Station North : Development News

The building that houses the WindUp Space and Cyclops among others in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District will soon be ready for its close up.
 
The façade of the entire North Avenue Market building will undergo a $1 million renovation starting in April, says Carolyn E. Frenkil, co-owner of the space.

Used bookstore Cyclops will renovate to make way for a coffee shop. The market is also poised to add a new tenant within the next two months in a vacant gallery space. Frenkil expects the yet unnamed tenant to plan various events, shows, and exhibits to bring additional visibility to the market.
 
The North Avenue Market building, built in 1928, also houses Liam Flynn's Ale House and Baltimore Print Studios.
 
"You can't tell a book by its cover, but if it doesn't have an interesting cover, who's going to open it?" Frenkil says.
 
Some of the planned renovations include a new paint job, additional lighting for the building, and opening up long-covered exterior windows.

Cyclops' renovations are expected to begin when the façade renovations commence, Frenkil says.
 
The Reinvestment Fund, a Philadelphia-based developer, is working with the owners of the North Avenue Market to finance the renovations.
 
Frenkil hopes the facelift will help to generate business for all of the establishments in the Station North Arts District as part of the resurgence in development of an area has long been affected by crime, vacancies, and urban decay. 
 
"When people drive up Charles and hit North Avenue the lights will be on and people will say 'Something is happening on North Ave'," Frenkil says.
 
Frenkil wants North Avenue to develop organically into a unique destination arts district where customers will find the products of the creative energy of Baltimore's residents.
 
"Why mimic someone when you have an opportunity to create something?  We want to create a destination, not a drive-by. If we do what others do, what makes us different? Why come to North Ave.?" Frenkil says. 

Writer: Allie Wilding
Source: Carolyn Frenkil, North Avenue Market

The owners of Milk & Honey Market will open their second cafe in the former Chesapeake restaurant, furthering their plans to breathe life into a cornerstone neighborhood building that has been empty for decades.

Ernst Valery says Milk & Honey Cafe will open by the fall at 1701 N. Charles St., which is in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District.

Valery says the new restaurant will not sell groceries like the Mount Vernon store and will only function as a coffee shop. The sleekly designed Milk & Honey Market in Mount Vernon sells cheeses, bread, eggs and imported food items. It opened late 2010.

Developing the former Chesapeake restaurant is key to Station North’s ambitions to become a thriving arts and entertainment destination. The neighborhood has gotten several new cafes, bars, theaters, artists’ studios and housing in recent years. But it still houses many vacant buildings and will lose anchor tenant Everyman Theatre when it moves to the west side in the fall.

Valery says the building will house two restaurants. Valery and his Milk and Honey team will open one restaurant while another unnamed Baltimore operator will spearhead the other. Philadelphia restaurant owners Mauro Daigle and Annie Baum-Stein are joining Valery and his wife Dana to open the restaurant.

Valery declined to say any more about either restaurant as details are still being finalized.

All total, the two restaurants and Milk and Honey Café will employ 50.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Ernst Valery, Milk and Honey

A nonprofit developer has purchased a vacant building on North Avenue that it hopes to transform into restaurants, galleries, artists studios and theater space within three years.

Jubilee Baltimore is talking to Joe Squared’s Joe Edwardsen about the possibility of his opening a Mexican restaurant at the 10 E. North Ave. property, Edwardsen and Jubilee President Charlie Duff say. The developer is also in talks with Single Carrot Theatre, which has been scouting for a space with more seating capacity.

Jubilee Baltimore Inc. bought 10 E. North Ave. from Greater Grace Church at a public city auction this month for $93,000.  The state estimates the land and 67,000-square-foot building is worth more than $2 million, public records show.

The eventual transformation of the three-story building will require a major rehab, Duff says. He doesn’t yet have a cost estimate as to what the renovation will cost.

“North Avenue needs cool things happening,” Duff says. “There isn’t enough space in Station North – that’s why we bought this building. We want to make it one of the key arts and entertainment building in Baltimore.”

Writer: Julekha Dash
Sources: Charlie Duff, Jubilee Baltimore; Joe Edwardsen, Joe Squared

Two theater managers are scouting the west side and the Station North Arts and Entertainment District for a performance space that can hold its new arts organization.

