The College Park City Council hopes to transform an underused site next to the Hollywood Shopping Center into a place for affordable family and senior housing.
The council approved sending a letter to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore during an Oct. 28 meeting asking the state to redevelop the property, located at 9829 Rhode Island Ave.
The property is state-owned and has been underused by the Maryland Department of Labor since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Michael Williams, the city’s economic development director.
The potential project would align with Moore’s “Housing Starts Here” executive order, which encourages the state to redevelop state-owned land to create more affordable housing.
Redeveloping the Rhode Island Avenue site would bring more traffic to the Hollywood Shopping Center and create more quality, but affordable, housing opportunities for College Park residents, Williams said.
“This is a really good idea, and I just hope that the state has the time and the manpower to put into it,” Williams said.
District 1 council member Jacob Hernandez said there has been a desire from residents to transform the property, so he was proud to introduce this letter to the council.
Hernandez said he’s approached different state departments in the past about redeveloping the site and been turned down, which put the project on pause. But under Moore’s executive order, he saw an opportunity to restart the conversation.
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“Right now, an empty building is doing nothing for us,” Hernandez said. “It’s impacting our property values negatively because we have a vacant property that isn’t contributing to the neighborhood.”
This specific site is also well-located for a housing development because of its proximity to public transportation, the city’s letter stated. It would be located close to other city investments, like the soon-to-be constructed North College Park Community Center and the $7.3 million renovation of the city’s largest park, Duvall Field.
It would also increase traffic for the Hollywood Shopping Center, which has been a priority for the city, Williams said.
“We hope to see more neighborhood activity through the shopping, through housing, more people that can afford to stay and live in College Park,” Williams said.
Hernandez agreed with Williams and said using the property in any form would ultimately increase revenue for the businesses in the shopping center and generate tax revenue that would be reinvested back into the community.
Mayor Fazlul Kabir said some community members expressed concerns about the potential project. He said some are worried a tall, dense housing complex wouldn’t fit with the character of the neighborhood.
According to Hernandez, the neighborhood is mostly comprised of single family homes. But he and Kabir said if the project moves forward, the city will ensure there is ample opportunity for community engagement and resident feedback.
Tobias Thom, who lives in College Park’s Berwyn neighborhood, said he thinks the potential redevelopment is a good idea that could create more diverse housing options in the area.
If the project moves forward, Thom would want to see it be a big and dense complex that would maximize the investment, he said.
“There’s so much space … there should be no reason why we don’t build a big building there that could house hundreds of students and thousands of people,” Thom said. “The sky’s the limit on it.”
The city has been prioritizing the issue of affordable housing and made it a focus point for its five-year plan starting in 2026, Kabir said.
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The city council voted to create the Affordable Housing Task Force in April, which is now responsible for assessing the housing gaps and creating a report with recommendations to address them, according to Kabir. He added that their report will likely be ready in the coming months.
They also revised a tax incentive program to offer tax breaks to developers building affordable housing units, he said.
Affordable housing is housing in which the resident pays no more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Some existing affordable housing developments in College Park are Atworth and The Flats at College Park, which opened in May.
Affordable housing is important to prioritize because it makes homeownership attainable for College Park residents, Kabir said.
“There are longtime residents who have been renting for a while, and they’ve been thinking to become a homeowner at some point, but they’re not able to because they have been priced out,” he added.
Affordable housing concerns aren’t specific to College Park.
Maryland’s department of housing and community development reported in July that the state is short of 275,000 affordable rental units for households earning 80 percent or less of their area’s median income.
Kabir said every jurisdiction is trying to address the issue of affordable housing in their respective communities.
If the state agrees to evaluate the site for affordable senior housing, it will determine its suitability for redevelopment, according to Kabir. If the state determines that it is suitable, it will oversee the redevelopment, with the city being responsible for community engagement.
“We’re conducting outreach to make sure that we can do something,” Hernandez said. “The alternative is to just leave a property there that doesn’t provide any value to the businesses that are immediately surrounding in Hollywood Shopping Center, to the residents of the neighborhood.”
