Oak Barrel & Vine sets opening date in Wheaton

Oak Barrel & Vine will open its newest location in Wheaton on Thursday, September 25, 2025. The Montgomery County Government-owned liquor store is inside of Westfield's Wheaton Plaza mall at 11160 Veirs Mill Road. Look for it on Level 2 of the mall in the Costco wing, across from Nando's Peri-Peri.

The Oak Barrel & Vine store concept features a large tasting room and event space, a handpicked selection of items with an emphasis on locally-produced products, an improved selection of small format items, a dedicated non-alcoholic products section, queue lines for faster checkout, wayfinding signage, and "enhanced customer accessibility." This new format is designed to rebrand the County's government liquor sales monopoly through the aesthetics of private retail businesses like Total Wine & More, which are banned from operating in Montgomery County.

Purple Line construction update near Silver Spring Library (Video + Photos)

Here's look at the progress during August on the Purple Line light rail system in the area around the Silver Spring Library in downtown Silver Spring. You can see the library station continuing to take shape. Things are still pretty rough at the intersection of Fenton Street and Wayne Avenue. And businesses continue to take it on the chin during this wildly-behind-schedule infrastructure project.

Human BioSciences fleeing Montgomery County for West Virginia

The hits just keep on coming for Montgomery County. Its moribund economy took another cannonball to the gut yesterday. Human BioSciences announced it will be the latest company to move its corporate headquarters out of Montgomery County to a lower-tax jurisdiction in the region. It will move its current HQ from 940 Clopper Road in Gaithersburg to wild, wonderful West Virginia. 

The blow is an especially painful one for the County, as the biotech industry is the only bright spot in MoCo's private sector economy. According to the Maryland Department of Labor, all Human BioSciences employees are being offered positions at the new West Virginia facility, meaning that the taxable revenue of any MoCo residents leaving with the company will also be lost to the County's coffers.

It says quite a bit about the state of business in Montgomery County and Maryland that a biotech firm would leave. Remember, the County and State both provide financial incentives and tax breaks to the biotech sector, decisions made decades ago by smarter leaders that allowed for the creation of a strong life sciences presence in the I-270 corridor. In recent years, that strength has begun to weaken. It hasn't been helped when you have the state legislature and Governor Wes Moore wallop firms that are immersed in technology with a new 3% tech tax, as of July 1 this year. 

The tech tax is piled on top of the fact that Montgomery County already suffers from the highest tax and fee burden in the region. We've seen the results over this century, as companies like Discovery Communications have fled. Only a week ago, Rocket Money announced it was moving its HQ from Silver Spring to Washington, D.C. 

Meanwhile, Northern Virginia has been cleaning our clock, Hoovering up the corporate HQs of Northrop Grumman, Amazon HQ 2, Nestle, Corporate Executive Board, Hilton Hotels, Lidl, Gerber, Lego, Intelsat, CoStar, Volkswagen, Blackboard, and General Dynamics. This is the direct result of decisions made by failed leaders who have no clue about the world of international business circa 2025. Heckuva job, Brownie!

Another motorcycle theft in the Aspen Hill area

Keep those motorcycles secure in Aspen Hill, as they are still being targeted by thieves. The latest bike to be nabbed was parked in the 15000 block of Shamrock Ridge Road. It was stolen sometime between 10:00 PM on August 28, 2025, and 6:00 AM the next morning. Montgomery County police have not released a suspect description. 

Prime Beer & Wine burglarized in Silver Spring

Montgomery County police responded to a report of a burglary at Prime Beer & Wine at 12841 New Hampshire Avenue at the Meadowood Shopping Center in Silver Spring in the early morning hours of August 27, 2025. Officers arriving at the scene found evidence of forced entry at the store. They determined that money and merchandise had been stolen from the business.

Police describe the suspects only as two males, one Black, and the other of unspecified race. If you have any information about this incident, or can identify either of the suspects, call police at (301) 279-8000.

Another 17-year-old killed in Long Branch; 2 suspects in custody

Juan Carlos Gutierrez-Hernandez

A shocking series of events this past weekend in the Long Branch area of Silver Spring has left a second 17-year-old dead in as many months in that neighborhood. Montgomery County police detectives even suspect that the two shootings may be related. Last Friday night, September 5, 2025, around 9:46 PM, several people called 911 to report the sound of gunfire in the 700 block of Langley Drive. One person also dialed 911 to report that he had been shot inside Long Branch Local Park.

County police and Maryland National-Capital Park Police converged on the park, and found two males suffering from gunshot wounds. Charly Blayner Vail Lucas, 17, of Silver Spring, tragically was pronounced dead at the scene. A 21-year-old man was transported to a local hospital, where police say he remains in critical condition at this time. 

Jhony Steve Rosales Castillo

Jhony Steve Rosales Castillo, 20, and Juan Carlos Gutierrez-Hernandez, 18, both of Silver Spring, were arrested a short time later. They were each charged with two counts of first-degree murder of a minor victim, one count of attempted first-degree murder, and two counts of possession of a firearm under the age of 21. Initially, a judge ordered both of them held without bond. Detectives say the evidence they've collected connects both suspects to both fatal Long Branch shootings.

