The Calvert County Planning Commission recommended several projects for approval on Nov. 20, including what would be the county’s first Chase Bank.
Other projects include an expansion of the Calvert Village theater and Chesapeake Church’s request to build an End Hunger warehouse next to the church.
The commission also recommended shrubs as a screening wall at a new McDonald’s restaurant, which would be built on the site of the present one at 515 N. Solomons Island Road in Prince Frederick. The old building would be demolished under the proposal.
The commission’s review of the architecture is a first step in the process, Planning Commission administrator Carolyn Sunderland said.
“Since McDonald’s does not like to be under construction in the summer months, the store rebuild likely won’t occur until about a year from now,” said Chris Howell of Kimley-Horn planning and design engineers.
Chase Bank would be built at 55 Stoakley Road following the demolition of the medical office building.
The lot is currently accessed from Stoakley Road, but Chase is planning to add a right-in only land off Route 4.
Kelly Robertson-Slagle, the county’s economic development director, said her department “is very excited” about the news and called it “a very positive sign.”
She noted that Chase is the nation’s largest bank and the third-largest in the world.
Chase currently has branches in Bethesda and Silver Spring.
Robertson-Slagle said her department did not recruit the bank, but has been working with the bank and the property owners, Rick Bailey and his son, Eric Bailey, of Generation Properties of Dunkirk.
Eric Bailey said a groundbreaking is scheduled for spring 2020 with an opening slated for late summer that year.
Theater expansion
Echo Calvert Associates, LLC is proposing to add 9,148 square feet to the 13,550-square-foot Calvert Village Theater, 200 W. Dares Beach Blvd. in Prince Frederick.
Drew Gorman, senior vice president of ECHO Real Estate Services, said the company plans to add four screens to the five currently on site.
ECHO purchased the shopping center Dec. 31, 2012, and added a Chipotle and T.J.Maxx in 2014.
ECHO brought in Flagship Premium Cinemas to operate the theater in 2016, Gorman said. Flagship added luxury seating in the fall of 2016.
End Hunger warehouse slated
Chesapeake Church, which is located at 6201 N. Solomons Island Road in Huntingtown, is proposing to build a 15,360-square-foot warehouse and a 6,240 square-foot food pantry adjacent to the church.
Access to the warehouse would be off Route 4. The proposal was made on behalf of End Hunger in Calvert County.
The warehouse and food pantry would replace the facilities the church is currently using at multiple locations.
In a future phase, the church plans to build second and third floors within the warehouse, according to a planning staff report.
A June 5 Calvert Recorder story said the future phase will support a culinary jobs training program, community life skills and classroom space, EHCC staff offices, and collaborative workspace for nonprofit organizations to address poverty and its root causes in Southern Maryland.
In that story, the Rev. Robert Hahn, the church’s senior pastor, said the new facility “will become a formal hub of the Maryland Food Bank in Calvert County for Southern Maryland.” He said the existing Hughesville hub makes it difficult to get food to local partner organizations and people in Northern Calvert County.
A groundbreaking was held recently.
Hahn said the target opening date is late summer/early fall 2020.
Calvert Recorder
Twitter: @CalRecCALEB