n July 15, Barry’s Magic Shop, which has been “serving the magic community since 1974″ in Montgomery County, will close its doors. The store is owned by Barry Taylor and his wife Susan Kang. In addition to selling merchandise, the location has offered lectures, performances, lessons, and one-on-one advice. All items have now been discounted to 30% off.

Five years ago, the shop moved from a much smaller space on Georgia Ave to Nicholson Lane, near the White Flint Mall. Its current location has been called one of the largest magic shops in the country.

Read more at The Washington Post here.

For more information on Barry’s Magic Shop, visit their website here.

ethesda will see construction breaking on Rock Spring Center some time this summer. The 1 million square foot mixed-use development, located at Old Georgetown Road and Rock Sprind Drive, will include two office towers, a hotel, residential units and retail space. And Silverspot, a luxury movie theater owned by one of the largest theater companies in South America, will be included in the mix.

This will be the third location for the cinema, with a current home in Naples, FL and one set to open soon in Miami. The theater distinguishes itself with leather seats, spacier foot room, and above average snack offerings. In addition, they provide a full restaurant and bar to cater to the dinner-and-a-movie outing.

For more information on Silverspot Cinema, visit their website here.

oma’s “Capitol Square” currently refers to an old office building that sits on DC’s triangular site bounded by New York Ave, First St, and N Capitol St, along with a defunct car wash, a nightclub, and a youth shelter. This coming summer and as construction continues for the next 5 years, “Capitol Square” is expected to refer to the entire site, a mixed-use “megadevelopment” proposed under partnership between JBG and MacFarlane Partners.

The first phase is to be a 200-room Hyatt Place hotel, planned for completion by the end of 2013. Following that will be office, residential, and 85,000 square feet of ground floor retail. When completed, the entire project will have brought over 2 million square feet of leasable space to NoMa.

Read more at DCMud here.

hillips announced plans to close its manufacturing and distribution facility this July, effectively cutting 100 jobs (13% of its Maryland workforce). The spokeswoman for the seafood distributor said that since the plant began operations in 2002, the company hasn’t grown as much as they’d expected. Warehousing will now be shifted to Merchants Terminal Corp. (now MTC Logistics), with further help from Dot Foods. Phillips may decide to lease some of the plant as office space for Baltimore tenants.

The company’s 8.5-acre headquarters on Fort Ave will remain home to their sales, marketing, research and development staff.

Read more at the Baltimore Business Journal here.

he Trust for the National Mall has selected the winning entry for each of the 3 sites to be transformed at the National Mall. The entries aim to connect monuments visually and offer more in the way of entertainment and scenery to the public, all while maintaining a proper amount of security. The areas have grown decrepit after 40 years of use and lacking proper maintenance. Four finalists for each location were displayed for public comment on April 9 after an initial 58 entries.

Rogers Marvel Architects and PWP Landscape Architecture will redesign Constitution Gardens east of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The design is based on a 1976 plan for the site for the bicentennial. A pavilion/restaurant will overlook the lake, while a seating wall with pedestrian lighting will frame the Ellipse, which will be subtly raised to be more prominent. Performances, model boating, and ice skating are other activities residents and visitors can look forward to.

OLIN & Weiss/Manfredi will redesign the Sylvan Theater, southeast of the Washington Monument. The performance space is a large grassy bowl whose outer edge rises 32 feet, just before reaching the base of the monument, which serves as a backdrop to the events taking place. A bridge under a tree canopy will connect the space with the southern grounds of the Washington Monument.

Gustafson Guthrie Nichol and Davis Brody Bond will redesign Union Square near the Capitol. Symbolic of the reflecting pool at Lincoln Memorial, a large reflecting pool will take the place of the nearest grass panel on the Mall, but with the potential for much more interaction. Diagonal pathways will cross the 2-inch sheet of water, which can be drained for special events from time to time on the paving below. A series of outdoor rooms and retaining walls will flank the central space.

