Some people were skeptical that Shortcake Bakery would succeed. After all, it’s next to grungy strip of auto repair shops along Route 1 in Hyattsville. But David Harrington, the president of the Prince George’s County Chamber of Commerce, whose wife opened the bakery, says the shop’s location had an “unexpected asset”: a nearby bike path.

David Harrington was the featured speaker at a economic development conference hosted by the Greenbelt Community Development Corporation last month. His personal experience with how bike trails can be advantageous for businesses was just one of the things he talked about.

“I can tell you one of the unexpected assets that we have at the bakery is that… it is near a bike path,” said Harrington, referring to the Northwest Branch Trail, which is part of the Anacostia Tributary Trail system. “Cheryl and I always pray for good weather on Saturdays,” he added, saying that when that happens “we may have 30 [cyclists] stop at Shortcake Bakery as they’re going to Baltimore, going to College Park. It is a wonderful business asset.”

Base image from Google Maps.

“If you create these bike paths and … create nice connectors for bicyclists to do commerce, that is an amazing business opportunity,” he continued. “Walkability and bikeability are … strong economic tools that can help create entrepreneurship, and I think we need to look at that a lot closer than we are.”

The Old Greenbelt Theater hosted the conference. Here’s a link to the full video: http://greenbeltlive.com/greenbelts-economic-development/