J. Buck Jabaily and Philip Arnoult have launched Baltimore Open Theatre with the goal of reaching younger audiences through the use of social media. (See related story). The Robert W. Deutsch Foundation has committed $50,000 in seed money and a $150,000 challenge grant for the venture.

Jabaily, one of the founders of Single Carrot Theatre, says he needs a 7,500-square-foot space that can seat 160. Other requirements include tall ceilings -- at least 16-feet high -- and no pillars that would obstruct the view. Since Baltimore Open Theatre will host plays, dance and other performances, they need a spot that is flexible and can be adapted for different uses.

“We’re open to non-traditional spaces,” Jabaily says. The space doesn’t have to be a theater currently, though it should be easily converted into one without a huge capital investment.

“We don’t have the finances to gut something,” he says. Arnoult, who founded the Theatre Project 40 years ago, says he hopes to commit to a space in the next month.

Writer; Julekha Dash
Sources: Buck Jabaily and Philip Arnoult, Baltimore Open Theatre.

The Maryland Institute College of Art is renovating a building for graduate programs that anchors North Avenue in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District.

Scheduled to be completed fall of 2012, the renovations to Studio Center will include a new main lobby and gallery area, café, photography studio and lecture hall. MICA has hired Whiting Turner as the general contractor and Cho Benn Holback+Associates as its architect for the 120,000-square-foot building.

Some renovations began in the summer with new glass windows and landscaping to the building’s front entrance, which faces North Avenue.

Sprucing up the building will show that there’s “more life going on in North Avenue,” says Ben Stone, executive director of the Station North Arts and Entertainment District. “Whenever one person invests in an area, other people take notice."

Recent renovations to the Load of Fun gallery and Joe Squared pizza’s addition of outdoor seating, combined with the MICA renovations, ought to breathe more life into that section of North Avenue, Stone says.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Sources: Ben Stone, Station North; MICA

A renovation and expansion are in the works for Belvedere Square market as existing stores expand and new ones join the mix next year.

Among the new tenants is Wurst, a shop selling German and Austrian-style hot dogs and sausages. Nelson Carey, owner of Belvedere Square’s Grand Cru wine bar, is spearheading the new venture to open by venture to open in March. Carey says he has scoured the nation to bring Belvedere Square patrons the best dogs from New York, Chicago, and other areas.

Why hot dogs? "Everyone loves hot dogs," Carey says.

Wurst is one of four new tenants coming to the market, says Bill Struever, managing director of Belvedere Square property manager Cross Street Partners. Struever declined to name the other three vendors as leases haven’t been signed.

In the coming months, several existing tenants will expand. They include sushi eatery Ikan, Atwater’s, and Neopol Savory Smokery. The market will close for a period next year to make way for the expansion and new tenants. The market hours will also be extended by an hour or two, closing at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. at night, Struever says. Cross Street plans to also extend the sidewalk to double the outdoor seating capacity.

Elsewhere at Belvedere Square, Sofi’s Crepes will open next month in the former Starbucks spot on York Road. The creperie is moving its shop from downtown Baltimore's Women's Industrial Exchange to the North Baltimore shopping center. Its flagship store next to the Charles Theater will remain open.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Sources: Nelson Carey, Grand Cru; Bill Struever, Cross Street Partners

Single Carrot Theatre has teamed up with a sound design software company to hunt for real estate in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District to accommodate the growing theater troupe.

Teaming up with Figure 53 LLC will enable the two entities to share resources -- from a copy machine to graphic artists, Single Carrot Executive Director Elliott Rauh says.

Single Carrot will make the move as early as July 2012, when its lease at 122 W. North Ave. is up. Figure 53, which would provide the capital to buy a 10,000-square-foot building, could move sooner if it finds the right space, Figure 53's Christopher Ashworth says.

The Baltimore software firm wants a space that holds a lab where it can test new products. One product in development is Tixato, an online ticket sale application for smaller theater troupes like Single Carrot.

Rauh says he is looking for a space that can seat between 75 and 99. Its current space seats 50 and is at 85 percent capacity.

"We're stuck in a glass ceiling if we can't get more earned income," Rauh says.

