"We didn't know people were going to respond to the new setup, but then it turns out customers are more excited than us," Xue Ling, brand manager for Northwest Chinese Food, told The Diamondback in mid-October. The restaurant had spent ten years in the strip at Route 1 and Hartwick Road. It closed in March to make way for an apartment building, then reopened for dinner on Aug. 15 inside Li Chun Café at 7401 Baltimore Ave., right next to College Park City Hall.
That move is a good picture of what's happening along Baltimore Avenue right now. The construction fences went up around familiar storefronts, but most of the places with a local following are still in downtown College Park, just at new addresses. The business that didn't make it this year was a newcomer that relied on student walk-in traffic.
The Hartwick Road strip
The building going up at Route 1 and Hartwick Road is Terrapin House. It's planned at 93 apartments with 298 beds and ground-floor retail. The Diamondback reported in December 2025 that the site held Northwest Chinese Food, Jerk At Nite and Ritchie's Colombian Restaurant. Tokoa Cheesesteaks and Kung Fu Tea had already left by then.
City economic development coordinator Rehanna Barre called the strip's restaurants "a big cultural spot in College Park" and said "the city is trying as hard as we can to keep them here." The city had already worked with the Terrapin Development Company to move Pho Thom out of the strip and into Union on Knox. Barre also said relocating is getting harder as downtown fills in.
Northwest Chinese chose to share a kitchen with family. Ling's mother owns both Li Chun Café and Northwest Chinese. According to The Diamondback, nearby spaces were expensive, and a second standalone restaurant could have taken about two years to open. Here's the daily schedule in the shared space.
- Li Chun Café lunch: 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., northeast Chinese dishes
- Northwest Chinese dinner: 5 to 9 p.m., northwest Chinese dishes
- Tea bar: drinks, pastries and snacks all day
Most of the old menu is back. The family is holding a few dishes for the restaurant's 11th anniversary in November and for seasonal specials. The spicy beef rou jia mo and the hot oil seared noodles are early customer favorites.
Ritchie's Colombian Restaurant served its last day on Route 1 on Feb. 22. In its March interview with The Diamondback, the restaurant said it intends to reopen nearby. No address or date has been announced.
Campus Village, three years into the wait
The Hartwick Road businesses have it easier than the tenants of Campus Village Shoppes at 8147 Baltimore Ave., which closed in October 2023. Rambler College Park North, from LV Collective and Harrison Street, is now under construction on that site. It's scheduled for completion in fall 2027, with 288 units of student-oriented housing, more than 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, and a community center honoring the history of the neighboring Lakeland community. Maryland Today reported in September that some former Campus Village tenants will be part of that retail.
Here's where the displaced businesses from both sites stood in their most recent coverage:
| Business | Former home | Where it is now | Last reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northwest Chinese Food | Route 1 & Hartwick Rd. | Dinner inside Li Chun Café, 7401 Baltimore Ave. | October 2026 |
| Pho Thom | Route 1 & Hartwick Rd. | Union on Knox | December 2025 |
| Ritchie's Colombian Restaurant | Route 1 & Hartwick Rd. | Plans to reopen nearby | March 2026 |
| Taqueria Habanero | Campus Village | Route 1 food truck; plans to return to Rambler North | May 2025 |
| Hanami Japanese | Campus Village | Closed until Rambler North opens; plans to return | May 2025 |
| Mr Fries Man | Campus Village | Food truck on 2nd Street NE in DC; plans to return | May 2025 |
| The UPS Store | Campus Village | Temporarily at Stamp Student Union; plans to return | May 2025 |
| Laser Essential | Campus Village | 9658 Baltimore Ave.; not returning | May 2025 |
Streetcar Suburbs News reported that Taqueria Habanero, Hanami, Mr Fries Man and the UPS Store all told LV Collective they plan to come back. Taqueria Habanero also planned to use the former Jimmy John's storefront on Baltimore Avenue in the meantime. These are stated plans. Until Rambler North opens in 2027, the businesses on the "plans to return" list are honest intentions, not reopenings.
Union on Knox is where the moves are landing
If one building is absorbing this reshuffle, it's Union on Knox at 4360 Knox Rd., the student housing complex across from campus. It's a partnership between the Terrapin Development Company and Greystar. Greystar owns and runs the building, and the development company owns the land under a long-term ground lease. Terrapin Development Company president Ken Ulman told The Diamondback that his team plays an active role in shaping the mix of businesses there.
So far that mix tilts toward operators who already have ties to the area:
- Pho Thom relocated here from the Hartwick Road strip with help from the city and the Terrapin Development Company.
- Duck Donuts opened Sept. 19 under local franchise owner Cameron Moore, who told The Diamondback he brought the shop to College Park after repeatedly driving to Virginia for it.
- Open Barre, created by University of Maryland graduate Lauren Filocco, is moving over from College Park Shopping Center. It was still under construction in September with a fall opening target.
- Black Lion Café, a family-owned Ethiopian coffee shop that already runs locations in Rockville and Silver Spring, plans to open its third location here in early December. Owner Abdu Tuku told The Diamondback that permitting delays pushed the opening back from its original spring target.
Boho Nails is also expected to open this fall. Shake Shack, Chopt and Berries and Bowls are already open in the building. "We're really proud of the combination of national chains with local retailers we've helped move in," Ulman told Maryland Today.
Why a following beyond students matters
The year's clearest closure explains why that pattern matters. Z-Burger and Maman Joon Kitchen opened a shared location under Terrapin Row on Hartwick Road in March 2026 and closed for good over the summer. Co-owner Bikash Saha told The Diamondback that the spot "is not exposed to walk-in outside people other than students." Between low summer foot traffic and delivery-app fees, he said, the restaurant was profitable only seven to eight months of the year.
That's one owner's account of one location. Still, it fits the rest of this year's pattern. Northwest Chinese brought ten years of regulars to its new kitchen, and The Diamondback reported that longtime customers came back and new ones found it. Black Lion arrives with two established Montgomery County cafés behind it. Open Barre is moving down the road with its existing clientele. A restaurant that already has a following can survive a move and slow seasons in a way a brand-new restaurant can't.
College Park Shopping Center is the steadiest piece of the map. The Terrapin Development Company and Northpond Partners bought it this summer for more than $53 million. The Diamondback reported that the plan is to keep the existing tenants and run it as a shopping center long term with a modest facelift. According to Maryland Today, that means CVS, Honey Pig and Cava stay put, with better lighting, updated signage and restriped parking on the way.
One stop south, the same story at Riverdale Park
The Station at Riverdale Park is filling one of its own empty spaces. Kusshi, an upscale-casual Japanese restaurant with eight DMV locations since opening in Bethesda in 2018, is coming to 4501 Woodberry St. That's the former Le Fantome food hall, which closed in 2025. Co-owner Wesley Yao previously ran Hanaro in Bethesda, which became Kusshi in 2024. The menu leans on Wagyu beef, elaborate specialty rolls, sake and a long whisky list. The Station's events page lists it as "opening late 2026."
A few more Route 1 dates to put on the calendar:
- Early December: Black Lion Café's planned opening at Union on Knox
- Dec. 12: Riverdale Holiday Market at the Station, billed as "Shop. Sip. Sit with Santa."
- Early 2027: Little Blue Menu, Chick-fil-A's experimental burger, pizza and wings concept at 7242 Baltimore Ave., closes and reopens as a standard Chick-fil-A
- Winter 2027: Purple Line passenger service is scheduled to begin, according to the Hyattsville Wire, after a summer of signal work at Campus Drive and live-wire train tests
- Fall 2027: Rambler College Park North's scheduled completion, when the Campus Village returnees plan to reopen
Farther down the corridor, honeygrow is now taking orders at the Mall at Prince George's, 3500 East-West Hwy., in the former Mezeh space.
New buildings along Route 1 are changing what daily life looks like near Baltimore Avenue, and in time they'll show up in how nearby homes are valued and marketed too. If you own near the corridor and want to talk through how Terrapin House, Rambler North or the Purple Line fits into your plans, the team at ONE Residential follows these projects block by block. Schedule a consultation and we'll walk through what's changing near you.
