The triangular lot at 4610 Cedar Ave., which happens to be the intersection with Baltimore Avenue, has been woefully underused for a really long time. A one-story building stood here which resembled a tiny McDonald's and housed a PFCU branch until 2010. Though a couple of businesses looked at leasing the building in the years since, nothing opened up. Given the heat on the Baltimore Avenue commercial corridor, this setup didn't make much sense.
In the summer of 2015, we told you that the building had been demolished and that plans were moving forward to build a mixed-use building here. At the time, we understood that plans called for eight apartments and ground-floor retail but we didn't have much more information. Also, a neighbor had appealed the project, which had gotten its permits by-right, so it wasn't a slam dunk that it was even going to happen. Checking in on the property now though, we can see that it has indeed moved forward, and it looks to be complete.
Somewhere along the line, the project chopped out one unit, so the finished product includes 7 apartments above 3 retail spaces. None of the stores are open as of yet, but we can see that one of the stores will be a nail salon and another will be an ice cream shop called Swirl Cafe. The last place is called Red Lotus, but we're not sure what that place will be- perhaps a restaurant? As we said before, the owner of the property is the family that owns Vietnam Cafe, Grill Fish Cafe, and Fu-Wah Mini Market (try the banh mi!), so another food use would certainly seem to make sense.
But the third store doesn't really matter to us. Whatever kind of place it is, we'd argue that this building is a great success as it represents a massive upgrade for the intersection. If anything, we'd have liked to see a four-story building instead. People who live nearby, do you appreciate this project? Or would you have preferred a different project at this address?