Downtown Silver Spring has been named #7 on Chain Store Age magazine’s list of Top 10 Retail Experiences of 2021.
“Can a retail center be so successful at reinvigorating a town that, 20 years after it first opened, it has to remake itself to catch up with what it accomplished?” wrote Al Urbanski, the publications real estate editor and manager.
The center was cited for the new art that added color to the area, including the street mural by Chalk Riot on Ellsworth Drive, now home to umbrellas and bistro tables, the tower of flowers on the elevator known as “The Queen of Blooms,” and the giant murals gracing much of the exterior buildings.
“Perhaps the most distinctive piece of art is Blumen Lumen, a 25-foot-tall sculpture of folded, stainless steel flowers that open and close as the sun rises and sets,” Urbanski wrote.
Number five on the list is National Harbor in Prince George’s County, also managed by The Peterson Companies.
Photo by David Lay