Crossroads of Kensington construction update (Photos)

The construction fencing has come down in front of the newest shopping center in Kensington, the Crossroads of Kensington at 10619 Connecticut Avenue, at Plyers Mill Road. That's created a much wider sidewalk along Connecticut Avenue than ever before, as you can see in these photos. "Coming soon" signage is popping up in the windows, and on the storefronts, of the center's future tenants. The shopping center is now fully-leased, with My Allure Nail Spa joining Buffalo Wild Wings GO, M&T Bank, Mezeh, and Marathon Deli.

Charlotte Russe moving at Wheaton Plaza

Charlotte Russe is preparing to relocate inside of Westfield's Wheaton Plaza mall. It's going to be a short move, but there is something in it for you, as the store is holding a moving sale. Charlotte Russe will be relocating from the Costco wing, down the corridor, into a space across from H&M in the Target wing. Still likely to remain unanswered amid all of this moving drama: Who was Charlotte Russe?

Royal Farms update from Montgomery Hills (Photos)

Construction continues to slowly progress on the future Royal Farms convenience store and mega gas station at 9475 Georgia Avenue in Montgomery Hills, just south of the Capital Beltway interchange. In just over a month since my last update, the convenience store building remains just a framework at the rear of the lot. Cinderblocks have been laid for wall segments in a few spots. The primary work that appears to have been done is to fill in the areas that had been excavated for the installation of fuel tanks, and to pour a significant part of the concrete surface of the gas station.

Purple Line-related Fenton Street closures in downtown Silver Spring (Photos)

Purple Line construction has created a traffic and business owner nightmare on Fenton Street in the vicinity of Downtown Silver Spring and Ellsworth Place mall. Vehicular access is entirely cut off or severely limited between Roeder Road and Bonifant Street. There is an unexplained, massive pile of gravel in the intersection of Fenton and Wayne Avenue. The temporary closure of that intersection has been extended to about September 5, 2025, due to "unforeseen utility conflicts." 

Spirit Halloween opening Wheaton store for 2025

Spirit Halloween has selected a location for its first store in Montgomery County for 2025. It will be in the former Party City building at Westfield's Wheaton Plaza mall at 11006 Veirs Mill Road in Wheaton. This is the earliest I can recall Spirit Halloween getting started for the Halloween season. In fact, it's so early, that the Spirit Halloween website doesn't even have its "find a store" feature up and running yet for 2025. The signs outside the store say it is "opening soon," but as you can see, the interior is still empty at the moment.

Hot Topic closing in Wheaton

Hot Topic is closing at Westfield's Wheaton Plaza mall. A closing sale is underway, but the store says that due to the pending closure, it can no longer accept Hot Cash coupons at this location. There's something so wrong about a mall without a Hot Topic, but Westfield Montgomery Mall already lost theirs some time ago. I once purchased the coolest Darth Vader shirt ever at the Montgomery Mall location. A mall without a Hot Topic is like a food court without a Sbarro!

Can we blame the moribund Montgomery County economy for this closure? My analysis suggests the answer is...probably not. Hot Topic appears to be quiet quitting on the loyal mallwalkers, emo scenesters, and goths of America, believing more in black curtained store windows than black apparel. I can't find any articles or corporate announcements that Hot Topic is closing stores at this time. But I can find quite a few articles regarding the closure of Hot Topic locations at malls across America over the last few months, including Sunrise Mall in Sacramento, Brass Mill Center mall in Waterbury, Pierre Bossier Mall in Bossier City (Louisiana), and Westland Center in Westland (Michigan).

Montgomery County police again seeking leads as Kathy Beatty cold case reaches 50 yr. milestone

One of the highest-profile and tragic homicide cold cases in Montgomery County history is again getting a fresh look from Montgomery County police detectives. Yesterday marked exactly 50 years to the day that 15-year-old Kathy Beatty was found dying in the woods behind the Aspen Hill Kmart at 14014 Connecticut Avenue by her sister on July 25, 1975. She had been reported missing the previous night. 

The story would only grow worse, as she never regained consciousness, and would pass away a week later in the hospital. Detectives determined she had been sexually assaulted, and had been struck in the head with a rock, causing traumatic injury. The case was one that shook parents across Montgomery County in 1975, along with the disappearance of the Lyon sisters in Wheaton only a few months earlier. To mark yesterday's dark anniversary, police released a new podcast to help younger or new residents get up to speed on the case (and help jog the memories of older residents), and issued their latest plea for public assistance in solving the case.