Single Carrot's long-term vision is to grow its budget from $211,00 to $500,000 and to do so it will need to receive more earned income. And it doesn't want to raise ticket prices, Rauh says.

The upstart theater company was founded by friends from the University of Colorado who chose Baltimore as a home after scouring 50 cities. It currently has five employees, four of whom work part-time.

Figure 53 employs six. "Billy Elliott," "South Pacific," and other Broadway shows have used its software.


Writer: Julekha Dash
Sources: Elliott Rauh, Christopher Ashworth

An $11 million apartment building will begin construction in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District this year, bringing more life to an area undergoing revitalization. 

The 74-unit Lillian Jones apartments will break ground at the end of the year and take about one year to complete, says Jim French, president of French Development Co. The Baltimore real estate firm, which specializes in nonprofit and community-sponsored projects, won the development rights after the Baltimore Housing department issued a bid.

The Station North district is home to the Charles Theatre, Tapas Teatro, and a number of galleries and theater troupes, including Single Carrot Theatre and Annex Theater and Gallery. It will lose one of its anchors, Everyman Theatre Co., when the group moves to Baltimore's west side next year.

Located at Greenmount Avenue and E. Hoffman Street, the apartments replace vacant land and homes.

"The idea is to provide better housing for people in the community and create more life on the street by having people living on Greenmount Avenue," French says. The economic conditions aren't strong enough to build market-rate housing, but hopefully in time they will be.

The apartments will include one, two, and three-bedroom units. They are available to individuals and families who pull in 50 percent below the Baltimore metro area media income, or around $41,000 for a family of four.

Designed by Cho Benn Holback+Associates Inc., the four-story building includes a courtyard and exterior made of brick, cement and glass.

Sources: Jim French, French Co.; David Benn, Cho Benn Holback+Associates
Writer: Julekha Dash

An experimental theater in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District is on the hunt for a new stage.

The three-year old Baltimore Annex Theater is looking at spaces on the west side and downtown as its lease at 419 E. Oliver St. ends Jan. 1, says company member Rick Gerriets. Theater members are looking at the H&H building on the city's west side as a possible location as they seek a space of around 5,000 square feet, the size of the current location.

The theater troupe is looking for programs and grants that can help pay for the move. These include Healthy Neighborhoods, a nonprofit that supports initiatives that help strengthen Baltimore neighborhoods, and Downtown Partnership of Baltimore's initiative to provide grants to artists and businesses to fill vacant storefronts.

Unlike some other theater groups in town, the Baltimore Annex Theater has taken its show on the road. The theater troupe recently completed a six-week tour visiting 35 cities, including Detroit, Santa Fe, Houston and Nashville. Actors were performing "A Fistful of Flowers," a play by Evan Moritz about two modern-day cowboys who are ex lovers that chase each other around the desert trying to kill each other.

The theater got its start when five college classmates from James Madison University and the University of Virginia moved to Baltimore. The Baltimore City Paper named Moritz best director in its annual Best of Baltimore issue this year.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Rick Gerriets, Baltimore Annex Theater

The Station North Arts and Entertainment District will welcome a $12 million artists' residence and gallery by the end of the year, furthering city officials' goal to make the area north of Mount Vernon a magnet for creative types.
 
A team of four developers and the Rouse Co. Foundation are leading the City Arts project, an 80,000-square-foot building with 69 rental units and eight townhomes that will go on sale.

The developers are currently looking for someone who can book performers and find artists to display their work on the walls, says Charlie Duff, president of Jubilee Baltimore Inc., one of the developers. The other developers are Homes for America Inc., TRF Development Partners-Baltimore and Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development. Southway Builders Inc. is the general contractor.

Duff envisions City Arts as a place that can help retain artists in Station Arts after they hit 25. The Station North area is chock full of "cheap grubby space" that appeals to the recent college graduate, but few spaces for folks in their late 20s, Duff says.
 
"Eventually, people want to settle down and go to bed earlier and they can't do it now in Station North," he adds. "We want this building to become part of the Station North scene as it evolves."

The neighborhood is home to long-time businesses Tapas Teatro and Everyman Theatre. In recent years, it has attracted new arts organizations, including Single Carrot Theatre and the Strand Theater Co.

