The Walton Westphalia Development Corp. is considering changes to its planned town center in suburban Maryland in response to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
The company, an affiliate of Canada-based Walton Global Holdings Ltd., still hopes to lock in a grocery store to anchor its Westphalia Town Center in Prince George’s County, said Ed Fleming, executive vice president of Walton Global. But the pandemic has significantly impacted the retail and restaurant business as a whole, and that has forced the company to take a closer look at the development mix at the 310-acre project in Upper Marlboro.
He said it is premature to say what changes might be in store for the retail portion, which has been planned since 2012 to anchor a range of residential development going up around it.
The company disclosed in a recent earnings report that global events may force it to lower its near-term expectation for how much demand there will be for retail space at Westphalia. The Covid-19 outbreak, combined with uncertainty surrounding global oil prices, has significantly undermined commodity prices, consumer cash flows and investor confidence.