Investors buy Village at Waugh Chapel center

GAMBRILLS - The sprawling Village at Waugh Chapel shopping center on Route 3 changed hands this week in one of the region's largest commercial property deals during the recession.

A group of investors from Chevy Chase purchased the open-air complex Tuesday for an undisclosed amount. They promptly heralded the deal as evidence that lending may no longer be frozen.

"A year ago, we would not have been able to obtain this type of financing from a conservative firm willing to invest in a retail asset," Grant Ehat, principal of JBG Rosenfeld Retail, said in a...