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Retail renewal
City Place renovation to appeal
to an upscale clientele
BY ETHAN GOFFMAN
 Riding
on the energy of revitalization, City Place Mall in downtown
Silver Spring is investing $4 million in a new look and a
new appeal. The recently opened Gold’s Gym is just the
first step in a planned renovation designed to make the mall
attractive to more upscale customers.
City Place now features a completely new entrance, graced
with a 70-foot gateway in Art Deco style, the visual theme
of Silver Spring’s revitalization. Several new food establishments
are slated to open, including Chipotle restaurant, Ben &
Jerry’s ice cream, and Noodles and Company. A 1400-square-foot
sports bar is also planned, with a few more surprises in the
works.
City Place was built in a 1992 Silver Spring revitalization
effort that never quite took off. This round of renovations
is designed to attract to City Place the kind of wealthier
consumers that have been flowing into the area for the past
few years. The plan is to "renew the leases that are
going to cater to the higher-end customers," said Larry
Hoffman of the Dierman Realty Group, City Place’s management
firm. "The ones that aren’t going to achieve that
we’re going to replace with tenants that will."
Demographics may be the real driving force in these plans.
With property values and resident incomes on the rise in downtown
Silver Spring, the makeup of City Place was bound to change,
according to Hoffman.
"Retail follows residential trending," he said.
Many City Place customers currently come from the District,
Hoffman says, but he hopes that the upgrades will "tap
into the people that are literally a block or two away."
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