New look planned for ailing retail center

Shops to be converted into office space under redevelopment plan

Howard Business

The retail center at Dorsey Business Park stands out in its neighborhood.

Surrounded by six large and towering office buildings, the flat, single-story retail center looks like a fish out of water. These days, it appears about as healthy as one.

Although its largest tenant, Body Factory fitness center, which takes up nearly two-thirds of the center, seems as strong as its well-muscled members inside, three of the seven parcels in the retail center are vacant shells visible from the street. Only one other space, a carry-out restaurant on the end opposite the fitness center, draws a lunchtime crowd.

But within a year, that picture of the shopping center will change - along with its name.

The building, recently purchased by SK Dorsey LLC for $1.7 million, will be converted from a shopping center into higher-rent office space under the name Dorsey Commons.

The redevelopment is an effort to revitalize the property, which has suffered since the opening of Route 100 a few years ago, said Owen J. Rouse Jr., director of investment services for Manekin LLC. But it also is an example of how real estate is being revitalized in Howard County as markets shift and buildings age.

Some say the remaking of buildings is likely to increase.

"What's happening in the market is we're dealing with land constraints," said Allan Riorda, a principal at KLNB Inc. in Columbia. "Right now, one-story office space is in very big demand. Developers are looking for re-use of existing facilities because there's not a lot of land."

Several pieces of real estate in the Columbia area have undergone changes in the past few years.

The land at Columbia's Town Center on which the Rusty Scupper restaurant stood is being redeveloped into a six-story office complex. A warehouse in Gateway Office Park that produced washing machines was revamped as the Renaissance Building and holds the high-tech businesses for which the park was designed. And another older office building - Rouse Co.'s former headquarters on Route 108 - is now a flashy, redeveloped Columbia Technology Campus, with a new shell, tinted windows, more parking and T-1 lines for fast Internet access.

"It's getting rid of functional obsolescence with a creative mind," said Edward Ely, vice president and director of land sales and marketing for the Rouse Co. He said that the older Columbia gets, the more likely it is that certain buildings - particularly warehouses surrounded by office or flex space - will be converted for a different use.

"You'll see scattered examples of it," he said.

Dorsey Commons will be such an example. Repossessed in the late 1990s from its previous owner, the building was full of tenants with a flow of customers that slowly dwindled, Rouse said. The fitness center, the restaurant and Shea's Pub were the draws that helped along smaller businesses like a dry cleaner and a chiropractor.

But in the past year, the pub went out of business, followed shortly by the dry cleaner, Rouse said. The chiropractor left for larger space, and the passing traffic that used to generate sales had been cut down by the opening of a new road to Baltimore-Washington International Airport - Route 100.

"When Route 100 came in, it changed the road patterns," Rouse said. "The center serviced the park as well as passers-by, and when Route 100 came in, it sort of died on the vine."

With little pass-by traffic and low visibility, the property became less attractive as retail space. Leasing agents say the building will fetch higher rents as office space. Columbia-based Manekin will lease and manage the redeveloped property.

The plans call for gutting the space, placing windows and doors along the rear, raising new signs and sprucing up the property with improved landscaping. In the first phase, construction will take place between the gym and carryout, which are on either end of the property.

The last phase of the project will involve refurbishing those spaces and expanding the building by up to 10,000 square feet for a tenant such as a bank or credit union. All of the current tenants will eventually be displaced, and the building will be able to house up to six new tenants, Rouse said.

Construction on the center space is scheduled to begin as soon as permits are issued. The improvements are expected to cost about $650,000 and will proceed only as quickly as new tenants are found. Estimates are not available on the cost of the expansion.