Adapting To The Market
Carl M. Freeman Companies continues progress on Olney Town Center, redrafting a redevelopment plan that utilizes opportunity in the current economic climate. 
Lindsay Sport

Looking back, it’s hard to believe how much has changed in the commercial real estate market in the last few years. With the economic troubles, companies have restructured, development has slowed and projects have diminished, as industry players work to survive the downturn.

When Shopping Center Business spoke with Carl M. Freeman Companies (CMF) in October 2007, the company was flourishing. Michael Reilly, then vice president and general manager of the commercial real estate division of CMF, spoke of the company’s numerous major retail projects on the horizon. One such project was the renovation of Olney Town Center, a 25-year-old shopping center in Olney, Maryland, that the company had purchased in 2004.

Olney Town Center will be redeveloped into Fair Hill, a 110,000-square-foot grocery-anchored center in Olney, Maryland. The center will feature a 10,000-square-foot plaza that will serve as the community’s first gathering place.

At the time, plans for the overhaul were ambitious, looking to take the traditional 98,000-square-foot center to a whole new level by redeveloping the project into a lifestyle center that would provide 200,000 square feet of retail featuring a major grocery anchor, as well as 250 residential units.

CMF worked towards its goal over the next few years, rezoning the site for mixed-use and getting things in order for the center’s transformation. But before CMF could break ground, the economy tanked.

“The market changed, that’s the bad news,” says Reilly, now senior vice president of retail at CMF. “We would have loved to have been in the position to take full advantage of the zoning and deliver a mixed-use project, but that just isn’t a reality right now.”

With initial plans out of reach, CMF was faced with a tough decision — put a hold on the project or readapt. The company chose to stay resilient and devise a plan that better utilized the opportunities available in the current economic environment.

“The good news is we still had a terrific opportunity to do a significant redevelopment with the property, and we still had the interest necessary to get that going,” Reilly says.

The new redevelopment plan will restructure the center as a traditional grocery-anchored center, expanding the development to 110,000 square feet. The mini-anchor and some small shop space will be demolished and replaced by a 52,940-square-foot Harris Teeter prototype location. The renovation will also include a complete remodel, with façade renovations, parking lot improvements, new landscapes and hardscapes and new pedestrian walkways.

“Though it isn’t as major as we initially planned, it will appear to the outside community as though it is essentially a brand new center because our changes will be that significant,” Reilly explains.

CMF will transform the currently 65 percent vacant mini-anchor center to a retail destination that is already 81 percent pre-leased.

The change will start with the center’s name. “We’re going in such a dramatically different direction with the project from what it has been for the past 25 years that we really wanted to rebrand it,” says Reilly. CMF will discard the Olney Town Center moniker and has decided to dub the project Fair Hill, in honor of the lands history of once operating as Fair Hill Farm.

From there, CMF has actually found a positive in the economy. With construction costs down, CMF has been able to utilize the drop in prices to bring superior aspects to the property.

“What we are going to do may be above what you find in a traditional grocery-anchored shopping center, but we want this to be unique. We want this to be high-quality,” says Reilly.

Now the company is able to use higher quality materials, such as exposed aggregate sidewalks with brick paver trim, instead of standard poured concrete. Improved materials will be used in all facets of the renovation, from hardscapes to landscapes, transforming the finished product into more than an average shopping center.

“This is a project where we have really left no stone unturned relative to how we can make it the best it can be, whether it’s landscaping, whether it’s lighting or the kinds of material we are using. I think at the end of the day, when the project is completed, it will really be noticed by the community,” Reilly says.

A major change coming to the center is going to be a 10,000-square-foot plaza area that will serve as the city’s first real gathering space. CMF has committed a $500,000 investment in the space, using only high-quality hardscape and landscape finishes, in order to provide Olney with a desirable meeting area. The plaza could potentially include a fountain that would entertain children during the day, while serving as a decorative feature at night. In addition, CMF has designed the space so that as many as 400 guests could fit in the area comfortably for programming and events sponsored by the center.

“We are really doing things that don’t exist in Olney, and we’ve got the opportunity to be the first ones to deliver it and create a place that becomes a real destination,” Reilly says.

Another thing CMF’s new development will bring is a long list of tenants to an underserved market. CMF will transform the currently 65 percent vacant mini-anchor center to a retail destination that is already 81 percent pre-leased. In addition to the new grocery anchor Harris Teeter, Greene Turtle Sports Bar and Grille will join the center with a 6,787-square-foot location unlike any restaurant currently in Olney. Other tenants include Goodyear Tires, Subway, Fancier Nail & Spa and PNC.

“We think the mix of tenants we’re going to deliver will absolutely benefit the community by offering something that’s not here today,” Reilly says.

And in the end, it’s all about the community for CMF, says Reilly. Based in Olney, Maryland, CMF has been a part of the community for more than 40 years, and it is the community that is really the priority for the development company.

“What we really are is a community developer.” says Reilly. “So, that mentality is brought to everything that we touch. Everything that we do is done with the community in mind.”

The project is slated to break ground in the next few months with a completion date set for fall 2011. CMF will utilize the services of Mark Ratner with Streetsense, Mike Killelea with L.F. Jennings and Stephen Kenney with Rounds VanDuzer Architects to complete the project.

Though CMF’s initial goal of developing a mixed-use center had to be readjusted, the company has found a new opportunity, ringing true the old adage that ‘with every cloud comes a silver lining.’

“Any time you’re in a place like this, I think that there are going to be negatives, but also positives — even if you’ve got to look a little harder to find the positives,” says Reilly.

©2010 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.