If you were a nearby resident at the time, is there any detail you might have noticed on the night of May 24 to 25, 1975 that you didn't focus on at the time? And even if you are younger, have you heard any stories from acquaintances or relatives who might have talked, as criminals and their associates tend to do over time? Perhaps listening to the podcast might surface such details in your mind. These are just some of the types of leads police need to solve this case, something they promised Kathy Beatty's late mother they would do. One tiny piece of evidence can snowball into the breaking of a case, no matter how cold.

Anyone with information regarding the death of Kathy Beatty is asked to visit the Crime Solvers of Montgomery County website at www.crimesolversmcmd.org and click the “www.p3tips.com” link at the top of the page, or call 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Callers may remain anonymous. A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the suspect.

Watch for Wayne Avenue lane closures near Sligo Creek Parkway next week

Watch for temporary lane closures on Wayne Avenue near its intersection with Sligo Creek Parkway next week. On or about Monday, July 28, 2025 through Thursday, July 31, Purple Line crews will implement extended-hour lane closures. Crews will use flaggers at the Wayne Avenue and Sligo Creek Parkway intersection to facilitate crane movement and girder placement at the Sligo Creek bridge. Lane closures and flagging may take place from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. on each of the closure dates. Pedestrian access will be maintained at all times. Please follow posted signage and directions from flaggers in the construction zone. 

Virginia wins AstraZeneca megafactory over Maryland

"There's going to be so much losing, you'll get tired of losing." We're definitely tired of losing in Montgomery County and Maryland, but Virginia just handed us another big L. Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has announced it plans to build its largest global drug manufacturing facility yet in Virginia. The loss is even harder to take when you consider that AstraZeneca already has a substantial presence here in Montgomery County. How did we lose this one?

AstraZeneca's announcement is the latest victory for President Donald Trump's trade strategy, which is in part designed to bring jobs back to America. GE Appliances recently announced it would relocate some of its China manufacturing footprint to the massive factory complex at Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky. AstraZeneca's move is to avoid high tariffs Trump proposed for drug imports. 

Montgomery County isn't a total loser in the $50 billion investment AstraZeneca plans to make in the U.S. over the next five years: the company said it also plans to expand its Gaithersburg manufacturing facility, and to add a cell therapy manufacturing facility in Rockville. But it's simply cheaper to do business in Virginia, and the Commonwealth is quickly catching up in the regional biotech race, which has been the sole bright spot in Montgomery County's otherwise-moribund economy.

“I want to thank AstraZeneca for choosing Virginia as the cornerstone for this transformational investment in the United States,” Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a statement. “This project will set the standard for the latest technological advancements in pharmaceutical manufacturing, creating hundreds of highly skilled jobs and helping further strengthen the nation's domestic supply chain. Advanced manufacturing is at the heart of Virginia's dynamic economy, so I am thrilled that AstraZeneca, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, plans to make their largest global manufacturing investment here in the Commonwealth.”  

“Today’s announcement underpins our belief in America’s innovation in biopharmaceuticals and our commitment to the millions of patients who need our medicines in America and globally,” AstraZeneca Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said. “It will also support our ambition to reach $80 billion in revenue by 2030. I look forward to partnering with Governor Youngkin and his team to work on our largest single manufacturing investment ever. It reflects the Commonwealth of Virginia’s desire to create highly skilled jobs in science and technology, and will strengthen the country’s domestic supply chain for medicines.” 

Montgomery County Council rams through ZTA to upzone SFH neighborhoods

The Montgomery County Council took the first major step toward realization of its radical, warmed-over Reaganomics "Thrive 2050" plan yesterday, by approving construction of duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, and apartment buildings up to four stories tall on lots currently restricted to single-family homes along multiple commuter corridors. True to its form of recent years, the Council simply blew off community opposition, and a crowded hearing room of angry residents. Taunting the crowd at times, the Council's sense of invincibility was hard to hide in both their microexpressions and tone of voice. The "More Housing N.O.W." zoning text amendment - like Thrive 2050 - had no grassroots support, and overwhelming opposition among residents.

