Mission Place Complete, Almost Fully Leased in Jessup, Md.

Jessup, Md.—Back in the 1950s, U.S. Rt. 1 was the major byway traversed by people motoring from Maine to Georgia. The Rt. 1 corridor that passed through Howard County, Md. took on a heavily industrial look and feel. But that is now changing.

“That corridor has been the subject of a revitalization effort by the county planners,” Andrew Dolben, senior vice president of development with The Dolben Co. Inc., tells MHN. “They’ve been taking it from its 1950s-era industrial use and making it more mixed-use, with retail, residential and office.”

Consistent with that goal has been the development of Mission Place in Jessup, Md., one of the first mixed-use projects helping to revitalize the Howard County Rt. 1 corridor.

On Jan. 3, The Dolben Co., headquartered in Woburn, Mass., announced the completion of Mission Place, a $53 million development that includes 262 luxury apartments and almost 24,000 square feet of ground-floor retail on a 6.5-acre parcel at the junction of Washington Blvd. and Mission Rd. in Jessup. It is one component of a larger mixed-use development that is to feature a 60,000-square-foot office building and 104 townhouses, Dolben says.

The residential component of the project is comprised of 101 one-bedroom, one-bath units averaging 778 square feet, and 161 two-bedroom, two-bath units averaging 1,140 square feet. The residences were 93 percent leased as of the first week of January.

The apartments include full-sized washers and dryers, nine-foot ceilings, six-panel doors and walk-in closets. Most units have balconies. Expansive storage closets are available for lease by Mission Place residents. The community’s common areas feature a clubhouse with 24-hour fitness center, a great room with a catering kitchen, home theater and swimming pool. Residents will be able to pay their rents and make service requests online through a resident portal.

One of the prime challenges confronted by The Dolben Co. was how to fit all apartments and a 600-car garage on a compact footprint, Dolben says. “We did that by putting a six-story garage in the middle, in what some would call a wrapped building,” he says. “We were able to give the county and neighborhood a very attractive façade, due to the parking being hidden in the middle.”

The brisk pace of leasing activity reflects not only the appeal of Mission Place, but the strong demand for Howard County apartments that has resulted from the creation of thousands of jobs in nearby Fort Meade.

Mission Place residents are able to avail themselves of public transportation. The Jessup commuter rail station on the MARC system that runs between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. is less than a mile away, Dolben says.

Indeed, the location of the development is one of the chief qualities helping to lure prospective renters. It is less than 20 minutes to downtown Baltimore, 45 minutes to downtown Washington, D.C., 15 minutes to Columbia, Md., and a half hour to the state capital in Annapolis.

“We like to say we’re halfway to everywhere,” Dolben quips.