A day care center is opening its 20th location in Severna Park next spring.
Celebree Learning Centers is opening a 9,142-square-foot location at the Robinson Crossing Shopping Center, its first in Anne Arundel County. The Forest Hill-based company is spending about $600,000 to open the new location at 450 Ritchie Hwy, Celebree Owner Richard Huffman says.
Construction will begin in November and the daycare and educational center will open in February.
"We believe it's an underserved market in Anne Arundel County," Huffman says of the new location.
It's the third lease that Celebree has signed with Continental Realty Corp. Its other centers with Continental are in Eldersburg and Perry Hall.
David Donato, a vice president at Baltimore's Continental, says Celebree should bring good traffic to the shopping center, especially the Food Lion supermarket.
"It's bringing parents five days a week to the center," Donato says.
The area is dense with parents working in either Baltimore or Washington, D.C., and limited space for other daycare centers to open nearby.
"There's not a ton of commercial spaces in that stretch of Ritchie Highway," Donato says.
Other tenants at the 114,000-square-foot shopping center include Dollar Tree, Quizno's, and Kids First Swim School.
Open since 1994, Celebree employees 520 and has 2,000 children under its supervision. The Severna Park business will oversee as many as 150 kids and employ 30.
Writer: Julekha Dash
Sources: Richard Huffman, Celebree Learning Centers; David Donato, Continental Realty