Howard Hughes Working to Build 0ut Columbia’s Urban Core

Kristi Smith, President of the Maryland Region for Howard Hughes, is spearheading growth and success of the 14-million-square-foot, mixed-use development plan for Merriweather District that’s transforming Columbia's urban core. Smith has worked for over two decades in commercial real estate and was a recent guest speaker at Columbia-Patuxent Rotary. She leads a dedicated local team focused on creating great places for people to live, work and enjoy.

Howard Hughes is a national company with master planned communities across five states – Maryland, Texas, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii. “‘We're really working to build out the urban core of Columbia,” Kristi said. “We’re committed to being in the community, working with various organizations. It's really kind of a hallmark of who we are.”

The company’s portfolio here includes about 1,700 apartments in five different buildings, over 1.8 million square feet of office space, and just under 200,000 square feet of retail space. Its newest projects are located around Color Burst Park and in the heart of the Merriweather District that surrounds Merriweather Post Pavilion, comprising 660,000 square feet of office space, 854 apartments, 100,000 square feet of retail space and offering flexibility of uses on future development parcels.

“It's been really tremendous how those buildings are received by the community,” Kristi said. “We're offering a different lifestyle than previously existed. People can live there, pop downstairs, go to dinner, walk across to go to a concert. It’s really cool to start to see that kind of quintessential live-work-play happening right here.” Restaurants in the District and retail tenants make up a curated group of locally-based and established operators but not national chains, per se.

“It’s allowed us to have this unique offering, such that the restaurants all coexist really well together,” Kristi explained. “It has become a kind of dining and date night destination.” Color Burst Park is the main public facing space in the District, “like everyone’s backyard.” Throughout the year, Howard Hughes partners with various local groups to deliver more than 30 free community activities there from Earth Day to a Holiday Market. A splash pad draws kids in warmer weather, while ice skating is a featured attraction in colder times.

Other properties closer to Columbia Mall include Merriweather Row, formerly a kind of corporate row or corporate center made up of seven recently renovated office buildings, three multifamily communities (817 apartments) and One Mall North office building. Development centered on Lake Kittamaqundi includes a recently completed 85,000 square foot medical office facility that Kristi called “a really incredible building.” A future Lakefront North project plans to add 700 apartments, two public parks and 19,000 square feet of retail space.

“As we look at our future development, one thing we want to do is diversify the types of products that we have,” Kristi said. “All the apartments that I mentioned, they’re similar … But one thing that's just at a high level we're really looking into, we don’t want to build the same thing. We don't want to oversaturate one segment of the market. We want to reach a broader spectrum.”

Columbia-Patuxent Rotarians host guest speakers throughout the year at regular weekly meetings. It is the largest and most active of Howard County’s seven Rotary clubs.