The City Arts project at 440 E. Oliver Street was financed with the federal low-income housing tax credit. Rents will cost $625 for a one-bedroom apartment and $750 for a two-bedroom apartment.

Prices for the townhomes have not been set yet, Duff says.


Source: Charlie Duff, Jubilee Baltimore Inc.
Writer: Julekha Dash

The Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) says that, it will enter into negotiations with the development team of Seawall Development Company, owned by Donald and Thibault Manekin, and Cormony Development LLC, owned by Samuel Polakoff, for the Parkway Theatre Redevelopment Project located at 1820 North Charles Street, 1 West North Avenue and 3 West North Avenue--the former Parkway Theatre.

Baltimore's Parkway Theatre was designed by Oliver B. Wright and patterned after the West End Theatre near Leicester Square in London. The theatre was acquired in 1926 by the Loews organization and extensively remodeled. Movies remained the mainstay until the theatre was acquired and closed in 1952 by the Morris Mechanic organization. It reopened in 1956 as the Five West Art Theatre, continuing that operation into the mid 1970's when it again closed and remained so until the early 1990's when an attempt was made to open commercial office space in the rear orchestra level. The theatre has remained vacant since 1998.

Seawall and Cormony have proposed a $12.2 million mixed-use project, featuring a 26,189 square foot build-out that incorporates the three properties into a seamless development that celebrates the arts. The team's design incorporates a performing arts venue, bar, a museum and related support space.

The Parkway will undergo an historic renovation, becoming a multi-faceted theatre able to accommodate a wide variety of entertainment. While the focus will be on live music, other options are expected to include community theatre, children's shows, comedy, movies, lectures, and a catering hall.

The existing building at 1 West North Avenue would be replaced with new construction in order to achieve a vibrant, illuminated corner. The new structure will feature a lobby and office for the theatre on the lower levels and commercial uses on the upper floors. Meanwhile, the fa�ade of 1820 North Charles Street will be retained. Each floor in this building becomes an extension of the space on the same floor in 1 West North Avenue. The first floor will house the kitchen for the theatre.

"This proposal and this development team provide a great opportunity to revitalize a historic structure and reinvigorate the most critical area in the Charles North community," says BDC President M.J. "Jay" Brodie. "We are confident that this project will serve as a catalyst for more private investment throughout the community."

The proposal is the result of a Request for Proposals issued in May 2009,  in which the BDC offered the three properties, located within Charles North, the Station North Arts and Entertainment District and the City's Enterprise Zone, for redevelopment. BDC received just two responses to the RFP.

Both a community-appointed Advisory Panel and BDC's Project Review and Oversight Committee unanimously approved the Seawall/Cormony proposal. Subsequently, the Board of Directors of BDC endorsed the proposal and Mayor Sheila Dixon approved the Board's recommendation.

Source The Baltimore Development Corporation
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Mayor Sheila Dixon has approved the recommendations of the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) of three projects hat will use the city's Recovery Zone Facility Bonds. BDC, on behalf of the City of Baltimore, will enter into 90-day Exclusive Negotiating Privileges with each of the development teams.

The first project is a hotel, Inn at Penn Station, that will transform the vacant, upper floors of Baltimore's historic Penn Station into a 77-room boutique hotel. The hotel will occupy second and third floors and the majority of the fourth floorm though Amtrak will continue to occupythe remainder of the fourth floor. The developer, Penn Station Hotel, LLC, is an entity comprised of Hospitality Partners, LLC, James M. Jost & Company, A&R Development, Inc. and Summit Associates, LLC.

The development group has requested $8.1 million of Facility Bond proceeds; total project costs are estimated to be $12,438,000.

BDC estimates the direct City benefits from this project to be 89 construction jobs, 27 permanent jobs, and over $8.9 million in total new taxes over a 20-year period. In addition to the quantitative benefits, the Inn at Penn Station project will leverage the other redevelopment efforts undertaken and investment made by the City and other public, non-profit and private partners in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District.

