Fourteen months after it opened in the Cambria Hotel, PrimeTime College Park, a steakhouse, closed on May 31 in what one official called “a monster loss” for the city.
PrimeTime was the second restaurant to close in May, after Szechuan-style eatery Peter Chang Kitchen & Bar shut down on May 18, nine months after it opened. The restaurants were located two blocks apart on Baltimore Avenue.
Michael Williams, the city’s economic development director, said PrimeTime wasn’t generating enough income to stay open. A representative of the restaurant chain declined to comment for this article.
A sign posted on the front door of the now-vacant Peter Chang location explained its closing: “Unfortunately, due to increasingly rising high cost of this location, combined with other factors, we have no choice but to close down this location.”
“It’s a big piece of hospitality,” Williams said. “But at the same time it’s hard to kind of want to see someone carry on the struggle, because you got your workers, and you see them start cutting back the hours of employees, and they’re affected that way. So [I] just hate to see them leave.”
Williams said neither restaurant notified the city before closing, noting he had heard rumblings that PrimeTime was not doing well. Williams estimated the owner of PrimeTime, the George Martin Group, had spent approximately $1 million to renovate the space before moving in.
Williams said some businesses in the northern part of the city, where the two restaurants were located, face challenges with parking and a lack of foot traffic.
“I wouldn’t call it a bad area,” Williams said, noting that parking was not the primary reason why the restaurants closed.
“We’re in a real serious downturn in our regional economy,” he said. “I mean, College Park is going to survive, but even we’ve had some people being laid off in the federal government. … I just think that the discretionary spending amongst our university employees, amongst our students, and most of all amongst our residents, has tightened.”
Williams said the economy is a challenge for all restaurants and requires sit-down, white-tablecloth eateries to “be exceptional, from … pulling up, the parking accessibility, the menu, the service and the overall experience now has got to be … five-star level to maintain a customer base and to create a repeat customer.”
Still, Williams noted that College Park is “a great place to do business. We’ll make it as easy as possible to build and then to help the businesses get started, and then it’s got to be just an all-out first-class experience.”
He said the rate of restaurant closures in nearby Washington is far higher than in College Park. In fact, the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington has estimated that the District lost an average of seven to eight restaurants a month in 2025.
PrimeTime, part of a five-restaurant chain including Grillfire and Añejo Rose Cantina & Tequila Bar, both in Hanover, Md., served American cuisine, including steaks and burgers, seafood, salads and more.
Award-winning chef Peter Chang owns 18 restaurants across the East Coast, including one in Baltimore, and also closed his Charlottesville restaurant in October.
The College Park location filled a vacancy left by MeatUP Korean Barbecue & Bar.