Downtown Silver Spring retail building for sale

A retail building on heavily-traveled Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring is now on the market for sale. 8415-8425 Georgia Avenue is a 7,842 SF building with four tenants. One second floor unit with a kitchen is available for lease. The asking price for the building is $2.5 million, according to the online sale listing. Bethesda-based AMR Commercial, LLC is the broker.

Photos courtesy AMR Commercial, LLC

Little progress seen at promised Fuddruckers at Downtown Silver Spring

Fuddruckers fans are rightfully frustrated at the interminable wait for the return of Fuddruckers at Downtown Silver Spring. There is little sign of progress on the construction at the hamburger restaurant, which is located at 819 Ellsworth Drive. It's been over a year since the chain announced its intention to return to this previously-shuttered location. As far back as February of this year, patrons of The Fillmore concert venue were even being directed by signage to dine at this Fuddruckers after the show, which provided quite a chuckle for those in the know of its actual status.

Marathon Deli & Grill "coming soon" to Kensington

Marathon Deli & Grill has posted more "coming soon" signage over the windows of its future location at 10619 Connecticut Avenue, at the Crossroads of Kensington shopping center. This is also a "sign" that the interior fit-out of the deli is now underway. The Greek deli is well known for its College Park location, very close to the University of Maryland campus. The Kensington location will be a new-construction and more-upscale setting.

Rocket Money to flee Montgomery County for Washington, D.C.

The latest economic development defeat for Montgomery County is coming to us from one of the hardest-hit places in MoCo's revenue exodus, downtown Silver Spring. Rocket Money, a fintech startup located at 8455 Colesville Road, is nearing a deal to relocate its headquarters to Washington, D.C., according to a report in the Washington Business Journal. The new Rocket Money HQ is expected to be located in a recently-constructed office building at 1701 Rhode Island Avenue NW. Last home to a WeWork location, the building boasts "a unique facade constructed of pre-aged copper shingles, individually hand treated by an artisan in Italy," in the words of its architectural design firm Hickok Cole.

Silver Spring already sustained one of the biggest body blows to the Montgomery County economy in history, when one of the County's few remaining Fortune 500 companies, Discovery Communications, moved its headquarters to dual facilities in New York City and Tennessee. Infamously, Discovery's suitors quietly closed the deal while the Montgomery County Council was debating a ban on circus animals. The ban passed, but so did the opportunity to retain Discovery.

Of course, Rocket Money is not a Fortune 500 company, and has far fewer employees than Discovery. But it is a prominent fintech in the region, with significant future potential. Its parent company, Rocket Companies, has made the Fortune 500 in the past, but is currently off the list at #619 as of June. Montgomery County hasn't attracted a single new major corporate HQ in over a quarter-century.

Once again, Montgomery County's highest-in-the-region tax and fee burden has bitten the County in the [pocketbook]. Another recent and devastating blow is the new Maryland "tech tax," a 3% levy on all IT services in the state that was championed to passage by Governor Wes Moore, before he left for an Italian vacation at the lake villa of George Clooney. Imagine what that tax would add up to annually for a tech firm like Rocket Money! And that's on top of that already biggest tax burden, courtesy of the County Council and Maryland General Assembly. What company in their right mind would not move if they could? Heckuva job, Brownie!

Bete Ethiopian Cuisine & Cafe closes in Silver Spring

Bete Ethiopian Cuisine & Cafe at 811 Roeder Road in downtown Silver Spring has closed, according to a sign in the window. Known for its cozy dining space that was more like eating at someone's home than at a commercial restaurant, Bete Ethiopian had a very successful 16-year run in a very tough dining market and business environment. Fortunately, Silver Spring has a number of Ethiopian restaurants remaining, perhaps the most in Montgomery County. Two were recognized as among the best in the D.C. area earlier this year by The Washington Post's Tom Sietsema.

Gas pumps installed at Royal Farms in Montgomery Hills

Gas pumps have been installed at the future Royal Farms in Montgomery Hills. The convenience store and mega gas station continues to take shape at 9475 Georgia Avenue, very close to the Capital Beltway interchange. Not much progress has been made on the convenience store building, by contrast. The regional chain has not given a target opening date for this location yet, but I do not see any job listings for it on their website as of this writing, so we'd be lucky if this store opens by late 2025 based on the current state of construction.

Chick-fil-A at Downtown Silver Spring on Labor Day hours

The Chick-fil-A at 821 Ellsworth Drive at Downtown Silver Spring will be operating on special Labor Day hours today, September 1, 2025. No breakfast will be served today. It looks like dinner is out of the question, as well. Operating hours for today's holiday will be 10:30 AM to 4:00 PM.

Italian Kitchen closes in Silver Spring

Italian Kitchen at 8201 Fenton Street in downtown Silver Spring was closed during business hours last evening. The closure is permanent, according to Google. A family-owned restaurant, Italian Kitchen opened in 2015, exactly a decade ago. Signage is still up, and there is still furniture in the dining room, but most of the windows are covered.

Strong-arm robbery in downtown Silver Spring

Montgomery County police responded to a report of a strong-arm robbery in downtown Silver Spring Thursday night, August 28, 2025. The robbery was reported in the 8400 block of Colesville Road at 8:07 PM. It took place along the street.