A real estate adviser for the owner of the long-vacant Piano Man Superstore building has asked the College Park City Council to suggest a new use for the Baltimore Avenue landmark.
“We don’t actually have anything in mind at the moment,” Ben Wilson, a senior managing director at Bethesda commercial real estate firm Greysteel, told the council on April 21. “That’s why we are here, because we do want to get some ideas or some guidance from the city.”
The 38,259-square-foot building at 9520 Baltimore Ave.—the one with seven pastel and striped grand pianos in the third-story display window—has sat largely vacant since the Piano Man Superstore closed in late 2024.
Wilson described the site as a well-known landmark. “When I say Piano Man, people know the building,” he said.
Built in 1957, the property was once the flagship location for Jordan Kitt’s Music, which opened in College Park in 1974 and sold the building to United Investment of VA in 2012 for $2.4 million, according to the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. That year, Piano Man owner Nick Margaritas, who did not own the building, bought Jordan Kitt’s inventory and moved in under the name Piano Man Superstore.
In 2016, Margaritas announced he wanted to close the location because demand for expensive pianos had dried up, at least in College Park. Margaritas later told The Diamondback that he couldn’t move to a smaller showroom until he sold most of his inventory.
The store finally shuttered in late 2024. A church called Iglesia Mahanaim currently leases part of the building’s second floor, Wilson confirmed.
Piano Man Superstore maintains another, smaller shop in Catonsville.
In October, United Investment of VA put the building, which the state has assessed at $3.7 million, up for sale for $6 million. In February, the company transferred ownership to one of its officers, Abdul Raouf Rahimi, who, in turn, transferred it to a limited liability company called 9520 Balt Ave LLC, where Rahimi is the sole member, according to Prince George’s County Circuit Court records.
Wilson said he has had some inquiries from potential tenants, but none “that ownership felt took full advantage of the unique characteristics of the property.”
He told College Park Here & Now that the owner has shifted his focus from a possible sale to finding a long-term tenant.
The building sits within a federal Opportunity Zone, a designation created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to encourage private investment in economically distressed communities. Investors who invest in property within an Opportunity Zone and hold that investment for at least 10 years pay no federal capital gains taxes on any appreciation from the investment.
The property also sits directly in the path of the next two planned phases of Route 1 reconstruction. The state has approved the design phase of a project that would extend improvements along Baltimore Avenue from MD 193 north to the Capital Beltway ramp—the exact stretch where the building stands.
A previous phase of Route 1 reconstruction, which ran from College Avenue north to MD 193, was completed in November 2024 at a cost of $56.9 million.
City Councilmember Jacob Hernandez (District 1) said those factors make coordinated development planning important. He said the council is looking to work with private owners, intergovernmental partners and the University of Maryland, given the site’s proximity to the school.
The council’s reaction to Wilson’s April 21 announcement was immediate. District 4 Councilmember Denise Mitchell said she had waited years for this moment.
“As long as I’ve been on council … we’ve been trying to find someone,” Mitchell said. “We would love to partner with you.”
Mitchell said she hopes future proposals include sit-down restaurants and neighborhood amenities.
“The opportunities for us to do something different than the norm is fantastic,” she said. “And hopefully they will bring some proposals that have some white cloth dining, or some casual dining and some other amenities, like a bookstore. Many residents are always looking for a bookstore or a coffee store … they can go to [that] has easy access coming in and off of Route 1.”
Mitchell said she would like to see a citywide survey to gauge what residents want at the site.
“I think this is where you do get a groundswell of engagement by doing that,” she said.
Hernandez, whose district includes the property, said a community meeting with the building’s owner is planned for late June or early July.
“Our goal here is to make sure that whatever it’s used for helps benefit residents and surrounding neighbors,” Hernandez said.
Wilson said the owner is “very open and looking forward to a collaborative solution.”