Panera Bread is bowing out of downtown Rockville, closing its doors May 19th after a decade on East Middle Lane. It’s the same location that shut down for about a year during the pandemic, but this time the closure will be permanent. Panera still has two other Rockville locations, one on Shady Grove Road and the other on East Jefferson Street. But the latter may eventually disappear as well, since there’s a plan in place to redevelop the back side of Federal Plaza with high-rise residential buildings. That project has been approved by Montgomery County, but no construction timeline has been announced.
