Brothers light up Urbana with specialty cigar store

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Brothers David and Steve Castro, owners of the Olney-based Davidus Cigars, signed a lease on Dec. 9 to bring a cigar shop to Urbana’s Turning Point plaza.

We hope the news briefs, along with occasional maps and photos, will help you better understand the plans for your community’s future.Through this column, we aim to find out as much as we can about a myriad of development and construction topics, from ongoing housing projects to upcoming commercial centers.

We’ll try to answer questions such as ‘‘When will that grocery store open?” or ‘‘What is that pile of dirt on my block?” or ‘‘Where will they put the next road link?”

You’ll find ‘‘Construction Connection” on this page about twice each month in the New Market⁄Urbana edition.

Please feel free to send us development topics you wish to know more about, or notify us of news that you think your neighbors also would find interesting.

To ask about projects or submit news, contact New Market-Urbana reporter Rebecca McClay at 301-846-2125, fax 301-846-2124 or e-mail rmcclay@gazette.net.

As we adjust to publishing the column regularly, let us know how you think we’re doing.

Urbana businesswill be smokin’

Cigar-loving Urbana residents may soon have a close public place to smoke among colleagues.

Davidus Cigars announced last month that it will open its sixth location at Turning Point, two neo-traditional plazas in the final phases of construction off Fingerboard Road in Urbana.

Brothers David and Steve Castro, owners of the Olney-based company, signed a lease with Turning Point on Dec. 9 and have since been remodeling the store’s interior into a plush smoking lounge and fine cigar shop.

The Urbana location will feature hardwood floors, leather furniture, and what David Castro said would be the widest selection of cigars in Maryland. Cigar aficionados may watch TV, listen to music, read or browse the Internet while socializing with fellow smokers.

David Castro, a Myersville resident, said he expects his regular clientele to mirror those at his other locations — a mix of cigar lovers from all income levels and backgrounds.

‘‘What’s interesting about it is that everyone has something in common,” David Castro said. ‘‘It’s sort of a fellowship. ... It’s a fun business.”

Founded in 1996, Davidus Cigars locations include Frederick, Ellicott City, Olney, Gaithersburg and Potomac. The Urbana branch is slated to open in the spring.

Davidus Cigars will sell coffee beans, handcrafted cigars, pipes and pipe tobaccos and gentlemen's gifts as well as the Castro Brothers’ own brand of cigars called ‘‘Blue Ridge Maduro Cigars.”

For more information contact David Castro at 301-748-5000 or at pesaro@gmail.com.

And Starbucksmakes two

The Daily Grind coffee shop is already set to open in Urbana Town Center near the Urbana Regional Library. Now, the area may have two coffee shops, if a Starbucks opens near Md. Route 80.

Developer Tom Natelli of Natelli Communties said he has signed a letter of intent with the nationwide coffee chain, which would open next to a planned Civil War theme McDonalds.

Natelli said he would announce details of the project to the community when the plan is fine-tuned and official. If an Urbana Starbucks does open, Natelli said that the coffee shop might have to adhere to architectural restrictions such as those imposed on the upcoming McDonalds in response to community feedback.

Developer faces10-year horizon

Villages of Urbana developer Tom Natelli said he has submitted a request to Frederick County officials for an extension to complete platting of his 3,000-home community.

According to a county ordinance, developers must finalize platting (or dividing of land into lots) within 10 years, or lose approvals. The community was established in 1998.

Natelli said he wants to find a creative solution that will allow the Villages community to move forward under its original vision while allowing planners to design the remaining part of the community more carefully.

‘‘It will give us more time to better plan, instead of rushing through the process,” Natelli said, at a community meeting Jan. 10 hosted by the Urbana Civic Association.

County officials and the Villages of Urbana developer are trying to work out an agreement in which granting an extension of the deadline for platting would create positive policy, Natelli said.

To date, the Villages of Urbana includes 1,700 homes. Like home sales nationwide, home sales in the Villages of Urbana have been slow recently (180 homes were sold last year). Natelli said he anticipates selling upwards of 200 homes in 2007.

Natelli Communities expects residential construction will be complete within six years. The balance of the Villages of Urbana development will focus on the town center and activity near Centerville Elementary.