Independent retailer expands into new Hunt Valley project

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jul 7, 2004 by Chet Dembeck

Towson's Greetings & Readings book store and card retailer has beaten national book chains for 30,000 square feet of retail space in the Hunt Valley Towne Centre, the project being built at the site of the former Hunt Valley Mall.

It is the first time the store, a mainstay of its eastern Towson neighborhood for more than three decades, has expanded.

The family-owned business signed a lease with Greenberg Commercial Corp., the Owings Mills-based commercial real estate developer of the new open-air shopping village. The company declined to disclose the terms of the lease, but its new store is slated to open the spring of 2005.

Greetings & Readings will maintain its long-time store at Loch Raven Plaza when it opens its doors in the Hunt Valley location.

It's a big move for us, said Steven Baum, president of Greetings & Readings.

The local company was chosen over the national chains because it has been Greenberg's strategy to combine a mix of national, regional and local retailers in its projects. Throughout its history, Greetings & Readings has built an impressive consumer following, Erwin L. Greenberg, chairman of Greenberg Commercial, said in a statement.

It is a loyal following built on being different, according to Baum. We don't try and compete with the national book chains, he said.

By offering great service and a variety of specialty gift items, Greetings & Readings' shopping experience is unique, Baum said. It's our secret, he added.

After operating a single site for more than 35 years, Baum said it took almost a perfect project to entice Greetings & Readings to expand to a second location. The trend is for customers to spend an increasing amount of time at one shopping venue, said Baum.

Therefore, the new center is ideal for consumers who tend to linger for longer periods, Baum said.

Greetings & Reading is one cog of a larger wheel of merchants that will make up the new open-air marketplace.

Greenberg began its redevelopment of the former Hunt Valley Mall last fall. When completed next year, the project will feature more than 860,000 square feet of retail space, including 250,000 square feet in an open air, Main Street venue.

Construction of the 130,000-square-foot Wegmans Food Market is also on schedule, with the grocery store expected to open its first Baltimore-area location also in the spring of 2005. It and Greetings & Readings will join existing tenants that include Sears, Dick's Sporting Goods, Wal-Mart, Burlington Coat Factory and Hoyt's Cinema.