The sketches of a mixed-use development project planned for a Chevy Chase shopping center show a ground-floor grocery store in a building with stone archways next to a tree-lined sidewalk full of pedestrians.
But it’s unknown if the Chevy Chase Supermarket—a fourth-generation family-operated business that has been on the Chevy Chase property since 1958—will be the one to occupy the roughly 50,000-square-foot grocery store space envisioned by developers The Chevy Chase Land Co. and Bozzuto Group.
Last week, the developers unveiled their plans for the shopping center on the east side of Connecticut Avenue just south of Manor Road.
They hope to start construction in late 2017 on three buildings and a half-acre neighborhood square that would bring about 100,000 total square feet of ground-floor retail space and about 500 new housing units, along with a two-floor underground parking garage.
Miti Figueredo, vice president of public affairs for The Chevy Chase Land Co., said “we are currently talking with potential supermarkets” about the planned grocery store space.
The developer, which owns the land, has extended the Chevy Chase Supermarket’s lease until April 2017, Figueredo said.
“If they want to be considered [for the future grocery store space] they need to let us know,” she said.
Kevin Kirsch, who along with his brother Jason took over the supermarket after their father’s death in 2009, told Bethesda Beat Wednesday that he had no comment on its future.
The shopping center property (center) as it exists today along Connecticut Avenue and Manor Road, via The Chevy Chase Land Co./Bozzuto Group
Sketch of the proposed redevelopment project that includes a 50,000-square-foot space for a grocery store, via The Chevy Chase Land Co. and Bozzuto Group
Chevy Chase Supermarket opened in 1958 in the shopping center, but in another location closer to Connecticut Avenue (where Images Hair Design and Lemon Twist are today).
Walter Kirsch, Kevin and Jason’s father, joined founder Bernard Freedman to operate the store in 1963. In February 1964, the two moved the supermarket across the parking lot to its current location and expanded it to 25,000 square feet in 1970.
The Chevy Chase Land Co. and Bozzuto Group have submitted a sketch plan for the redevelopment to the Montgomery County Planning Department.
The property has approval for a previous redevelopment plan, but The Chevy Chase Land Co. is pitching a new mixed-use town center concept with neighborhood-serving retail to take advantage of the future Chevy Chase Lake Purple Line station.
The station will be built on the east side of Connecticut Avenue just south of the existing shopping center.
