By Christian Davenport
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 30, 2006
After a series of failed attempts to breathe life back into a downtown that had turned seedy, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan promised at the start of this decade that he was going to "revitalize Silver Spring or die trying."
He used eminent domain to take over large swaths of land, threw an estimated $350 million at redevelopment and got personally involved in wooing Discovery Communications Inc. and the American Film Institute.
Now, with the project nearly complete and Duncan (D) promoting Silver Spring's renaissance as he runs for governor, county officials are focusing attention a few miles north along Georgia Avenue. But this time, in Wheaton, their approach is starkly different.
Although they have taken some steps to spark Wheaton's transformation -- Duncan and others actively pursued Macy's, which opened its first store in the county at the Westfield Shoppingtown Wheaton mall last year -- officials say they are mostly trying to manage the growth that to a large extent is occurring without the intensive public resources that were poured into Silver Spring.
Stung by criticism that many small businesses were pushed out of Silver Spring as new ones were courted, county leaders also say they are going to great lengths to preserve the family-owned shops that help make Wheaton one of the area's most diverse communities.
"Redevelopment that replaces small businesses and undermines the community is not revitalization," Montgomery County Council member Tom Perez (D-Silver Spring) said. "And that's one of the fundamental challenges of Wheaton."
It wasn't too long ago that Wheaton watched Silver Spring's metamorphosis with envy, still trying to shake its reputation as a blue-collar suburb that was decaying because of crime and encroaching urbanization -- an image reinforced by gang-related stabbings at the mall last summer.
Now, officials say they have been deluged by developers eager to come to Wheaton, which is attractive because of its Metro stop, active business community and the fact that there are few other places to grow in the county.
"They say, 'We hear things are pretty hot in Wheaton. Can you show us around?' " said Natalie C. Cantor, director of Montgomery's mid-county services center. About once a week, she said, a member of her staff gives developers a tour of Wheaton.
Yorlady Ramos has watched the community's transformation. In addition to the Macy's, a new housing development -- the first in downtown Wheaton in 30 years -- featured brownstones going for nearly $700,000. And then a nightclub opened two doors from her party supply store, selling a citrus martini for $9 and alerting customers: "Dress Code. Upscale Attire Strictly Enforced."
Still, nothing drove home the changes more than when the man from the Latino Economic Development Corp. showed up to warn Ramos that redevelopment will mean higher rent, possibly higher than she can afford.
Wheaton is a multiethnic community in which about 56 percent of the residents in 2003 listed English as their second language and 49 percent were born outside the United States, according to county figures.
It's a place where the air is often thick with the smell of chickens on the rotisserie at El Pollo Rico. Where Filippo Leo, who emigrated 31 years ago from Sicily, Italy, greets the customers at his Italian deli with a jovial buongiorno . Where the Indonesian buffet serves a tongue-searing beef dish marinated in 14 spices.
The Laos-born cashier at the Asian market speaks Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and English in addition to her native language. Next door, the kosher supermarket offers eight kinds of knishes, and many of the labels are in Hebrew.
Wheaton is where Ramos opened her store so that instead of greeting cards wishing "Happy Wedding Anniversary," Hispanic immigrants could buy ones that read, " Feliz Aniversario de Boda. "
But these days, Wheaton is also a place of dread and uncertainty for some businesses. If the community goes upscale and rents increase, not all of the small shops will survive. Many of the store owners are wondering about their fate.
"I'm worried," Ramos said. "I feel they are pushing us out."
A University of Maryland study of Silver Spring's redevelopment found last year that with skyrocketing rents, many small businesses "are now suffering from the very revitalization they had hoped would give their operations a boost." In Wheaton, county officials say, they are taking steps to avoid a similar fate for owners such as Ramos.
The county sponsored a survey aimed at gauging the health and needs of Wheaton's business community. When it revealed that many stores were operating on leases of three years or less, officials brought in a real estate lawyer to lead a seminar on how to negotiate a lease.
A business consultant from Pepco Holdings recently gave a seminar on marketing, urging a dozen shop owners to aggressively promote themselves. Last week, another seminar focused on writing an effective business plan.
Meanwhile, the Latino Economic Development Corp., a D.C.-based nonprofit group that helps small businesses, plans to open an office in Wheaton this year, its first venture outside the District.
"The message is that redevelopment is coming," said Manuel Hidalgo, the corporation's executive director. "It's not a question of 'if.' . . . The developers are lining up."
He said his agency will help businesses get loans, develop strategy and train employees. The goal is to make sure "we don't lose the culture and what makes Wheaton Wheaton," he said. "It's the mom-and-pop, multiethnic environment that people come to."
He added: "It's to make sure that as Starbucks and Targets and Best Buys come into the neighborhood, we have a strong sense of responsibility to the mom-and-pops who have been servicing the community for decades. We want to make sure that they rise with the tide."
With council Vice President Marilyn Praisner (D-Eastern County), Perez has introduced legislation that he said would foster growth and maintain the "remarkable eclecticism that lends Wheaton its character."
The bill, if approved, would relax restrictions on building heights around the Wheaton Metro station, allowing construction as high as about 11 stories, double the current limit. Developers who took advantage of the new rules would have to set aside a portion of their first-floor retail space for small businesses and preserve open space.
The bill, which Perez hopes will be approved by summer, would also streamline the bureaucratic process, making it easier for businesses to expand or improve their properties.
Victor Lantang knows that redevelopment most likely will mean his rent will go up. But Lantang, who 16 years ago opened Sabang, an Indonesian restaurant, is also hopeful that it will bring in more people.
He needs the help. On a recent weekday at lunchtime, he looked across his virtually empty restaurant and said, "I hope we get some customers today." He wistfully recalled how years ago, before parts of Wheaton became tainted by concerns about crime, lines stretched out his front door Friday and Saturday nights. Then, he had 35 employees. Now, he has seven.
"We've been struggling really bad," he said.
So bad at times, he has thought of closing. Recently, though, he has noticed an uptick. It's enough for him to hang on, hoping lines will stretch out the door again.
Leo is also waiting for business at Marchone's Italian Specialties, the deli his uncle opened in 1955, to get a boost from redevelopment.
Still, all the change is "scary," he said. "I'm sure not everyone's going to make it."
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