Bowie Town Center changed hands in January. Two studies commissioned by the City now sit in the public record, and Bowie is asking residents what they want next. The in-person open house is Thursday, October 8, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the City Hall main lobby at 15901 Fred Robinson Way. A virtual session follows on October 14.
Read the studies and the stores barely come up. Their target is the asphalt around the buildings and the internal streets between them. Their most immediate recommendation needs no construction at all, and some of it is already happening on weekends.
The Center Changed Hands in January
Community Realty Company and Nile Equity Group closed on Bowie Town Center on January 30, 2026, for $50 million. The property opened in 2001 and covers more than 293,000 square feet. The buyers' announcement calls Barnes & Noble and LA Fitness the anchors and counts more than 50,000 square feet of dining. It also says Bowie's main retail hub draws about 5.5 million customer visits a year.
Bisnow reported the center was 86% leased at the time of sale. It listed Macy's, Barnes & Noble, United Furniture Warehouse, and LA Fitness among the tenants. United Furniture Warehouse is in the former Sears building, according to the ULI Washington panel report. The 86% figure describes the center at the January sale, not today.
Joshua Aronson, president of Community Realty Company, framed the purchase as long-term ownership. He said the company wants to engage with "the market, retailers, brokers, and community stakeholders," and added:
"Given the importance of this property to the community, we feel a great sense of responsibility."
Nile Equity co-founder Seyi Ademiluyi said the group is willing to invest "substantial cash and resources" in the center. The acquisition announcement did not name a specific renovation project, new lease, or timeline.
Two Studies, Both Pointed at the Open Ground
The City's open house will present recommendations from "two City commissioned studies." The event page doesn't name them, but the City's document center holds two that match.
The first is the Economic Development Committee report, "Reenvision, Revitalize, Redevelop." The committee wrote it at City Council's request, and the City Manager's memo is dated October 2, 2025. The second is a Technical Assistance Panel report from ULI Washington. The panel met November 12–13, 2025, was chaired by Robert H. Mandle, and was sponsored by the City with support from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
| EDC Report | ULI Washington Panel | |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Memo dated Oct. 2, 2025 | Panel held Nov. 12–13, 2025 |
| Who wrote it | City's Economic Development Committee | Multidisciplinary panel chaired by Robert H. Mandle |
| Sample idea | Four stories, 88 apartments, 30,000 sq ft of ground-floor retail, three-level 310-space garage | Housing built around a cross-shaped Central Green on closed internal streets |
| Near-term step | Council receives report, staff hold at least one stakeholder session | "Phase Zero" placemaking with no infrastructure changes |
The EDC's sample concept is credited to Chris Rizzi, PLA. It stacks apartments over shops and adds a garage, which frees ground that is surface parking today. The ULI panel puts it more bluntly. Parking lots "are not generally beneficial to the community and do not generate returns," so its schemes look for better uses of the existing site and buildings.
The panel organized its advice into seven "big gestures":
- Co-create the plan with the community
- Expand the boundary view
- Link greenway, bicycle, and trail networks
- Create a hierarchy of public spaces and circulation
- Establish a signature park
- Connect to City Hall
- Incorporate compatible housing
Only the last gesture is about buildings. The other six deal with paths, parks, and how people move from the parking lot to the shops and on to City Hall next door.
Phase Zero Is the Part You Can Already See
The panel's most practical idea is "Phase Zero." These are temporary activations that "don't require infrastructure changes to add vibrancy." They can stay in place or come back once redevelopment happens. The report's menu includes movable seating, murals, outdoor dining, branded wayfinding at the main gateways, and temporary entertainment programming. It also suggests turning the alleys between the parking lot and the shops into something more engaging to walk through. The panel's diagnosis is direct. Businesses face inward, some walls are blank, and the center has no cohesive branding. The panel suggested the four buildings with shared ownership as the simplest place to start.
The ULI report suggests building the center's identity around "Food-Experience-Culture." Its own calendar this year already reads that way. Concerts for Causes ran a free Saturday concert series at Bowie Town Center from June 20 through October 3, from 6 to 8 p.m. This weekend, October 10–11, Savor Bowie Fall Fest brings music, food, wine tastings, vendors, and artisans to the center from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days.
The food side changed in summer too. Wonder opened its Bowie food hall at 15443 Excelsior Drive on July 30, with 20 restaurant concepts under one roof, according to Patch. Wonder's location page lists both dine-in and pickup.
None of this came from the studies. The concert series and the festival are independent events. Still, a festival on the center's grounds and a 20-concept food hall show what the panel's near-term menu looks like in practice. That menu is the only part of either study that could show up without a zoning change, a financing package, or a new building.
The Bigger Drawings Are Illustrations, Not Plans
The ULI study covers more than the mall. It defines a 123-acre study area of 28 parcels, split between Bowie Crossing and Bowie Town Center. The $50 million sale covered the roughly 293,000-square-foot center, which is only part of that area.
The panel sketched two site schemes for the Town Center. It describes them as "illustrative" examples, not recommendations to adopt.
- Scheme A, infill development. The anchor stores stay. The central streets close and become a cross-shaped Central Green for outdoor entertainment and activity plazas. Five-story residential buildings, plus offices "as the market allows," wrap the existing retail, with structured parking and shopfronts on the first floor. Walking routes to City Hall, the lake, and Centennial Park improve.
- Scheme B, a community cultural campus. The same Central Green, with five-story housing to the north and south and a BSU (Bowie State University) incubator campus in the northeast corner. Venues such as an athletic center, art center, movie theater, museum, and a "Children's Crystal Palace" would connect to City Hall and the park. The Safeway would stay, and existing stores would shift toward community-based services and shops.
For longer-term infill, the panel suggested making Town Center Boulevard work more like a street, with better sidewalks and storefronts. It also suggested housing in steps: roughly two to four stories toward the south, and possibly four to six stories or civic uses farther north.
The EDC packet includes capacity figures of 1.225 million square feet of retail and 900,000 square feet of office, plus existing housing and capacity on the former Sears parcel. These are planning quantities, not commitments. The packet also includes a January 2025 proposal from citizen volunteers called "Our Bowie TownE Center 2.0." It suggests community services, learning space, pedestrian-first areas, a small dog park, a recycling kiosk, and a children's train ride.
The City Manager's memo recommended that Council receive the EDC report, that staff hold at least one stakeholder session, and that staff come back with implementation steps. The October open houses fit that sequence. The panel presented both schemes as illustrations, and the retail buildings at the center of them belong to the new owners.
Where to Weigh In This Month
The panel's first gesture was to co-create the plan with the community. Here is where that happens in October:
- Thursday, October 8, 5:30–7:30 p.m. In-person open house at City Hall, 15901 Fred Robinson Way. Contact Sasha Land, the City's Sustainability Manager, at 301-809-3045.
- Saturday and Sunday, October 10–11, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Savor Bowie Fall Fest at Bowie Town Center, a chance to see the space in use.
- Wednesday, October 14. Virtual open house covering the same two studies.
Reading the ULI report before Thursday makes the boards at City Hall easier to follow. The two scheme drawings appear in its site-schemes section.
At Brandon Foy, we're based in Bowie, and we follow Town Center plans because they change how people use the land at the center of the city. If you'd like help reading the study documents, or you want to talk through what a Central Green or new housing near City Hall could mean for your own plans, Let's Get You Started.
