Perfumania returns, new Champs store under construction at Wheaton Plaza (Photos)

Perfumania has reopened at Wheaton Plaza, and Champs is open in a temporary location as their new store is built out on Level 2. Find the pop-up Champs on the lower level next to Kids Foot Locker, near Target.

Temporary Champs location

Perfumania

Wheaton construction update: Bar Louie (Photos)

Bar Louie is rumored to be opening very soon at Wheaton Plaza. It will be in the new structure with the AMC Theatres Wheaton 9 cineplex and - most eagerly awaited - Olive Garden. They're still hiring for Bar Louie, and some recruitment materials are out at the mall.

As you can see, the Tyvek that was on the front facade in my last update has been removed. You'll also notice fencing (presumably for outdoor dining) has been erected around the restaurant and bar.

Wheaton construction update: AVA Wheaton apartments (Photos)

They're still digging at the future site of Avalon Bay's AVA Wheaton apartments at 2425 Blueridge Avenue at Georgia Avenue. As you can see, some sheeting and shoring work has been done. There's even a little staircase in one of the lowest areas.

The 319-unit apartment building with no retail is expected to deliver in 2017.

Wheaton Lot 13 parking mitigation won't meet peak demand on Fridays, Saturdays (Photos)

A parking mitigation plan for the construction period of the Lot 13 project in Wheaton won't provide enough short-term parking to meet demand on weekends, a Montgomery County Department of Transportation presentation shows. While weekday mid-day demand will be amply met, at the peak demand times on Friday evenings and mid-day on Saturdays, there will not be enough short-term spaces.

The blue column is demand,
the green/white column is
space availability

The overall strategy is to convert nearby long-term parking to short-term spaces, to both provide parking for patrons of businesses, and to discourage construction-related parkers from filling those spaces.

One other questionable strategy appears to show on-street parking being created in the right, northbound lane of Georgia Avenue - at the height of the evening rush hour on Fridays. Are you kidding me? What is the already-jammed traffic there going to be like with one lane gone?

Images courtesy MCDOT

Leggett rules out Carver, Westmore bus depot sites - but not Blair Ewing or 6001 Olney-Laytonsville Road

Residents in Lincoln Park and around the Carver Educational Services Center in Rockville are celebrating the success of their efforts to stop Montgomery County from relocating the Shady Grove school bus depot to their neighborhoods. County Executive Ike Leggett sent a memo to County Council President Nancy Floreen yesterday announcing he is withdrawing the current Declaration of No Further Need for the existing depot on Crabbs Branch Way, and is removing Carver and 1000 Westmore Avenue from the list of potential depot sites.

While neighbors of 1000 Westmore won't likely complain, the County did end up blowing $12,000,000 on its purchase of the Westmore site in what it claimed was a budget time so tight that taxes were raised to the highest level in County history last month.

The Crabbs Branch depot was to be vacated in 2017, and sold to a developer who would build townhomes and apartments on the site near Shady Grove Metro station.

But the letter makes clear that this so-called "Smart Growth Initiative" is not over. Leggett states that he is having his staff find more suitable locations than Carver or Westmore.

The problem, of course, is that every potential depot site also has residents nearby.

You'll notice that, despite fierce community opposition, Leggett pointedly did not remove the Blair Ewing Center from the potential depot sites in his memo.

And another bad choice, the Oaks Landfill at 6001 Olney-Laytonsville Road, is one councilmembers like Hans Riemer explicitly stated they want to have a public discussion about. There are several residential subdvisions right around the site, and homes directly across the road from it. 410 buses would honk their horns and test their backup beepers each morning at 6:00 AM.

The only other site given serious public consideration last year was a property near the intersection of Woodfield Road and Snouffer School Road, also near homes.

Houses directly across
from 6001 Olney Laytonsville Road

Much of Rockville is now off the hook in this crazy, developer-fueled crusade - but the battle is just starting at these, and potentially other, poor choices for the depot site around the County. Residents near those locations are waking up to find the MoCo political cartel is headed their way.

Silver Spring construction update: Core (Photos)

Core, a 292-apartment mixed-use project from Foulger-Pratt and Willco at 8621 Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring, is now rising significantly above ground level. The development has a projected walk score of 95, with its proximity to so many jobs, amenities, restaurants, nightspots and transit in the downtown area.

A new Rite-Aid just opened on the next block, speaking of convenience. The 16-story building will also house about 1500 SF of its own retail/restaurant space.

Businesspeople on MoCo Council's quest for $15 minimum wage: "That's a lot of extra Slurpees to sell"

Small business owners already struggling to profit in the moribund Montgomery County economy told the County Council last night that things will go from bad to worse if the minimum wage is hiked to $15. A bill to do just that, and tie future increases to inflation, is now on the table. Surrounding counties and Virginia do not have a minimum wage that steep.

$15? "That's a lot of extra Slurpees to sell," said Peter Gragnano of the Suburban Washington Franchise Owners Association. The hike could make a bad labor market for African-American youth in the County even worse, warned small business owner Stacey Brown. A 2015 survey I reported on showed that in Montgomery County, only 8.7% of black high school students surveyed are employed, and only 30.7% of black high school dropouts have been able to obtain employment.

Montgomery County's young black high school graduates are also being hard hit, with only 39.7% of those surveyed currently employed.

Attaching the minimum wage to inflation - which the bill would do beginning in 2021 - would also be a bad idea, another businessman testified. If inflation spiked as it did in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he predicted, "there won't be a way to wash a dish in a restaurant." Since the last minimum wage hike, touchscreen ordering kiosks have appeared in some County fast food restaurants, replacing cashiers.

Last night's testimony was enlightening in providing some more hard numbers on Montgomery County's floundering private sector economy. According to Maddy Voytek of the Maryland Retailers Association, Montgomery County has lost 2141 retail jobs since the turn of the century (around the same time the core members of this current Council were first elected). She said adoption of the $15 wage would "devastate our economy."

Montgomery County's restaurant sector has "slowed since 2012, and remains flat," reported Melvin Thompson of the Restaurant Association of Maryland. But things are tough all over, as County Council apologists like to tell us, right?

Wrong! Frederick County's dining sector grew by 5.4% in 2015 alone, Thompson said. How about our arch-rival Fairfax County, where Councilmember George Leventhal says he has to go to find a really good restaurant, because there aren't any in MoCo? The dining sector in Fairfax grew by 6% during that same year.

As wages go up, one person familiar with industry statistics testified, Montgomery County residents are being shut out of jobs here as Frederick and Carroll County workers seek our higher wages. They then take that money back to those jurisdictions, where they enjoy a far-lower cost of living, he said. Those counties then enjoy the tax and spending money benefits of Montgomery County retail and restaurant jobs, while putting more cars on our roads during rush hour.

Ilaya Hopkins, VP of public affairs for the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, said there are several problems with the proposed increase. First, it provides a "one-size-fits-all" solution to a diverse economy and labor market. Second, the potential impacts haven't been fully studied. And third, it further handicaps Montgomery County in its competition with other local jurisdictions where it is cheaper to start and operate a business.

The failure of the County's Nighttime Economy Initiative, after which there are fewer nightclubs in Bethesda than before it was implemented, is only one challenge for restaurant and bar owners. A previous wage hike, multiple new regulations and fee hikes, and a costly County liquor sales monopoly already make doing business in the hospitality sector here more challenging than in Northern Virginia.