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'Boomtown' May Finally Have Its Boom
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"None of us want to take the lead creating high-end restaurants because we still don't know what to expect," said Dhanesar, who describes himself as a scientist who develops real estate on the side.
Hart Beaver, who owned the Burger King purchased by 1st Mariner Bank, said he held out for money. Beaver and a partner bought the Odenton Burger King in the 1970s and operated it successfully until 1986, when they leased it to a businessman in New York. The store went bust about three years later, he said.
Beaver, a Pennsylvania resident, sat on the site for about three years, enduring the county's fines. "We knew the real estate value would keep increasing," he said.
And now it is, county and state officials say.
The county expects to add lanes to Route 175, make interchange improvements and build a 30-foot-high noise barrier around Fort Meade. The wider road will run past Odenton Town Center, a 1,620-acre site that begins across from where the base ends. Halle Cos., the largest owner of land there, plans to break ground on 5.5 million square feet of office space at the center within the year.
Some residents are wary of the changes underway. Lt. Col. Alfred H.M. Shehab, who retired from the Army in the 1960s and has been living in Odenton ever since, fears that the town's development exceeds its capacity to provide enough schools, roads, and police and fire services.
"If it all happened in an orderly way, it would be great," Shehab said. "But the American way is to develop first and worry about it later."
But Jay Winer, a developer in Odenton for 35 years who has been involved in planning the town center, feels no such ambivalence.
"We'd still be languishing if not for Fort Meade's growth," said Winer, president of A.J. Properties. "All the black and blue bruises from beating our heads against the wall for all those years may finally heal."
Researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.
