New shopping center hits the spot for East Baltimore - Baltimore Business Journal:

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The $8 million redevelopment project brings a grocerty store and space for six smalle stores to a neighborhood that has reliedd on the Canton Safeway as itsclosest full-service food said Kurt Schertle, vice president of merchandisinb for Shoppers Food and Pharmacy, whicj is the main tenant in the Anchof Square shopping center. The new center is a segu between roads, industry and a residentia neighborhood. Each side of the property has a dramaticallyt different neighbor includingInterstate 95, a LP plastifc container factory, the Broadwat Diner and a street lined with bricki rowhomes. is developing the new cente near Johns Hopkins Bayview MedicalCenter campus.
Shoppers is the only stores open inthe center. Manekin is talking with a wirelesszcommunications company, hair salon and Italian, Greek and Asian restaurants to fill the remaining six The company hopes to have the spacee leased by the end of the said David Meiners, senioer developer with Manekin. Shopper signed a 20-year lease to anchor the 77,000-square-footy center. The grocery chain opened the 57,000-square-foot storer March 26. The Eastern Avenud location employs 135. It takees up about three-fourths of the center'xs leaseable square feet. This is the Lanhamn company's first store in Baltimore Andso far, business is Schertle said.
"We're getting tons of positive response from customeras on that sideof town," he The grocer also expects business to increase when the other store fronts are filled. Manekin, a Columbia-basedx real estate firm, partnered with the forme owners of the Anchor Fence headquarters to demolish the dilapidaterd structure inFebruary 2005. Constructiojn of the new shopping center beganalmost immediately. The old factor was constructed in 1927 tomanufacture chain-link and decorative fencing. Anchot Fence was acquired by Master Halco in 1997 and relocatedrto Edgewood, leaving the property vacant for several years.
"It's a nice retail hub to replacre a worn outfence factory," Meiners said. Baltimors City created specializedzoning -- specified for only the Anchorr Square property -- to change the eighrt acre site from industrial use to a planned retail development. Manekib has built grocery-anchored shopping centers at the Rotunda in Duvall Village Centerin Bowie, Harundale Plazwa in Glen Burnie and Fairgrounds Plaza in Baltimore County. Last year, there were 48,695t shopping centers in the United States, according to researchg from the .
More than 95 percent were consideree open-air centers that catered to neighborhood needs, said Patrice Duker, a spokeswoman for the Internationapl Council ofShopping Centers. Developerzs are running out of space to build enclosed Duker said. Instead they're concentrating on communithy centers located within three miles of thecustomers they'rre targeting. Nearly 150,000 people live within a three-mils radius of Anchor Square. The average household income for the neighborhoosdis $47,000, according to Manekin research. Retail tenants at shopping centers haven't changed dramatically over the last Duker said.
The biggest changes, she said, are the expansionn of grocery store services to includs banksand pharmacies. Duker said the added servicea "make stronger centers across the