The Canadian retail firm Morguard announced on Sept. 27 that it purchased the retail section of Rockville Town Square for $33 million from Federal Realty.

“Morguard is pleased to expand our investment in Rockville, Maryland by acquiring the retail space,” Morguard North American Residential Chairman K. Rai Sahi said in a press release, according to The MoCo Show. Previously in 2017, Morguard had purchased the Fenestra Apartments connected to the Square.

The Town Square is frequently visited by RM students, usually for food.

“I’ll go out to Rockville Town Center like once or twice a week,” sophomore Sam Needle said. “I usually just go with my friends out for lunch or something, and then we walk around, and go back to school.” 

“I go out like two times in a week,” senior Mariana Alonso said. “Sometimes I go there to have lunch, and go to Starbucks.” 

Morguard intends to expand non-restaurant features. “We need to have true retail with different services,” Asset Management Director John Nolan said, according to Store Reporter, a local guide on retail developments in the Rockville and Potomac areas. “The restaurants are great, but it can’t all be restaurants.”

Not all students feel this need. “No, I don’t think we need the extra retail. I like going to the restaurants there,” Needle said. 

“I think it’s fine the way it is right now,” Alonso said.

The municipal government appears in line with the purchase. “They are excited to be here and I am looking forward to their team bringing creative ideas and new energy which can revitalize our town center,” Rockville Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton told Bethesda Beat. 

“I don’t know what exactly [the Square] needed, but I know there weren’t as many people not from school going there,” Needle said. 

The recent purchase’s effects on RM students is not yet clear. “It depends on what the company is going to do because I don’t know much about the situation,” junior Hadassah Ucko said. 

“Honestly, it doesn’t impact me a lot,” Alonso said.