Revitalizing a Store and a Community

Giant Food Store, Old Court Road
Pikesville, Maryland

When Giant Food wanted to dramatically expand and modernize its aging 1968-era location in Pikesville, Md., the company called on Vanguard to devise a strategy. Leveraging its strong relationship with Giant, Vanguard first drew up a favorable financing deal. In doing this, Vanguard then moved quickly and quietly to acquire 17 properties adjacent to the Giant store. Vanguard was also able to convince several hold-out homeowners to sell their properties. After a year of negotiations, Vanguard moved to the development phase.

Development of the site also proved complex. A 150-year old road had to be closed to traffic, which required notifying all adjoining property owners, many of whom could only be located through rounds of title searches. Also, utilities had to be relocated and buried.

A day before the new Giant was opened on its nine-acre site, the existing one was closed. Today, the new location is an anchor to 100,000 square feet of thriving retail space and consistently rates among the top five volume-producing stores for the grocery chain. This award-winning project quickly became a new focal point for the Pikesville community.