New coats brighten businesses in Wheaton

Business turnover is nothing new in downtown Wheaton, but a turnover of paint jobs has been a pleasant surprise to landlords and planners alike.

In the past few months, about six building facades along restaurant row on Elkin Street and nearby thoroughfares have received fresh coats of paint, face-lifts that many say are essential to attracting customers.

"We need some changes, so the customers can eat in a place that's more beautiful," said Mario Rivera, owner of Matamoros Restaurant, a Mexican and El Salvadoran bistro. He decided to paint his Elkin Street building a rich burnt orange.

"It needed paint," he said in Spanish. "It was very old."

Although he hadn't painted his restaurant for nearly three years, he decided a new look was worth it to try to draw more customers. The opening of a shiny new Chinese restaurant across the street was further motivation.

The new look at Matamoros apparently was a catalyst.

Soon after, workers at El Boqueron, a Hispanic restaurant and nightclub at Price Avenue and Elkin, broke out their rollers and painted their faded red building butter cream.

Then the nearby Wheaton Speedy Car Wash took notice, and owner Bill Kim revived his dark-blue business by layering on shades of rose and cotton-candy pink.

The paint makes the car wash more attractive to customers, and it might also make the property safer, Kim said. "A lot of homeless people, they were trying to sleep in the back of the car wash."

Planners say the new looks on Elkin Street signal the owners' willingness to take care of their properties, which could help advance overall revitalization in Wheaton, said Sandra Tallant, a planner in charge of updating Wheaton's 19-year-old development blueprint.

"It's like having neighbors," said Maritza Rivera-Cohen, director of the Gilchrist Center for Cultural Diversity, a Montgomery County program on Elkin Street. "If one neighbor spruces up the lawn, the other neighbor spruces up the lawn, and so the next thing you know, everybody is doing it."

But for the most part, Elkin Street's chameleon shift is an anomaly in Wheaton. The sheer number and diversity of Wheaton businesses has made cohesive aesthetic changes to the business district nearly impossible, said Brett Schneider, a property owner in Wheaton and chairman of the Wheaton Urban District Advisory Committee.

"There's a challenge in Wheaton to get businesses to clean up their appearances," he said.

As cash flow decreases and rents shoot up, a lot of landlords don't have incentive to make their buildings sparkle. Nor do business owners have the time or money to spend on a paint job, Schneider said.

But the businesses on Elkin Street are a glimmer of hope, planners said.

"The street is more presentable," said Benildo Feria, owner of La Cabanita, a Peruvian restaurant with a red-brick exterior that shares a wall with the newly painted El Boqueron.

Planners are keeping their fingers crossed that for Wheaton, the simple act of painting an exterior can mean something much grander.

"A can of paint and a few hours work really begins to change the physical environment," Tallant said. "And that's what needs to happen."