Groundbreaking for at least one of the projects should begin by 2014, with the first ribbon-cutting expected in 2016. Fundraising will now take place for the $700M project.

Read more and view a gallery of other proposed designs for the mall at The Washington Post here.

altimore’s Broom Factory (3500 Boston Street) will pick up a new restaurant come this Spring: DelMarVa’s Southern Café. It should be a welcome addition for area residents, especially considering the recent closing of Della Rose’s Tavern across the street at the First Mariner tower. It appears this would be the first location for the café, although they have a website that almost seems to suggest otherwise.

They have a variety of menu options, from salads to burgers, and lots of breakfast items, some drawing from Southern influences. And they were sure to include a few items that speak to local taste, like the Chesapeake Chicken Sandwich, Lump Crab Cake Sandwich, and the Maryland Crab Cake Platter. It’s not always smart to judge a menu by its “cover”, but the Chesapeake Melt also sounded exciting: “Crab dip w/ havarti cheese on sourdough bread w/ Chesapeake aioli”. Mmm.

DelMarVa’s is also opening a second location in Arlington, VA this Fall, that will also include a “taphouse”.

ilene’s Basement closed its doors to its Lockwood Place location on Pratt Street back in January, along with all of their stores early this year. But lease terms are currently being negotiated with another retailer to take over the space, though no details yet on specifics. Baltimore City Community College owns the building, while David S. Brown Enterprises manages it and handles leasing. Other tenants include P.F. Chang’s, Fogo de Chão, Panera Bread, and, until May 12, Best Buy…

Best Buy announced it would be closing 50 of its stores this year as part of a “transformation strategy”. Though closing, they still have four years left on their lease at the 37,000 sq ft space. During that time, they have control over what happens to it, whether to sublet it or not. But Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, is “confident Brown will work out a solution for the site.”

wo new restaurants and a dry cleaner are expected to start tenancy late this summer at the mixed-use apartment complex in DC known as Mass Court. Located at 300 Massachusetts Ave NW, the 4,370 sq ft of street level retail space has sat vacant for some time, and all of it will be leased between the three new tenants.

One of the restaurants, Carving Station, will serve bistro food, sandwiches, and alcohol. The other is a new pizza restaurant called FAI Pizza. Taking up the rest of the space will be Mass Court Cleaners. The property was bought by CBRE one year ago, though its retail space has remained vacant for eight years.

n Sunday, May 6, an opening ceremony will be held at the new Pierce’s Park at Pier 5, between the Columbus Center and Eastern Avenue. The park is named after the late Pierce J. Flanigan III of Baltimore construction company P. Flanigan and Sons and his love for sailing and the Chesapeake Bay. Mahan Rykiel Associates designed the park, with local artist David Hess creating the interactive sculptures throughout the park.

The design of the park centers on two circular open/play spaces surrounded by berms, separated by undulations in the ground that mimic waves. Engraved homophones, a musical fence, climbable sculptures and a living willow tunnel help make the park an exciting playground for kids, with natural beauty to boot.

To learn more about Pierce’s Park, visit their website here.

ince 2004, the Mechanic Theatre has sat dormant in the heart of downtown Baltimore. Now, David S. Brown Enterprises is seeking a permit for the theatre’s demolition. With the help of architects Shalom Baranes Associates, they’re hoping to build two 30-story towers to include 600 market-rate apartments and 150,000 sq ft of retail. Construction could begin in as early as six months, pending approval of the permit by the Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation.

The group had previously planned one hotel tower back in 2009, which could be what the above (top) rendering shows. In that plan, much of the infrastructure of the theatre was kept intact. No word on whether that will remain the case with the new design. The Mechanic Theatre opened in 1967 but after a few decades could no longer meet the production needs of major shows. Its demise coincided with the restoration of the Hippodrome Theatre.

Read more at the Baltimore Business Journal here.