Downton Silver Spring closing
Tough news for coffee lovers in downtown Silver Spring. Starbucks is closing its Ellsworth Drive location at the end of the month. FOX 5’s Bob Barnard has the story.
SILVER SPRING, Md. – Tough news for coffee lovers in downtown Silver Spring.
Starbucks is closing its Ellsworth Drive location at the end of the month.
Some insiders say it’s because of crime in the area.
A note taped to the front window explains, “This Starbucks will be closing March 30th at noon.
The note thanks loyal customers and mentions other nearby locations.
On Friday, the staff inside the Starbucks told FOX 5 they didn’t know why the doors would be closing for good in a few weeks.
“I get all my Starbucks coffee from there in the morning and I come through here on the weekends to go to the movies and I always feel pretty safe, but that’s not good that they’re closing,” said Donnell Curtis, a frequent customer. “I gotta find another place to buy coffee I guess.”
“Some people are questioning whether or not it was truly safety concerns that was the reason for the closures,” said Chris Richardson, a Silver Spring resident. “There was a lot of conjecture that it was labor … Organizing union-related.”
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich has his own take on it.
“I think the safety situation in Silver Spring has actually improved, so it’s ironic to be making the decision at this point. I mean Starbucks faces a lot of competition in Silver Spring.”
County Council President Andrew Friedson says he’s concerned about crime in the area. Especially, at the hands of young people.
“We recognize that there are challenges, and we need to address those challenges,” Friedson said. “It needs to be an all-hands-on-deck approach. It needs to focus on the root-cause challenges that our young people are facing. It also needs to ensure that we have a response to those issues in real-time.”
President Friedson and Executive Elrich say the county is being aggressive in its policing here. They’re trying to hire and retain more officers, which can serve as a deterrent to crime.
“We’ve put the drone program in Silver Spring so that we can respond,” Elrich said. “People are working overtime to staff, but we’re still short. That’s nothing that I can fix quickly. Every jurisdiction is short. Hiring police officers is very difficult.”
FOX 5 has reached out to Starbucks’ corporate headquarters but we have not heard back.