Gaithersburg

Pets Are Home second location, at 10038 Darnestown Rd in the Travilah Square Shopping Center, is now open. It has taken over the space previously occupied by Michael’s Noodles near Title Boxing Club. The first Pets Are Home Location was opened by a husband and wife team in Kensington (10414 Derrick Ave, Suite 300) in August 2021. Additional information on the story behind Pets Are Home, courtesy of its website:

“Nathan and his wife Ross moved to Kensington MD in 2019 where they now share a home with Cotton, their  French Mastiff.  As soon as they moved to Kensington, they quickly realized that buying food for Cotton involved either traversing through 40 minute traffic or buying online. Neither were desirable options for them, and they were not alone in this struggle. They discovered that other pet parents in their neighborhood also disliked driving through heavy traffic in North Rockville, competing for parking space in Downtown Bethesda, and buying online from big name retailers. It was immediately clear to Nathan and Ross that there was an unmet hunger for a pet supply store in Kensington.

In December 2021, about a year and a half after Flower Child closed permanently, H&R Retail listed Holy Cross Health as the new occupant of the space at 10072 Darnestown Road in the Travilah Square Shopping Center. Flower Child initially closed when the pandemic shut down indoor dining back in March of 2020 and made the decision to close permanently a few months later. Holy Cross Health, an Urgent Care center operated by Holy Cross (a member of Trinity Health), signed on and even started construction in the space. The space has recently been listed as available to lease again by H&R Retail. Prior to Flower Child, the storefront was home to Sweet Frog.

Travilah Square has seen changes in recent years. One of the first moves made was to demolish the existing office building and Burger King and replace it with a new building containing a 12,500 square foot Trader Joe’s grocery store, along with a second, smaller retail space (upcoming tenant below). The late 1980’s look of the center was dated and Finmarc brought on MV+A  to revitalize the center and give it a new, clean, vibrant appearance. The new building blends with the shopping center utilizing the same patterned brick and steel trim to create a permanent, “timeless” appearance. A landscape plaza fronts the Trader Joe’s, and a curved brick and steel pergola shades this new outdoor amenity for the shopping center. More recent changes below: