Hyatt House Hotel at Riverdale?

Just noticed that within the last two months the "Stay" tab at the top of the Riverdale Park Station website has been removed.

June 13th 2018:

Today:

On the Discover tab the hotel is still listed... but still I wonder if something is up here.

If the hotel really was going to open for business at the beginning of 2020 as the website had said on the "Stay" tab (before it was deleted) they would have to be at least broken ground by now.  Instead they built a large parking lot on the hotel building site...

I reached out to both the Hyatt House developer and the Riverdale Park developer and will let the blog know if something is up or they just deleted this tab by mistake.

Update:
The developer will reevaluate if Hyatt House is still economically viable for this area sometime in the future. 

First resale attempt in Riverdale Park Station

The third unit in building 1, which is a Parker model very similar to the one we bought just got listed at $512,900.

See it here:
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/4504-Woodberry-St_Riverdale_MD_20737_M57915-05694?view=qv

Will be curious to see at what price this sells and how quickly to judge how well the community is doing.

The new properties from the builder are selling fast but until you have a resale it's hard to know the actual price they will move at.

Price and Sales Update

Another $5000 bump in price for all three models in early June.

Good to see prices still rising even this late in the game.

Building 7 (Units 60 -74)  only has 4 units remaining...

This is the sign before they removed it a few days ago in order to install the sidewalk.

Building 7 will be having it's closing next month (in August).

Building 8 (Units 75 - 89) only has 5 units remaining...

Building 8 will have it's closings in late September/October timeframe.

For building 9 and 10 they just started digging for the foundation but those have not been released for sale as of yet.
UPDATE:  A reader informed me that they just opened these two buildings up for sale yesterday. (7/21/18)

At least they have broken ground on those now...  In the bi-weekly update from the developer they have moved the completion date for building 9 and 10 to the second quarter of 2019.

Unrelated side note is Jersey Mike's said they needed more time for hiring and training and would not open until 8/1/18.

Sales going really strong here and it is looking like not too many of these units will actually make it into the MLS...  I am thinking maybe a few Dawson's may still be for sale into the winter and that will be it as far as completed units go.

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The pricing history on the smallest floor plan (Dawson) has been:

12/9/16:               $415,000
1/22/16:               $425,000
3/2/17:                 $430,000  
3/28/17:               $440,000
6/5/17:                 $443,000
11/5/17:               $440,000
6/1/18:                 $445,000

 The pricing history on the middle floor plan (Parker) has been:

12/9/16:               $440,000
1/22/16:               $450,000
3/2/17:                 $455,000
3/28/17:               $470,000
6/5/17:                 $473,000
10/1/17:               $483,000
11/5/17:               $470,000
6/1/18:                 $475,000

 The pricing history on the largest floor plan (Cassidy) has been:

12/9/16:               $465,000
1/22/16:               $475,000
3/2/17:                 $480,000
3/28/17:               $495,000
6/5/17:                 $518,000
8/25/17:               $537,490
3/1/18:                 $543,000
6/1/18:                 $548,000

Jersey Mike's opening delayed 1 week to 7/18/18

I do not think Jersey Mikes and Habit Burger were aware they had chosen the exact same opening date of Wednesday, July 11th.

Even though it appears almost all construction is completed at Jersey Mike's they have delayed their opening one week until 7/18/18, which makes sense as you do not want to share your opening date with your next door neighbor.

Habit Burger is NOT moving their date and is still opening on 7/11/18 as I had announced in the middle of this month.  More sources are recently reporting that date as well.

Habit Burger is giving away free burgers before they open if you sign up on their website.   This gives you the opportunity to try it out for free before they even open.

Sign up here:
https://www.habitburger.com/riverdalepark/

I have heard Jersey Mike's will also do something similar as well in the days leading up to their open.

July 11th is another big day for Riverdale Park Station

We all are looking forward to the bridge opening on June 22nd, but we have another date to look forward to here at Riverdale Park Station.

Both Habit Burger and Jersey Mike's have gotten back to me and confirmed their planned opening date is July 11th!

So we are less than a month away for both!

I am very excited about both of these new options.

As always you can see the current Retail Opening Dates on the fourth tab of this blog.

https://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/p/ret.html

Bridge to Discovery District to open on June 22nd and other items

Mayor Alan Thompson announced just after lunch today that the bridge from Riverdale to the Discovery District would FINALLY open on June 22nd.

Considering this opening has been delayed since Fall of 2017 it's great that this is finally moving forward.

Bella Beach Spa looks like it is getting close to being ready to open.   I have not heard anything back from them it but looks to be less than a month away at this point.

Jersey Mikes just also added some temporary signage.. 

