Commons Retail Section Could Be Demolished

The three-story, mostly empty retail section of Towson Commons may be demolished to make way for a hotel or another project that would include new stores meant to resurrect retail along York Road in the heart of the Baltimore County seat.

As the retail-and-office complex, saddled with nearly $59 million in debt, heads to foreclosure auction Sept. 21, county economic development officials say they're hopeful a new owner will lead a long-sought rebound.

That could well mean taking the wrecking ball to the retail section, which includes the outdated, eight-screen AMC Theatres complex and Kyodai Rotating Sushi Bar, but otherwise lies dormant, said Andrea Van Arsdale, commercial revitalization director at the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development.

"There have been a number of ideas for the retail section; most of them call for demolishing the retail section and rebuilding," Van Arsdale said. "Folks have had different ideas for different uses ranging from hotels to retail to other things that would stabilize the building."

But, Van Arsdale added, "There isn't anybody who would envision getting rid of the first-floor retail."

The county's master plan for downtown Towson, which includes the block of empty York Road storefronts at the Commons, calls for "compatible uses" at the complex that could be "retail, hotel or any number of other kinds of family-friendly, walkable projects that would attract people to a lively downtown," said Fronda Cohen, a spokeswoman for the county's Department of Economic Development.

Retail analysts, county officials and some local business owners say Towson Commons fell victim to the recession and, even more than that, competition for moviegoers and shoppers from pedestrian-friendly projects like The Avenue at White Marsh and, later, Hunt Valley Towne Center, both with thriving shops, stadium-style seating at theaters and acres of free parking.

"Competition has been fierce, and then we've had at the same time the deepest recession in at least three decades and, correspondingly, supply is high and demand is low," said economist Anirban Basu, who leads the Baltimore-based Sage Policy Group Inc. "And in that type of environment, there will be developments that do not survive in their current form."

In its July foreclosure filing, Towson Commons' lender, Capmark Finance Inc. of New York, said the project's owner, Washington-based Western Development Corp., owed $58.7 million on $67 million in loans. The foreclosure auction includes the Commons' 10-story office tower as well as its 880-space paid parking garage and a four-story office building on Chesapeake Avenue.

Officials at Western Development did not return calls seeking comment.

The company bought the property in 2005, hoping to revitalize it with a $30 million plan to overhaul retail and bring in a hotel or a high-rise residences.

"But then redevelopment plan ran head-on into the recession," said David Iannucci, executive director of the Department of Economic Development.

At the time, the Commons was already struggling with high vacancies and the loss of its retail anchor, Borders Books and Music, which moved to Timonium in July 2005 after a previous owner decided against re-leasing the bookseller space.

Iannucci said the prospect of a new Towson Commons owner rekindles hopes for a critical piece of downtown Towson: vibrant retail along York Road between Pennsylvania and Chesapeake avenues.

The Commons' 10-story office tower, even during the worst of the recession, has enjoyed healthy occupancy rates, Iannucci pointed out, and the heart of Towson is, by many measures, thriving, making it appealing to potential Commons buyers.

Within the past year, Iannucci said, three upscale apartment complexes with a total of 1,400 units have been completed in downtown Towson, and the planned redevelopment of the Investment Building will convert space that had been vacant for nine years into a $27 million office tower where 600 people will work.  The entertainment complex Towson Circle III, meantime, though stalled by the flat economy and unresolved parking issues, is expected to add nearly 121,000 square feet of retail, theaters with 2,250 stadium-style seats and a public parking garage with hundreds of spaces in a more pedestrian-friendly downtown Towson.

 "The picture overall is more people are moving to Towson, more people are working in Towson and now Towson Circle III is coming," Iannucci said. "And then we got Towson Commons located in the middle of it all, pretty well-situated to take advantage of that growth."