PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. – On Thursday, May 16, 2024, the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners, Generation Properties, and MCB Real Estate representatives held a groundbreaking ceremony for the upcoming Armory Square retail development project.
The nearly 13-acre site, which was the former home of Calvert Middle School and Calvert Senior High School, will feature an ALDI, Ace Hardware, Dash-In, Michael’s, Jersey Mike’s, First Watch, Hangry Joe’s, and more.
“This new development will not only transform our landscape but will also enrich our daily lives,” said Julie Oberg, the Director of Economic Development in Calvert County.
“Armory Square is slated to bring a $40 million investment with 110,000 sq. ft. of new retail space, approximately 300 jobs, and approximately $300,000 in tax revenue annually.”
Oberg also revealed that there will be a complimentary use across the street from the development where the county will build an open-air, multi-use armory pavilion “which will serve as a wonderful community gathering place for a variety of events and activities.”
Charles “Rick” Bailey, Jr. of Generations Properties, and Principal of MCB Real Estate Drew Gorman went over the exhaustive 10-plus years it took to make this project a reality.
“To get here, it takes a lot of time and issues. There’s other people that are associated with it too like my wife. She’s instrumental, she supports me. I hate to be emotional, but it’s true. She listens to my frustrations and there’s been frustrations believe me,” said Bailey.
“Rick likes to talk about this as a groundbreaking which sounds like the beginning, but it really is the end of a project. You’ve heard how long this has gone on. That is because of the amount of time, effort, and the persistence it takes to kind of balance the approval process, the tenant requirements, and those are always ever-changing, and anything else that might come in your way such as a global pandemic,” said Gorman.
“It’s a complex and unusual process, and it takes a lot of dedication, a lot of talent, and it’s not here it’s not this talent. It’s planners, lawyers, designers, and architects, all working with the county officials and the staff to make something like this happen.”
After a long grueling road, the project finally broke ground as the Commissioners and leaders of the project grabbed a hard hat and a shovel and took the first scoop of dirt on this exciting new venture.
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This is ridiculous. They need to fill the vacant existing strip malls with these businesses, not build yet ANOTHER strip mall and add 2 more lights to this over-signaled traffic nightmare of a town. This site should’ve been left alone. Gridlock in Prince Frederick is getting as bad as Waldorf. Great job BOCC & Economic Development. We’ll have more vacant storefronts in 5 years…
Get over it. There is traffic congestion everywhere. The people of this county have been misserved for years. And what else do you expect Republican commissioners to do but keep their hands in other peoples pockets to grab other peoples money. You get what you vote for.
Congratulations on adding more traffic congestion and creating low income jobs, Good job outstanding!
A missed opportunity, the county should be getting a Home Depot or Lowes instead of over priced Ace Hardware, folks will still have to travel to neighboring counties for home improvement projects
Just order from Amazon
Thanks Lusbys Hardware for that one.
This is what, those old county name, commissioners do, rubber stamp everything in the name of increased tax revenue. The grift must continue don’t you know? More retail blight on the way. More gas wasted sitting in traffic. So much for the walk-able town center proclamations of past campaigns. Don’t forget, it was Rick Bailey that the county sold the lot that the animal shelter sits on, then Bailey sold the lot back to the county for a handsome profit, then the county paid him over $6 million dollars to build that shelter. It’s all smoke and mirrors. Truly a good-ole-boy scratch your back scratch my back, back room dealing county. The people’s needs be damned.
More please! As a transplant from PG, this county is severely lacking in food options!
Shantelle, I agree! A Trader Joes would be great too!
Thank goodness; finally something for the people of this county. But one might ask: How do the seniors that live behind the Safeway or whatever its name is: Albertson ( but we don’t want anyone to know that?) supposed to get across Rt4 to enjoy this new center. And stop with the traffic thing. You can’t go anywhere in southern MD and not run into traffic congestion. Up to county to start building side roads that ease the traffic so locals can get around. but that kind of advanced planning never comes from republicans. You get what you vote for and this county is so red advance planning will never happen.
And finally something that is not a “Sports Thing”. Hopefully someone around this county might understand that not all kids are into sports
So much for keeping congestion down through Prince Frederick. The signal timing is already bad enough and now you are adding more signals to the mix. No thanks. I will go around from now on. Getting through there in the afternoon is already bad enough with traffic backed up from Old Field Ln to Plum Point Rd daily. Pretty sure this will make it worse. Feel like Waldorf traffic is better now, who would have thought.
Great, just what we need in Prince Frederick is more buildings the are going to be empty in 5 to 10 years. Not to mention more traffic lights.