A national chain grocery store will be the first tenant of a new shopping center on Route 235 in California. A representative of the developer of Oak Crest Center told the St. Mary’s County Planning Commission Monday night that an ALDI food store will locate in the center. The closest Aldi is in Brandywine.
According to their website, ALDI’s first store opened in 1976 and they now have more than 1,200 locations in 32 states from Kansas to the East Coast.
The shopping center is also called Lexington Crossing on some documents. Chris Longmore, an attorney representing the Baltimore-based developer St. John Properties, said a decision had not been made as to which name will identify the shopping center. It is located across from the Wildewood Boulevard entrance to the Wildewood Shopping Center and adjacent to a Chaney concrete plant.
Work is underway in front of the new center for acceleration and deceleration lanes. The 146.4 acre property is oddly configured, with only 590-feet of Three Notch Road (Route 235) frontage. The plan calls for three pad sites in the front, a larger commercial space behind that and office buildings to the rear of the property.
Andrew Roud, St. John Property’s vice president for land use, told the planning commission that the ALDI will be located on one of the pad sites that had originally been planned for restaurants.
The announcement of the first tenant was made during a discussion of a proposed free standing sign on Route 235 that will announce the center and its occupants. The developer had originally requested a 43-foot tall sign but planning staff recommended a 30-foot sign instead, and the developer acceded to the staff’s wishes.
Staff felt the 30-foot height similar to what is at First Colony would better suit that stretch of road. The Wildewood Shopping Center sign is 37-feet tall. The developer sought the taller sign because of the odd configuration of the property to help identify businesses to the rear. But planning commission member Merl Evans noted that defense contractors which would likely inhabit the office buildings weren’t all that interested in touting their location.
The planners unanimously approved the 30-foot sign height limit with a maximum of 215 square feet.
The ALDI store will only make up 16,000 square feet of the almost one million square feet planned for the center/. A large home improvement store is also planned for the site.
According to the ALDI website, “These stores carry about 1,400 regularly stocked items, from