Jersey Mike's had told me they would open near the end of the second quarter of 2018 and right now it is looking like July or so.   I reached out to them again.  Habit Burger looks to be at just about the same point as Jersey Mikes and also looks to be a July opening.

After these openings all we will be waiting on will be Denizens which is not opening until the end of 2018.   Will need some more retail lease signing announcements soon.    I think they will be coming with the bridge opening and the Village square grass growing Riverdale is finally coming to life.

One last update is the first apartment building construction will not begin until the start of 2019.  This is the 230 unit apartment I have blogged about a few times over the past year...

Here is my post from October 2017:
https://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-apartments-of-riverdale-park-station.html

I know a few folks have asked me in the comments section when these would open as they were looking to live in the apartments so sorry for the bad news.

With the delays in getting this started along with the 18-24 month construction time the apartments here will probably not actually be ready for tenants until 2021.  This delay may be hindering the retail commitments and is probably the main reason all of the retail spots are not leased already with the strong lineup that is already here.

The Town Center of Riverdale Park

One area of Riverdale Park that has a lot of potential but currently has next to nothing is the Town Center of Riverdale Park. 

Currently I refer to it as the "Scooby Doo Ghost Town" as there are spaces for at least 15 businesses here and currently only a Bikram Yoga, a hair salon and Town Center Market are actually open down there.

Right now it looks like a quaint town that has been abandoned for a long time:

Bob Harper's Book's was also open when we moved in but has also recently closed.

Here is a good shot of just the newer buildings from the developers website:
http://douglasdevelopment.com/properties/riverdale-town-center/

They built these new buildings in 2007 but it does not seem like they have had much success.   But I think that is about to change...

The MARC station is here, they are building a Capital Bike Share here and the Hiker Biker trail runs right through the center of this development... And now that the Hiker Biker trail is actually open and running all the way through Hyattsville and College Park I think this is a game changer for this area...

Plus this town center is only a 0.8 mile walk from my house and will be something like a 0.3 mile walk for the folks in the last building of Riverdale Park Station.   Riverdale Park Station will have 119 townhomes finished and probably sold by the first quarter of 2019.   When you add in the three apartment buildings that will also eventually be there and the hotel and everything else I think businesses that can survive in this area until Riverdale Park Station really gets spun up will be rewarded.

In February 2018 Douglas Development announced a Vietnamese Restaurant called Banana Blossom Bistro had signed a lease for the large corner building (2600 square feet, in the picture above)

Then on May 15th 2018 the Route One Fun blog broke the news that Riviera Tapas Bar would be coming across the street...
https://www.instagram.com/p/BizaeiAgGVN/

Thanks Sarah B from http://www.routeonefun.com/ for getting that news 10 days before anyone else.

Seems this little downtown area is starting to come together.   I personally love Vietnamese food and can't wait for Banana Blossom to open.   Both restaurants are supposed to open this summer but from the looks of the Tapas bar location as of yesterday they may have longer to go before they open. 

Price and Sales Update

Good news on the sales front for Riverdale Park Station.

They have sold all but one remaining Dawson in buildings 5 and 6 (Lots 40-59) so that means only one completed unit remains for sale.

Building 7 and 8 (Lots 60 - 89) which will probably be completed by the end of the Summer (August/September) and already ALL the Cassidy units have sold even with the $543,000 BASE price tag.   When you consider that the Cassidy's are all end units and also require large add on's to price that are not even optional along with the selected options these are probably all selling in the upper 500's now.   Back when there was only a $25,000 difference between a Cassidy and a Parker (in March 2017) I wrote a blog about how this pricing was totally out of wack and they needed to raise the price of a Cassidy here:

http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2017/03/dearth-of-cassidys.html

At that point they had sold all the Cassidy's already and had a 12 person waiting list for Cassidy's and building 3 had not started yet.

Now that there is a $73,000 difference between just the base price of a Parker and a Cassidy along with an additional 35k of options you need to add for a Cassidy the pendulum has may have swung too far the other way.

Although everything I wrote in that blog is still true and the advantages of the Cassidy are still there we are now talking 187 square feet extra for $100,000 now.  But the market is speaking and folks want the extras like the 2 car garage and bigger master closet and extra bedroom and are willing to pay for them...

In addition to all the Cassidy's (8 units) 2 Dawson's and 3 Parker's have also sold in Building 7 and 8.

That means in Building 7 and 8 currently 13 out of 29 units have sold  (16 units remain, all Parker's and Dawson's).

I found out that the lots in building 9 and 10 are not released for sale yet  (Lots 90 - 119).   Seems they are following the same strategy as earlier where they will not sell unless they are at least 6 months from being ready and the foundation work still has not begun on those buildings.

