As we count down to the 2022 Frederick Real Estate Dealmakers (FRED) Awards on May 18th, we are taking a look at the finalists who are in the running. The FRED Awards honor the most successful commercial real estate transactions and projects, and the people who made them happen.
Today we are focusing on the Creative Adaptive Reuse Award. This deal highlights the adaptive conversion and reuse of an existing building for a purpose other than for which it was originally built, designed or previously operated. This project demonstrates a strategy to optimize the commercial performance of an already built asset to serve a current need in the market.
The finalists for Most Creative Adaptive Reuse are…
Frederick County Square. DLC Management acquired Frederick County Square in 2019 with a vision to refresh the center and attract new tenants. Located along the bustling ‘Golden Mile’ on Route 40, this revitalization project is now a modern 227,000 square foot shopping center that attracted anchor tenants including international grocer Lidl as well as Ollie’s, Harbor Freight, JoAnn Fabrics and shadow anchor, Wawa.
Middletown Memorial Hall. Middletown’s Memorial Hall on East Main Street once served as a theater and fire hall, but most recently had been vacant for decades. The property is significant both for its location and its Beaux Arts features. Thanks to a comprehensive vision of partners Bretton, Smith and Lapetina, together with the Town of Middletown and Middletown Main Street, the renewal of this property contributes to the transformation of the downtown. This project is turning the historic property into 2 commercial spaces with 2nd floor residence apartments.
Stage Bio at Riverside Tech Park. StageBio provides services to the life sciences industry. When StageBio was looking to consolidate multiple locations into a single location of over 20,000 square feet, 8415 Progress Drive checked all the boxes. The retrofit of previous office space into labs at Riverside Tech Park ensured that an expanding life science firm stayed in Frederick County.
You can find past FRED Awards recipients here: https://www.discoverfrederickmd.com/fredawards.