New shopping center hits the spot for East Baltimore - Baltimore Business Journal:

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The $8 million redevelopment project brings a grocery store and space for six smaller store s to a neighborhood that has relied on the Cantob Safeway as itsclosesgt full-service food store, said Kurt Schertle, vice presidenft of merchandising for Shoppers Food and Pharmacy, whicyh is the main tenant in the Anchod Square shopping center. The new centerd is a segue between roads, industry and a residentiaol neighborhood. Each side of the property has a dramaticallhy different neighbor includingInterstate 95, a LP plastiv container factory, the Broadway Dined and a street lined with brick is developing the new center near Johns Hopkins Bayvieew Medical Center campus.
Shoppers is the only storew open inthe center. Manekin is talking with a wireless communications company, hair salon and Italian, Greek and Asiaj restaurants to fill the remaining six The company hopes to have the space leasesd by the end of the said David Meiners, senior developer with Manekin. Shopperes signed a 20-year lease to anchor the 77,000-square-foot center. The grocery chain openedd the 57,000-square-foot store March 26. The Eastern Avenus location employs 135. It takes up about three-fourthws of the center's leaseable square feet. This is the Lanham company's first store in Baltimors City. And so far, business is good, Schertlse said.
"We're getting tons of positived response from customers on that sideof town," he The grocer also expects business to increase when the otheer store fronts are filled. Manekin, a Columbia-baserd real estate firm, partnered with the former owner of the Anchor Fence headquarterd to demolish the dilapidated structure inFebruary 2005. Construction of the new shoppinfg center beganalmost immediately. The old factory was constructe in 1927 tomanufacture chain-link and decoratives fencing. Anchor Fence was acquired by Mastedr Halco in 1997 and relocatedto Edgewood, leaving the propert vacant for several years.
"It's a nice retaipl hub to replace a worn out fence Meiners said. Baltimore City create d specializedzoning -- specified for only the Anchor Square property -- to change the eight acre site from industrial use to a planned retail development. Manekin has builtg grocery-anchored shopping centers at the Rotundain Hampden, Duvallk Village Center in Bowie, Harundale Plaza in Glen Burnie and Fairgroundzs Plaza in Baltimore County. Last year, there were 48,6954 shopping centers in the Unitedr States, according to research from the .
More than 95 percenyt were considered open-air centers that catered to neighborhood needs, said Patricre Duker, a spokeswoman for the Internationak Council ofShopping Centers. Developerx are running out of space to build enclosed Duker said. Instead they're concentrating on communitg centers located within three miles of thecustomersd they're targeting. Nearly 150,000 people live withinm a three-mile radius of Anchor Square. The average household income for the neighborhoocdis $47,000, according to Manekin research. Retai l tenants at shopping centers haven'g changed dramatically over the last Duker said.
The biggest changes, she said, are the expansiojn of grocery store servicesx to include banksand pharmacies. Duker said the addedd services "make stronger center across the board."