Steamrolling ahead, the Council's willingness to outright lie about the intention of the ZTA was astonishing. From the beginning, they have attempted to sell Thrive and this ZTA as addressing housing affordability issues. Councilmember Andrew Friedson specifically cited middle-income "teachers, firefighters, police officers and nurses" as being able to afford the $2 million duplexes and $1 million apartments that the ZTA will produce. This is nothing more than pure, unadulterated malarkey. Incredibly, the reporter from The Washington Post accepted this farcical statement at face value, declining to fact check Friedson, ask tough follow-up questions, or outright declare Friedson's statements as false, as the paper regularly does for Donald Trump. The Post even used the term "missing middle," which doesn't remotely apply to the multimillion-dollar units that will be constructed under this ZTA. 

Eligible properties (in pink and yellow) in
Aspen Hill, Glenmont, and Wheaton

All this ZTA will do is increase the cost of housing in Montgomery County. If the townhome right next to the parking garage with no backyard at Westbard Square is $1.x million, then the future duplex with half a backyard and half a front yard in Springfield has to go for $2.x million. Now the colonial with the full front yard and backyard and Whitman school district is suddenly $3.x million, and the new-construction McMansion is $4.x million. Heckuva job, Brownie!

Urbanization of the suburbs is the primary goal of the ZTA. For example, the map of eligible properties shows how this ZTA is advancing the plan to urbanize River Road between the D.C. line and the Capital Beltway, which I have warned you about for many years. You can see the many churches, schools, country clubs, and other large properties the Council and their developer sugar daddies imagine will be demolished in the coming years. The speed limit on River Road has already been improperly reduced to 35 MPH, the exact opposite of sound traffic engineering, as the road is designed for speeds up to 55 MPH. Eventually, under the urbanization plan, River Road will be reduced to one lane in each direction, with bus/bike-only lanes seizing the other travel lanes heading east and west. A Purple Line extension to Westbard will be planned to juice density even further. As tall apartment buildings rise along the sides of River Road, the speed limit will drop to 25 MPH. Similar plans are in the works for Georgia Avenue between Olney and downtown Silver Spring, Old Georgetown Road, Veirs Mill Road, Route 29, MD 355, and other major commuter routes countywide.

Here is how each Councilmember voted on the ZTA yesterday. The names under "YES" are the people you will be voting AGAINST on your 2026 ballot, and the names under "NO" are the people you will be voting FOR in the 2026 Democratic primary election.

YES - to approve the ZTA

Gabe Albornoz

Marilyn Balcombe

Natali Fani-Gonzalez

Andrew Friedson

Evan Glass

Dawn Luedtke

Laurie-Anne Sayles

Kate Stewart

NO - to oppose the ZTA

Will Jawando

Sidney Katz

Kristin Mink

RNC demands Maryland "clean up voter rolls"

Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley

The Republican National Committee has sent a letter to the Maryland State Board of Elections demanding it "clean up voter rolls." RNC Chair Michael Whatley said the notice letter informs the SBE that it is "violating federal law" in failing to do so previously. It's unclear what will happen if the SBE ignores the letter. A previous attempt by the conservative organization Judicial Watch to purge the names of dead or out-of-state voters from the Maryland rolls was unsuccessful. Judicial Watch's analysis at the time found there were more names registered to vote than actual voters in Maryland.

"Maryland is failing to maintain accurate and up-to-date voter rolls, in clear violation of federal law," Whatley said in a statement. "Citizens deserve to know their vote isn't being canceled out by duplicate or ineligible voters."

No Republican has won any office in Montgomery County since Maryland switched from punch card voting to electronic voting in 2006. Only four years earlier, County Republicans held at least two seats on the Montgomery County Council, several seats in the state legislature, and at least one Congressional seat. 

Wheaton Triangle burglary suspects arrested

Montgomery County police have arrested two suspects in the July 9, 2025 burglary of Elite Studio and Barber at 11254 Triangle Lane in the Wheaton Triangle. Two burglars allegedly entered the salon at 2:04 AM that morning, stole unspecified property, and fled the scene. When the business prepared to open later that morning, the burglary and theft were discovered, and someone asked officers who were patrolling nearby on Georgia Avenue to investigate. 

