Rockville is going to get a Wegmans.
Developer B.F. Saul announced Tuesday it signed a lease with the popular Rochester, New York-based grocer to open an anchor grocery store at its Twinbrook Quarter project near the Twinbrook Metro station. The store will be at the corner of Halpine Road and Rockville Pike. The short announcement did not include a timeline for when the store may open. The store was the first retailer announced by B.F. Saul as part of the project, which the company says will include other retail, dining and entertainment tenants designed to make the project a “new destination.” The developer has not begun construction, although the Rockville City Council voted last week to give the project “champion” status, which enables it to house a retail tenant of up to 100,000 square feet along Rockville Pike. “We are looking forward to continuing our work with the City of Rockville, our neighboring communities and Wegmans to make Twinbrook Quarter a new amenity-rich community for decades to come,” the developer wrote in the announcement. The new Wegmans will be the first one in the southern portion of Montgomery County. Another Wegmans is off of Seneca Meadows Parkway in Germantown.
The plan for Twinbrook Quarter calls for a mixed-use development with up to 1,865 residential units, 431,000 square feet of office space, 472,900 square feet of retail use and 9,000 square feet of entertainment venue, according to Rockville planning documents. The Rockville City Council has not approved the project plan and is scheduled to hold a briefing about it April 30, then later schedule a public hearing on the plan. The developer has previously presented plans that call for 10 mixed-use buildings at the properties that range from 1500 to 1616 Rockville Pike and are now home to businesses such as Party City, CVS and Sheffield Furniture.
An attorney for the developer wrote in a document submitted to the City of Rockville in January that “Building 1 is intended as a feature building; proudly situated at the corner of Rockville Pike and Halpine Road it will act as an architectural gateway to not only the project, but to the Twinbrook Metro station and Rockville … . The ground floor will include a large anchor tenant as well as several smaller retailers and restaurant uses with outdoor dining.” The building will also include an office tower, residential units and an upper level deck with “terraced and landscaped areas for residents and office workers,” according to the document submitted to the city.