Marketplace at Fells Point will be a  a mixed-used project comprised of two buildings totaling 126,500 square feet, including 160 apartments, 28,500 square feet of ground level commercial/retail space and 118 structured parking spaces. The project is located in the east and west blocks of 600 South Broadway, two blocks north of the corner of Broadway at Thames Street.

The Marketplace at Fells Point developer is South Broadway Properties, LLC, a partnership comprised of David Holmes and Daniel Winner as managing members. South Broadway Properties, LLC is requesting $8 million of Facility Bond proceeds; total project costs are estimated to be $52,046,508.

BDC projects the direct City benefits from the Marketplace at Fells Point project to be 300 construction jobs, 285 permanent jobs, 100 new City residents and over $15 million in total new taxes over a 20-year period.

The final project is the Curtis Bay Energy/Mid-Atlantic Integrated Sustainable Service Center for Healthcare Systems. The project entails construction of a new commercial laundry facility with high efficiency washers, dryers, and processing equipment that will be powered100 percent  by steam created by the nearby Baltimore Regional Medical Waste Treatment Facility. The project is located at 3300-12 Hawkins Point Road in Curtis Bay. Curtis Bay Energy, Inc. is owned by Himmelrich Associates, Inc., (Samuel K. Himmelrich, Jr.), the project developer.

Himmelrich Associates owns and manages the Baltimore Regional Medical Waste Treatment Facility, an existing facility for safe and efficient destruction of regulated medical waste.

As a byproduct of the treatment facility's operations, 4.29 MWh of electrical power is produced, and is currently largely unused. The energy byproduct of the treatment facility can be captured and used to power the Laundry Project, providing a clean, renewable energy source.

Himmelrich Associates is requesting $14 million of Facility Bond proceeds; total project costs are estimated to be $29,286,272.

Direct City benefits from the Laundry Project have been estimated by BDC as 95 construction jobs, 150 permanent jobs, and more than $12.9 million in total new taxes over a 20-year period.

Recovery Zone Facility Bonds are a new category of tax exempt private activity bonds authorized under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The ARRA allocates $30.8 million in facility bonds within the City of Baltimore Recovery Zone that was created by an Ordinance of the City Council in July 2009.

"That BDC received so many proposals is a healthy sign that development activity is beginning to pick up in Baltimore," says Mayor Dixon. "We are particularly pleased with the diversity of the three projects selected and their potential to stimulate neighborhood and economic development efforts."

"We were pleased with the array of projects submitted," says BDC President M. J. "Jay" Brodie. "The Recovery Zone Facility Bonds will stimulate our economic development efforts and will help create three projects generating jobs and taxes for the City."

The BDC'sAdvisory Panel (consisting of representatives from the Baltimore Economic Recovery Team � BERT, the Baltimore City Departments of Finance and Housing and Community Development, and BDC, with McGuireWoods LLP and Municap Inc. serving as consultants for legal and financial advice). reviewed the 19 proposals, narrowing them down the three recommendations.

Source: Baltimore Development Corporation
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Whether you're a business owner, community organization or just a neighborhood regular, if you have a business opening or that has recently opened tell us about. You could find your new business featured in our development news section.

The old Goucher Hall, the castle located at 2201 St. Paul Street, is officially the permanent home of the Baltimore Lab School. The school, which began renting the facility in 2004, completed its $1.5 million purchase of the historic building.

According to Richard Meltzer, school principal, the former home to Goucher College before its move to Towson, is a perfect fit for the school whose mission is to teach children with learning disabilities. Staying in Baltimore was also important, he says.

The circa 1887 edifice, whose 19th century interiors remain largely intact, has also housed the Red Cross and later was the home of the Hearing and Speech Agency's Gateway School.

Source: Richard Meltzer, Baltimore Lab School
Writer: Walaika Haskins

The Baltimore-based Parks & People Foundation, is offering up to $1,000 for groups interested in greening their neighborhood. The monies, part of a partnership with the Baltimore Community Foundation and the Cleaner Greener Baltimore Initiative, provides up to $1,000 in Neighborhood Greening Grants for those planning projects that will plant trees, create community gardens, clean up and restore vacant lots, clean up neighborhoods, create green schoolyards, improve water quality improve and provide environmental education activities. Grant funds may also be used for tools, plant material, equipment and other needed supplies.