August 4, 1999

Ben & Jerry's, California Tortilla to open soon in downtown Rockville

by Manju Subramanya

Staff Writer

For the past nine months, two banners advertising the coming of a Ben & Jerry's ice-cream shop and a California Tortilla restaurant have first tantalized and eventually frustrated residents waiting for their arrival.

Now, after what seems like an interminable wait for many residents, the two eateries are gearing up to open next door to the Regal Cinemas in downtown Rockville.

Ben & Jerry's plans to open quietly the weekend of Aug. 21, with a grander opening celebration over the Labor Day weekend, according to Marc Sosin, the franchise owner of Ben & Jerry's, and Mark Troen, vice president of development at Rockville Center Inc. (RCI), developers of the estimated $300 million office/retail and residential downtown project.

The opening dates remain tentative.

"That's kind of a moving target with construction," Sosin said.

California Tortilla is slated to open in late October, according to Pam Felix, owner of the Bethesda-based restaurant.

Troen said he anticipated the restaurant opening before Thanksgiving.

"Things are going step by step," he said.

The retail pavilion housing the theaters and the two stores are the first step in RCI's mega-project south of East Middle Lane and west of Rockville Pike.

Construction has been bogged down since the theaters opened last November because of an ongoing financial dispute between RCI and building contractor Jeffrey Brown & Associates of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., that remains in private arbitration.

Mitchell Rutter, president of New York-based Essex Capital Partners, RCI's parent company, said Monday he could not comment on the arbitration.

Jeffrey Brown, president of Jeffrey Brown & Associates, did not return a call seeking comment.

The delay has disappointed residents who had pinned their hopes for downtown's revival on the RCI project.

On Monday night, Eric Jensen, a 10-year resident of Rockville, stood at the podium in City Hall and told the City Council about his "personal disappointment with the lack of progress being made with the Rockville Town Center."

"Yes, it's true we have 13 movie theaters, but 13 movie theaters alone do not create the thriving downtown we have envisioned for Rockville," said Jensen, who suggested that RCI and city planners pay close attention to the progress being made at another shopping center -- the Washingtonian Center off Sam Eig Highway and Fields Road in Gaithersburg.

"The Washingtonian Center is accomplishing what many people had envisioned for our Town Center -- attractive, well-maintained, beautifully landscaped sidewalks in an area that looks and feels like the way Rockville's downtown should look and feel," Jensen said.

The center includes a Kohl's department store, a Barnes & Noble book store, a Galyan's store and most recently, a Target department store that had a grand opening July 24.

Jensen said that in contrast, the "coming soon" signs in RCI's retail pavilion "seem inappropriate" given that the signs had been there for a long time without any store opening.

"If RCI is having internal conflicts with its contractor as I've been reading in the newspaper, what recourse do we have to quickly resolve the situation and get on with our downtown?" he asked.

Rockville Mayor Rose Krasnow said the city was closely monitoring the situation and trying to "move the project forward."

Rutter said Monday he understood the frustration of residents and city officials over the slow pace of the project.

"Sometimes it takes a little longer," he said.

Rutter said the stores were now on track. The interior of Ben & Jerry's is being finished by his own sub-contractors in tandem with Ben & Jerry's contractor, he said.

"I'm excited about the opening," said Sosin, who has already hired four employees for the 1,000-square-foot store and plans to hire another six or seven people. "I'm just disappointed it's at the end of the [summer] season."

Sosin said ice cream sales usually dropped off around Labor Day when children are back in school. Sales cool down considerably by November, he said.

Sosin also owns, with his wife Bonnie, a Ben & Jerry's shop on Fairmont Avenue in Bethesda. The couple also ran a Ben & Jerry's in the Goshen Crossing Shopping Center in Gaithersburg that they closed last November. The equipment from that store will be moved to the Rockville location, he said.

The store will have indoor seating for 12, outdoor umbrella seating for 20 and offer 40 flavors of ice-cream including the popular Cherry Garcia, ice cream with Bing cherries and dark chocolate chunks.

Sosin said he was hopeful of doing well at the Rockville location, given the 22,000 people flocking to the movie theaters every week and the weekday office-goers from the surrounding county and city government offices.

Meanwhile, the owner of California Tortilla, Pam Felix, said she was also looking forward to finally opening her second restaurant.

"Everything's going on track. It's actually going to happen," she said.

The construction dispute had actually led to the termination of RCI's original lease with California Tortilla. A new lease was signed in March on the same terms with the restaurant getting a bigger space at 2,800 square feet, Felix said. The previous lease listed a 2,500-square-foot space, she said."I'm fine with it," she said.