As workers prepare to raze a 63-year-old Prince Frederick school building, Calvert County officials are mulling over the future of the tract on northbound Route 2/4. A consultant’s report indicates the county is kissing off a substantial amount of sales tax revenue and ceding jobs in the retail business to other counties with the absence of major, non-food related retail.
During their final meeting of 2011, the Calvert County Commissioners voted unanimously to award a $252,221 contract to Sun Demolition LLC of Beltsville for the demolition of the old Calvert Middle School. Following that decision, the board gave its unanimous approval to spending $55,167 from the Commissioners Contingency and an additional $12,600 from the Department of Economic Development’s budget to modify its pact with Fore Consulting.
According to Department of Economic Development Director Linda Vassallo, Fore Consulting was initially hired “to develop criteria to evaluate the proposals submitted to develop the old Calvert Middle School property, conduct market research, interface with developers and provide insight on potential development.”
Fore’s analysis, which has since been posted on the Calvert County Government’s web site, stated, “a substantial share of retail spending by county residents, on a net basis, is ‘lost,’ that is, occurring outside Calvert County.”
The consultant identifies the biggest loser categories as: clothing (91 percent), furniture and home furnishings (85 percent), sporting goods, hobby, book and musical instruments (85 percent), and building materials and garden equipment stores (72.7 percent).
The consultant estimated $460.7 million in retail sales was lost in 2011 while during the same period the county lost nearly $2 million in sales tax revenue. An estimated 2,553 retail jobs are lost to other jurisdictions due to Calvert’s dearth of retail, the consultant concluded. Fore also estimated an “unmet demand for approximately 1.6 million square feet of retail space” in Calvert.
Fore used data compiled by Nielson, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Maryland Comptroller’s Office to craft its analysis.
Commissioner Evan K. Slaughenhoupt Jr. stated the analysis “is worth additional expense.”
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