Retail Investment Pouring into Dundalk?

Shopping center owners on Dundalk’s Merritt Boulevard have been enhancing their properties, the latest being Continental Realty’s launch next month of a makeover of Merritt Manor. Next: Regional Management will redo Merritt Park. (As long as it's not using Joan Rivers' plastic surgeon, it should be great.)

The 91k SF Merritt Manor at 1115-1245 Merritt Blvd will start work in April. It’s one of the last of the major shopping centers on the corridor to get a makeover, says David Donato (left, snapped with Continental colleagues Nick McCoy, Gene Parker, Anne Angel, and CEO JM Schapiro). He told us yesterday his firm's been planning a redo since it bought the property last year, and the plan likely helped fill five of the eight vacancies. Anchor tenant Gold’s Gym, which is chasing a young pro customer, pushed for the renovation, as well. (It wants everyone to look as good as possible, even buildings.)

Here’s how the shopping center looks now. A 3,000 SF block and two contiguous 2,000 SF blocks that could be combined remain available. David says the center is missing a restaurant. (Though you can get a significant amount of Twizzlers at the dollar store.) The neighborhood is more of a quick-service market, but the large space could handle a sit-down place.

And here’s the new look, which will deliver in late summer. (It's gonna be so good that siblings will get along.) David says the retail landlords in the area have invested in these shopping centers as they and retailers have realized that the residents of the historical Bethlehem Steel company town may not be house rich, but they do have money to spend. The neighborhood is densely populated and there’s no blight, he says. “It’s a neighborhood that can survive and thrive.”

The 141k SF Merritt Park at Merritt Boulevard and Holabird and Wise avenues is planning a major renovation that will embrace the 1960 architecture of the year it was built. Merchandising plans call for a Wi-Fi-enabled market in what was originally the Penn Fruit building (rendered above), restaurants, stores, and medical space. The team handling this one is Regional Management, Artios Retail, Hord Coplan Macht, and BCT Architects.