Developers continue to realize the importance of the relationship between retail and residential real estate.
Bavar Properties Group, with offices in Timonium, has broken ground on The Shoppes at Shipley?s Grant, a $10 million retail center in Columbia. The retail center will be at the main entrance to the Shipley?s Grant residential community under development by Bozzuto Homes.
“We?re seeing more and more retail and residential mixed-use developments,” said Robert Bavar, vice president of Bavar Properties. “Especially in mature areas like the Baltimore metropolitan area, you have to be creative with the land that?s available.”
The Shoppes at Shipley?s Grant is immediately west of the Snowden River Parkway/Route 108 intersection, next to the Route 100 interchange. The retail center will contain 24,400 square feet of retail space and a free-standing bank pad site.
Stores will be available from 1,500 to 6,000 square feet of space. Starbucks and Cold Stone Creamery have signed on as tenants, and there are several other business looking to lease space in the center, Bavar said.
The center is large enough to hold 12 to 20 businesses, Bavar added. The project is scheduled to be completed by spring of 2008.
Architects have planned The Shoppes at Shipley?s Grant to resemble Ellicott City, with multi-colored brick buildings that will feature several different roof styles.
Shipley?s Grant will ultimately have 316 town houses and 80 condominiums on 58 acres of mixed-use development. The development is expected to be completed in about five years.
The development includes a pool, a club house andwalking trails. All residents will be about a five-minute walk from the retail center, said Mary Ann Voight, vice president of corporate marketing for Bozzuto Homes.
“The goal is to have a nice, pedestrian living environment in the suburban area,” Voight said.
