Shopping Center

HAMPSTEAD -- Despite the low murmur of discontent Monday night, Hampstead's Planning and Zoning Commission voted to approve the proposed Oakmont commercial site on Route 30.The new shopping center will be home to Festival Foods and four shops when the current Super Thrift changes its name and moves across the street."

Continuing its recovery from the retail and real estate slumps, the Rouse Co. yesterday reported sharply higher operating profits for its latest quarter and confirmed that it will start its first major mall project since 1987.Columbia-based Rouse will develop a more than 1-million-square-foot shopping center with four or five department stores in Spartanburg, S.C., said David Tripp, the company's director of investor relations.Rouse will formally announce the project, scheduled to be completed as early as 1996, at its shareholders' meeting tomorrow.

When it comes to construction of a new shopping center, building exactly what is needed looks like a sure winner in Riverside.The planned community's first shopping center, scheduled to open this fall, is 94 percent leased.Paul Gilbert, president of BLC Properties Inc., which developed the $8 million project, credits the shopping center's tenant appeal to its practical approach.He said the 86,500-square-foot strip shopping center, at Riverside Parkway and Route 7, was built to meet the shopping needs of nearby residential communities: a grocery store, drug store, video rental store, dry cleaners and other convenience stores.

An Annapolis delicatessen that is being forced to relocate within the Bay Ridge Shopping Center will have to pay to improve the center, city officials have decided. However, the owners have been assured that the cost will be minimal.Jo's Deli, part of the Hillsmere Drive shopping center since 1982, has been closed since September, when the owners were told to make room for a Blockbuster Video store.The owners, John and Mary Saadeh, have applied for conditional-use approval from the City Council to reopen their deli in the same shopping center.

Construction started last week on the first phase of the $9 million Riverside Shopping Center at the junction of Route 7 and Riverside Parkway, just off Exit 80 on Interstate 95.The 14-acre complex is about 85 percent leased, said J. Lawrence Mekulski of Kayne/Levin/Neilson/Bavar Realtors, leasing agent for the center.The center's three newest tenants are Mobil Oil Corp., which willbuild a service station with car wash and convenience store; a McDonald's restaurant; and a 2,300-square-foot Forest Hill Bank with drive-through windows.

Two developers announced plans yesterday for two large developments with supermarkets in the Odenton area.Both developments are expected to open this year.A Columbia developer broke ground yesterday for a 52,000-square-foot shopping center intended to serve the more than 1,800 families living in the planned community of Piney Orchard.Constellation Real Estate expects to build the center, to be called called Piney Orchard Marketplace, on Streamvalley Drive off Route 170 near Piney Orchard Lake.

Plans to develop a shopping center next to the Enchanted Forest amusement park in Ellicott City are moving closer to approval from Howard County planners, which could set the project on course for a 1992 opening.Marsha McLaughlin, chief of the county's community planning and land development division, said most of the technical problems that delayed approval of the site development plan have been resolved and the project only needs the endorsement of county health and public works officials.

A Laurel man and a Laurel teen-ager were arrested and charged with assault with intent to murder early yesterday morning after a brawl that began in one Ellicott City shopping center and ended in another about 90 minutes later.Bonnie Spruill, 26, of the 15600 block of Dorset Road, and Malcolm Calahan, 16, of the 15600 block of Mews Court, face charges of use of a handgun in a felony, reckless endangerment, carrying a handgun and two counts of assault and battery, in addition to the charge of assault with intent to murder.

IN THIS ERA of reduced government involvement in solving social problems, one often hears the church being extolled as a tool for instilling values, molding children into responsible adults and binding communities. So it's surprising that some members of the Anne Arundel County Council are taking a short view of a zoning bill that would help fledgling congregations by allowing them in industrial and commercial areas.Current zoning law restricts churches to residential neighborhoods. That is hurting many new churches that can't afford to buy property and build a place of worship.

The developers of Owings Mills New Town announced yesterday that BTR Realty Inc. will build a 125,000-square-foot shopping center there and that Giant Food Inc. will be the anchor tenant.Planned for a 12.5-acre parcel at Lakeside Boulevard and Groffs Mill Drive, the shopping center is the first commercial venture announced for the 5,000-unit development.Founded in 1947, Linthicum-based BTR has developed and managed office and industrial space as well as shopping centers. Its largest retail project is the 500,000-square-foot Harford Mall in Bel Air. BTR officials indicated to shareholders last month that the company may cut back on development and focus on acquiring and managing existing properties, but they did not rule out some new construction.