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Business & Tech

What's Going on Here?

A past and present look at College Park's vacant properties

Every two weeks, Patch will feature one of College Park's vacant properties. We'll provide some background info, assess its present status and try to figure out what its future holds. In short, we'll strive to answer the question, "What's going on here?"

Although some residents may consider 9091 Baltimore Ave. an eyesore in need of a wrecking ball, at one time the gray, bunker-like building was once the hub of the neighborhood.

Built in 1939, the building, which was owned by William Katz, was originally the site of a Texaco Gas Station and then a neighborhood bar called the Brass Lantern.

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 "US 1, the oldest thing in the city, was always a commercial area," said Jerry Anzulovich, a longtime College Park resident. "It was part of the Katz property—his home was right there at Cherokee Lane and Baltimore Boulevard—and south of that, he constructed the bar and served as the landlord."

The bar closed in the late 1970s and then the building reopened in the early 1980s as the Mandalay Restaurant and Café, a popular eatery that offered low-cost Burmese cuisine coveted by vegetarians and carnivores alike. Unfortunately for College Park, the Mandalay moved to Bonifant Street in downtown Silver Spring in 2006, where it now profits from a larger dining room and the liquor license it didn't have while in Prince George's County.

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After the restaurant's departure, the property, which is still owned by the Katz family (now of Owings Mills), was to be redeveloped as the Jefferson Square Apartments-East by the development company JPI Management Services. JPI planned to build a subdivision with 160 multifamily units, 45 town homes, and more than 41,00 square-feet of retail space. However, due to unresolved issues with county officials and the economic downturn, JPI eventually abandoned the project.

According to Chris Warren, the city's economic development coordinator, the JPI development "would have been great" for College Park.

"Right now, most of the housing that's being developed is student housing, which is great, but we really need to diversify our housing stock," he said. "With the exception of student housing, we really haven't seen an increase in housing since the 1970s."

Although no one can say what lies in store for the sullen gray building that now stands at 9091 Baltimore Ave., what can be said is that, unfortunately, run-down, vacant properties contribute to some people's negative perception of College Park.

"They contribute to the perception that things in College Park will never change, that Route 1 is really seedy, that Route 1 is unsafe," Warren said. "When people think of College Park they think of the University of Maryland and then they think of Route 1."

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