The pricing has stayed at roughly the same level since Fall of 2017 aside from another $5000 bump in Cassidy's in March of 2018

The pricing history on the smallest floor plan (Dawson) has been:

12/9/16:               $415,000
1/22/16:               $425,000
3/2/17:                 $430,000 
3/28/17:               $440,000
6/5/17:                 $443,000
11/5/17:               $440,000


 The pricing history on the middle floor plan (Parker) has been:

12/9/16:               $440,000
1/22/16:               $450,000
3/2/17:                 $455,000
3/28/17:               $470,000
6/5/17:                 $473,000
10/1/17:               $483,000
11/5/17:               $470,000

 The pricing history on the largest floor plan (Cassidy) has been:


12/9/16:               $465,000
1/22/16:               $475,000
3/2/17:                 $480,000
3/28/17:               $495,000
6/5/17:                 $518,000
8/25/17:               $537,490
3/1/18:                 $543,000

Big weekend for area surrounding Riverdale Park Station

Not too much news in Riverdale Park Station itself but lots of news this weekend in walking distance.

In Riverdale Park Station News:

• The bridge to the Discovery District that was supposed to open by Mother's Day (May 13th) has been delayed to Fathers Day (June 17th).  Given that we were first told this would open in late 2017 I am just glad the delays are getting shorter now.   Seems it may actually open in the June/July timeframe.

• They are bringing back the Friday 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM live music series at Bear Square starting on June 1st!   I went to a lot of these last year and they had some good local bands and it was not very crowded.  Glad they are bringing this back.

In close walking distance news:

• The new large playground at University Park Elementary school across the street from Riverdale Park Station opens tomorrow morning (5/19/18) at 10:00 AM.  We walked over here last weekend and it is a pretty impressive playground and only a 5 minute walk from our house.

                       https://www.upmd.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=34

• Captial Bikeshare is finally opening and Riverdale Park Station gets a stop right in front of Whole Foods.

You can see from that map all of the "Future Stations" listed and how much more useful it will be once those are opened.   I have learned the reason they are not opening at College Park Metro now is College Park has a contract with Zagster that runs until Spring of 2019.  At least we can use it to ride down to Hyattsville.   Apparently 3 years ago when College Park signed the deal with Zagster it was looking like Captial Bikeshare would not succeed   You can read about that here:

http://www.dbknews.com/2017/04/28/capital-bike-share-college-park/

I'm betting College Park realizes they have made a mistake and Zagster goes away in favor of Capital Bikeshare.   As I posted earlier I am a big fan of Captial Bikeshare...
http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2017/04/sales-update-and-capital-bikeshare.html

• Red Door Spa Opens this weekend at the Hotel at University of Maryland.

Less than a mile north the four star Hotel at the University of Maryland is getting a 5 star spa.  The Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa opens it's doors tomorrow.

• Cava Grill opening in this Summer at College Park Shopping Center

I am a huge fan of Cava and have been going to the Union Station location since it opened.  The Diamondback first broke the story here:

http://www.dbknews.com/2018/05/04/cava-college-park-new-restaurant/

I've been using College Park Shopping Center quite a bit since living here as it is only a 0.7 mile walk.  This is a great addition.

Construction Update

Building #8 finally has went vertical as of 4/25/18

Given the normal time for them to finish these units we are probably looking at September for closings in this building.

Building #7 just started adding exterior brickwork...

This building should have closings in the early August timeframe.

Although the units from buildings 7 and 8 are selling well there are still 6 units remaining for sale in building 5 and 6  (4 Dawson's and 2 Parker's).   Seems folks really like to choose their upgrades and are willing to wait in order to do so.

One piece of disappointing news is the soundwall is completed.   It will only be for building 9 and 10 and the rest of the community will not benefit from it.  At least at some point they are planning apartment buildings down there that should muffle the sound a bit.

They opened a surface parking lot near where the Hyatt hotel eventually will be, although it has been open a week and I have yet to see a single person parking there, at least this gives more parking options.

Cafritz is saying the bridge to the Discovery District should finally open around May 13th.. so only 15 more days to go.   Getting this bridge open would really help me personally and I also think it would be a great help to the community, so lets hope they are correct about the date.

As mentioned earlier they decided to raise the parking deck from 4 stories to 6 stories... as of yesterday they finished placing all of the large precast pieces and the parking deck is now 6 stories.  It is still a long way from being completed and the apartment building and retail that will connect and wrap around this building has not begun as of yet.

In more important news, two more retail locations have moved from "for rent" to "under negotiation" just recently. 

Those spaces are location 2B.2 (1,471 square feet) and location 4E.1 (2,100 square feet)

See the updated map below:

And even better.. a link to the PDF where you can zoom in here:

http://hrretail.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Riverdale-Park-Station-Site-Plans-04-19-18p.pdf

I was told one of those two locations would be announced to the public within the next month.