Borders set for Fenton St.
By SARAH BRUMFIELD
Montgomery Journal staff writer
July 24, 2000

� � Downtown Silver Spring is getting what it asked for.

� � With the first stores set to open in just weeks, the effort to redevelop a stretch of Fenton Street with retail and restaurants has landed bookselling giant Borders Books, which recently signed a lease for 25,000 square feet.

� � When a group developed a list of types of stores they'd like to see in the area five years ago, a bookstore was at the top of the list, along with hardware, gift and novelty shops, home furnishings, restaurants and bars.

� � A large bookstore, which the area hasn't had for years, would be an important feature of the project because of the atmosphere it creates, Robert McGilvray, a member of the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board, said when the development profile was created. Now he travels to downtown Washington to shop at Borders.

� � ``It attracts you to shopping [the] area," he said. Stores such as Borders attract affluent people and students and ``encourage people to hang around a while."

� � The redevelopment of Fenton Street between Ellsworth Drive and Wayne Avenue is part of the $450 million revitalization effort designed to help pull Silver Spring out of a decades-long decline and transform it into a bustling commercial district.

� � The county, state and private effort, which includes the new world headquarters of Discovery Communications, a center for the American Film Institute in the renovated Silver Theatre and new space for the Round House Theatre, eventually will encompass 28 acres extending beyond Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue and bounded by Wayne Avenue, Spring Street and Cedar Street.

� � Mega-bookstores - with cafes, comfy lounge chairs and even desks for studying - have been popping up all over in recent years. Silver Spring probably not attract any because it was in decline for so long, said Sally Sternbach, chairwoman of the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board.

� � Borders' interest is indicative of the reversal in fortunes for Silver Spring, she said. While those involved in the revitalization knew it would work, she said, ``It's awfully nice to have the market reinforce it."

� � Borders will be part of the Downtown Silver Spring project's second phase with restaurant T.G.I. Fridays, bakery Panera Bread and a movie theater complex with 20 to 24 screens.

� � The bookstore will have the look typical of others in the nation's second largest chain and will include a caf�, but it will be unique because it will have high ceilings and entrances on both Fenton Street and Ellsworth Drive, according to Tom Maskey, senior vice president of the Peterson Cos. It should open in late 2001 or early 2002, he said.

� � Because of the community's strong feelings in favor of a bookstore, the developers sought out Borders for the project, Maskey said.

� � Every space but one in the downtown project is spoken for, and leases have been signed for all but three, he said.

� � Some of the retailers in the first phase of Downtown Silver Spring, as the project is being called, including Strosniders Hardware, Next Day Blinds and Sprint PCS, plan to open for business next month. Three others - Fresh Fields, Baja Fresh and Hollywood Video - plan to open in late September.

� � ``It's exciting to watch the list of signed tenants for the Silver Spring project grow and to be able to welcome a nationally known bookseller like Borders and a popular eating establishment like Baja Fresh," County Executive Douglas M. Duncan said in a statement. ``Tenants such as these will certainly help spell success for the new downtown Silver Spring."

� � The Montgomery County Council's Planning, Housing and Economic Development committee will hear an update on the project this morning.