One of the suspects on the salon's surveillance camera was immediately recognized by the officers. They soon caught up with Oscar Hernandez-Bonilla, 39, of Rockville, not far from the salon. He was allegedly in possession of property stolen from the salon. Later that day, police also arrested Osmin Ernesto Martinez Diaz, 41, of Silver Spring, who happened to be in the very block of Georgia Avenue where the officers had been flagged down that morning. Martinez Diaz was suffering from unspecified injuries when officers found him, and was transported to a local hospital. After his release from the hospital, he was released on bond.

Hernandez-Bonilla is still being held at the County jail. Both men have been charged with 2nd-degree burglary, and other theft-related charges. Their mugshots have not been released.

Assault at Silver Spring Recreation & Aquatic Center

Montgomery County police were called to one of the most popular County facilities in downtown Silver Spring on Friday, July 18, 2025, to investigate a midday 2nd-degree assault. The assault was reported in the 1300 block of Apple Avenue at 12:25 PM. It took place at the Silver Spring Recreation & Aquatic Center, which is located at 1319 Apple Avenue.

Armed carjacking in White Oak

Montgomery County police responded to a report of an armed carjacking in the White Oak area of Silver Spring early Wednesday morning, July 16, 2025. The carjacking was reported on April Lane at 4:30 AM. That is off of Stewart Lane near the White Oak Community Recreation Center.

Downtown Silver Spring retail building for sale

Real estate investors looking for a revenue-generating opportunity have a prime retail property to look into in downtown Silver Spring. 8215 Fenton Street is a two-level, fully-leased building that marketing materials say was constructed in 1973, but looks much newer than that. It is bordered on the north side of the property by Ripley Street, and includes 5 parking spaces. The asking price for the property is $3,000,000, according to the online listing.

Loudoun County wins ORBCOMM HQ over Montgomery County

Another economic development loss for Montgomery County and Maryland is in the books. Not surprisingly, the winner in the latest contest for a corporate headquarters is once again Northern Virginia. ORBCOMM, Inc., currently headquartered in New Rochelle, New Jersey, has announced it will locate its global HQ in Sterling, Virginia, in Loudoun County - not Montgomery County, Maryland. The "internet of things" company is focused on products and services that track, monitor, and control industrial assets around the world. It operates its own network of 31 low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites. ORBCOMM's clients include Walmart, Caterpillar, Hitachi, Target, Tropicana, Tyson, and Canadian National Railways.

"Virginia is proud to welcome ORBCOMM’s global headquarters to Virginia," Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a statement. "This decision highlights our commitment to innovation, workforce development, and creating an environment where advanced industries can thrive. We look forward to the economic opportunities and technological leadership ORBCOMM will bring to the Commonwealth."

"As we welcome ORBCOMM's headquarters to Sterling, I wanted to express my sincere gratitude for the significant economic impact this expansion brings to Loudoun County and the Commonwealth," Virginia State Delegate Atoosa R. Reaser said. "The creation of new jobs is a welcome development and will undoubtedly contribute to the prosperity of our community," said Delegate Atoosa R. Reaser.

Montgomery County has failed to attract a single major corporate headquarters in over 25 years. The County, and Maryland as a whole, have forgone massive amounts of potential tax revenue rather than adopt more competitive, business-friendly policies and tax rates. They have also refused to construct a new Potomac River crossing to the Dulles area that has been on the books for decades, which would provide direct access to the only local airport with the frequency of flights and variety of international business destinations that corporate executives demand. Once an economic engine of the Washington, D.C. region, Montgomery County's economy today is moribund, and the County has become a bedroom community for booming job centers elsewhere in the region.

Sangfroid Distilling seeks waivers for distillery in Takoma Park

Sangfroid Distilling's plan to transform a former bank building at 6950 Carroll Avenue in the City of Takoma Park has run up against two snags. First, the old 1927 bank building is situated across lot lines. A building permit cannot be issued until the two lots are consolidated into one, which requires approval of a preliminary plan. Sangfroid is asking the Montgomery County Planning Board for a waiver that would allow approval of a record plat for the new consolidated lot without the approval of a preliminary plan. It is also seeking a waiver to allow the planned addition to the bank building to rise to 35', in an area where the height limit is 30'.

The Planning Board will take up both requests at its meeting tomorrow, July 17, 2025. Planning staff are recommending approval of both waivers. Their report indicates that they have received no public correspondence in favor of, or in opposition to, the waivers requested.