Long Reach Village Center To Sell For $3.4M: Howard County

COLUMBIA, MD - The Long Reach Village Center, which has been in need of redevelopment, will officially change hands.

County Executive Allan Kittleman announced on Monday that Orchard Development has reached an agreement to purchase the aging village center from Howard County.

Orchard Development will buy the 7.7-acre property for $3.4 million in an agreement that Kittleman signed on Monday, according to a statement from the county.

The previous administration arranged for Howard County to purchase the village center in 2014 for $5 million.

Since the county took over the shopping center, it gathered community input through a variety of public meetings. Then a plan called "Re-Imagine Long Reach Village Center" came into being, and after developers provided their visions, a process was in place through which the community helped vet the proposals.

Orchard Development proposed the following for redeveloping the Long Reach Village Center:

• Village green
• Community space with pavilion
• 37,500 square feet of retail space
• 17,500 square feet of medical office space
• 20,000-square-foot food incubator
• 19,500-square-foot vertical garden
• 132 units of market-rate multifamily housing
• 120 units of senior multifamily housing
• 52 townhouses
• Parking for 960 vehicles

"This plan is innovative, economically sustainable and encompasses key components requested during the Re-Imagine Long Reach process,” Kittleman said.

"Orchard’s proposal was the hands-down favorite of the selection committee and was unanimously supported by the Planning Board," Kittleman said. “...I expect residents will be thrilled when the project is completed.”

• Process of Long Reach Village Center Redevelopment Begins
• Long Reach Village Center Enters Next Phase, Under County Ownership
• County’s Long Reach Development Plans ‘Unique’

Orchard officials presented their plans to the community in May, according to a statement from the county.

The concept encompasses "great community amenities like the amphitheater, village green and dog park," Chair of the Long Reach Village Board Nina Basu said in a statement. "We are especially excited to be a catalyst for reimagining space in an environmentally beneficial and cutting-edge way through the innovative vertical farm included in the plan."

While the purchase agreement was signed on Monday, the closing process take could some time, county officials said. Before construction can begin, zoning approval and the village center community planning process, which involves two community meetings, are required.

According to the county, Orchard plans for the first buildings of the redeveloped village center to be completed in 2020.

Pictured, Kittleman provided an update on the Long Reach revitalization effort recently during Long Reach High School's back to school night. The new features proposed for the center included the following, he said:

• Pavilion with food market (think Belvedere Square in in Baltimore) with medical office space on top
  
• Day care center
  
• Retail space
  
• Incubator for food-oriented entrepreneurs with space for processing products, micro storefronts to showcase them and a center to train students in solar, energy-efficiency and agricultural tech sectors
  
• Vertical garden with hydroponic growing system to provide year-round local community food source
  

Photo courtesy of Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman.