leased to tenants Orthopaedic Associates of Central Maryland, ENTAA Care and Prime Facial Plastic Surgery, while the other half remains available.
Smith also revealed that they are modifying their plans for 6300 Merriweather Drive. Columbia residents may recall a giant banner that appeared on the parking garage in the Merriweather District in August 2022 announcing that Howard Hughes plans to construct a 16-story 250 feet tall 300,000+ SF office-building on the surface parking lot between the Merriweather garage and Juniper. A website for the project remains online. However, Smith stated that the project will be downsized by half to 150,000 SF given changing market conditions.
Here’s the thing. Howard Hughes is perfectly capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. They can absolutely start a new project while simultaneously also focus on leasing space in existing buildings. But, given market and legal issues, the two projects they had at the top of their queue are both held up. They aren’t going to start construction of the 6300 Merriweather office building while so much other office space that they own in Merriweather Row remains vacant. And they can’t start building the 675 residential units they first announced in early 2022 for Lakefront North while the legal and administrative proceedings regarding this area of Downtown Columbia remain ongoing. Just this week, on January 16, 2025, the Howard County Board of Appeals began hearing a case appealing Howard Hughes approved site plans for Lakefront North after the recent court decision that awarded IHM Columbia, an entity of Costello Construction, $17 million and the right to advance their own redevelopment of their adjacent parcel. From my standpoint, I just wish these entities resolve their issues, allowing both parcels to be developed.
In Defense of Bill Ackman
Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge-fund manager and prolific poster on X, has indicated his intention for his company Pershing Square to increase’s its ownership stake in Howard Hughes, the developer that owns much of Downtown Columbia, as well as other master-planned communities in Texas, Nevada, Arizona, New York and Hawaii. Earlier this month, Ackman sent a letter to the Hughes board announcing that Pershing is offering $1 billion to gain a controlling interest in Howard Hughes, with the intention of transforming the company into a modern-day Berkshire Hathaway. Naturally, this begs the question, what would this mean for Downtown Columbia? The Baltimore Business Journal addressed this question in their article What a hedge’ fund’s $1 billion play has to do with downtown Columbia, fellow blogger Julia McCready weighed in on Village Green/Town², and a robust discussion is ongoing over at the r/ColumbiaMD subreddit. Much of the hullabaloo omits the fact that Ackman is already the largest shareholder of Howard Hughes (Pershing Square currently holds 38% of Howard Hughes’ outstanding stock) and Ackman himself had been Chairman of the Board of Howard Hughes from the company’s formation in in 2010 until just this last April, when he stepped now.
For my two cents, I don’t think this will change a damn thing. Regardless of what marketing spin is on their website, Howard Hughes is a publicly-traded company primarily focused on shareholder value. They make money by building out and leasing space on their properties with the goal of maximizing profit. I see no reason that will change if Ackman gains greater control. Howard Hughes will continue building in Downtown Columbia. I know not everybody feels the same as me, but I’m personally of the mindset that cities are good. More people, more buildings, more businesses, more competition, more jobs, more tax collections, more infrastructure, more government services. I feel a sense of satisfaction when I pass by construction sites. And so long as Howard Hughes continues to invest in Downtown Columbia in accordance with the Downtown Columbia plan, I’m not particularly concerned about their ownership structure.
County Budget Season is Here
Over the coming months, the Howard County Executive and Council will focus on finalizing the FY26 Operating and Capital Budget. Already, we have seen the School System request a record-high $1.22 billion FY26 Operating Budget and a $87 million Capital Budget ($62 million of which would come from the County). Other County agencies are in process of finalizing their requests. Over the coming months, we will see whether projected FY26 revenue is sufficient to cover our County’s anticipated expenses. If the County must modify the budget to close a deficit again this year, I hope that the County take a page from the state of Maryland, and consider ways to increase revenues instead of just looking at cutting expenses. Wes Moore has proposed a state income tax increase for residents earning over $500,000 to close the state’s budget shortfall and I would support a similar increase for local property taxes and transfer/recordation fees that is applied to real estate over a set threshold (call it a “mansion” tax), especially if this allowed teachers to be paid a fair wage, class sizes to be maintained, and capital school projects proceeded on schedule.
Should Maryland grocery stores be allowed to sell beer and wine?
Wes Moore made headlines last month when he announced his support for ending the ban that prohibits grocery stores from selling beer and wine. From a consumer standpoint, I would welcome this ban. The positives of such a move are the convenience of being able to pick up alcohol while grocery shopping and lower prices given increased competition and economies of scale. But, from a business and development standpoint, I think this move would have a negative impact on many small businesses. Liquor stores help anchor our village centers and shopping strips, and ending this ban would most certainly would put many small liquor stores out of business. If the ban were to be lifted, beer and wine stores would need to really focus on differentiating themselves with selection, customer service, price, or other customer-focused initiatives if they suddenly were to find themselves competing with grocery stores. It seems that Wes Moore, sensing pushback from state legislations, has recently walked back his statement, so it does not seem like lifting the ban is an imminent action. For my part, if the ban were ever to be lifted, I would not want to see grocery stores that are located in shopping centers that already have a liquor store be able to add beer and wine to their shelves, but I do see the appeal of certain specialty grocery stores that are known elsewhere for their unique liquor selection and/or prices, like Costco or Trader Joes, being able to stock alcohol in Maryland. I also would like to see Wegmans to able to add an interior staircase/elevator that connects the inside of the store to their Loft liquor store.
TWhanks for keeping Columbia residents informed and thoughtful. hat is going on at the Toby's site re new building?"
I used to live over by the hospital and I often lamented that I only had McDonald's as my choice for fast food. Otherwise I'd have to go to the mall or Eastern Columbia.