retail : Development News

Baltimore residents will soon have a place to learn how to paint while sipping a glass of chardonnay once the Painted Palette paint-and-sip opens its new studio in Mt. Washington Village mid-September.
 
Co-owner Becca Hauser says she and her partner Brooke Snyder signed a lease for an 1,800-square-foot space near the Mt. Washington Tavern and Baltimore Clayworks.

Hauser says they chose this location because Mt.  Washington is a close-knit community that supports local businesses and the arts. It is also accessible by both city and count residents and also by light rail. 

The paint-and-sip shop trend combines wine drinking with a painting workshop. The two-hour classes will cost $35 and students can bring their favorite bottle of wine.  

The entrepreneurs have been taking paint supplies and bottles of wine to birthday parties, corporate events and ladies’ nights for the past year. But they decided to lease a studio before their company's one-year anniversary.
 
“We feel that our client base has grown in such a way that it can support studio classes and I think it’s the right time to take things to the next level,” Hauser says.
 
The Painted Palette will likely host classes Thursday-Sunday, all of which will be open to the public.  And the duo will continue to host private parties and corporate events as they come up. 

Writer: Daryl Hale
Source: Becca Hauser

Locust Point residents will get a new place to practice their downward facing dog when BambooMoves Yoga opens in September.
 
Owner Monica Ott says that she wanted to bring a yoga studio to Locust Point after moving to the neighborhood earlier this year.

“I really wanted to bring a sense of a holistic approach of fitness and wellness to the neighborhood, which I thought was kind of lacking,” Ott says.

The 800-square-foot studio will be located at 1624 E Fort Ave. The space, which was formerly an organic nail salon, is currently undergoing some construction, such as repainting and redoing the floors to embody an “inviting, warm feel,” Ott says. The style will be modern vintage.
 
Though Ott privately owns the studio, it is part of the BambooMoves yoga collective, which is composed of four independent studios in the metro New York area. 
 
The Locust Point location will offer mostly yoga classes at all levels, with live music in the background. The style of yoga is Hatha Raja Vinyasa. 

Though a schedule is not yet finalized, classes will be offered seven days a week in the morning, midday and evening. For the first month, customers can purchase an unlimited membership for $30.
 
Ott says she hopes that the studio will build a sense of community in the neighborhood. “I want it to be very inviting, a place where you feel comfortable in any type of class,” she says.

Writer: Daryl Hale
Source: Monica Ott, Bamboo Moves

A Pikesville real estate broker is branching out, with plans to renovate a rowhome and open a grocery store in the city’s Oliver neighborhood in six months.

Janie Cauthorne, owner of Pikesville’s Real Estate Executives, will spend $100,000 to renovate the approximately 2,000-square-foot building at 1800 N. Bond St. The first floor will house the grocery store and a branch of her real estate firm. The second level contains two apartments.

She’s still working out the details, but Cauthorne hopes the as-yet unnamed store will specialize in organic food and will “promote healthy eating” in the community. She will privately finance the renovations.

She estimates that about five realtors will use the office, and the grocery store will employ five.

The building is currently vacant, but it has a history of retail. Cauthorne says zoning board records show the first floor of the building had been a grocery store since the 1940s. 

Writer: Amy Landsman
Source: Janie Cauthorne, Real Estate Executives 

With her organic and vegan skincare products on the shelves, Shelley Birnbaum's ReNew Botanicals has become the first tenant in the Hamilton-Lauraville retail incubator.
 
Owner Shelley Birnbaum previously had a small skin care studio in Hampden, but wanted more space so she could add her retail line of products.
 
“I just had my skin care studio and that was by appointment only. I didn’t have retail or anything like that.  I was making my products at home. So I really was looking to have everything under one roof,” she says.
 
The Lauraville resident got in touch with Hamilton-Lauraville Main Street and ended up as the incubator’s first tenant, occupying 750 square feet last month.
 
Birnbaum has also launched a baby line called Baby Botanicals. Birnbaum declined to discuss her investment, but says she was helped by an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.
 
“It’s wonderful to be close to home. It’s exciting to be part of this project to help revitalize the Hamilton retail district.”
 
Hamilton-Lauraville Main Street is assisting Birnbaum by reviewing her business plan, helping her obtain permits, preparing financial statements and promoting her retail line through Facebook, email blasts and blogs. The incubator is a former volunteer fire station and one-time Hamilton Democratic Club at 3015 Hamilton Ave.
 
Hamilton-Lauraville Main Street purchased the 3,250-square foot building for $64,000 last year. Now, the first floor has been renovated and given new life as a place where small, local businesses can be nurtured until the owners are ready to move into a storefront of their own.
 
Writer: Amy Landsman
Sources: Shelley Birnbaum, owner ReNew Botanicals
Regina Lansinger, director Hamilton-Lauraville Main Street

The operator of the Broadway Market has tapped Chesapeake Real Estate Group LLC as the lead developer for a $4.2 million renovation and expansion of one of the historic neighborhood’s key attractions.
 
Construction will begin in September on a new, 4,295-square-foot building at the market’s south end in what is now a parking lot. At that time, Chesapeake Real Estate will also begin renovating the 6,500-square-foot building on the north side of the market and lease the mostly empty building. The project will wrap up summer of 2014, says Chesapeake Real Estate Partner Richard Manekin.
 
The company is talking to prospective fast casual restaurant owners and food vendors about leasing space and expects to finalize deals within the next four to five months, Manekin says.
 
The Baltimore Public Markets Corp. is a nonprofit that operates and leases food markets from Baltimore City. But under the new agreement with Chesapeake, the real estate firm will sublease Broadway Market and pay the nonprofit a portion of its revenues. Chesapeake signed a 40-year sublease with a 25-year option for renewal. The Baltimore City Board of Estimates approved the deal earlier this month.
 
The Broadway Market expansion and renovation was originally part of the massive Marketplace at Fells Point development until last year. That’s when Massachusetts firm the Dolben Co. acquired the rights to lead the construction of the new apartments and retail from Dave Holmes of South Broadway Properties LLC. Holmes remains a partner and investor in the Broadway Market makeover, though he is not the lead developer.
 
Holmes says he partnered with Chesapeake because he didn’t want the already delayed project to stall any longer.
 
Casper Genco, executive director of the Baltimore Public Markets, says he thought it made sense to choose a developer that could invest in the market so it can keep pace with Marketplace at Fells. Dolben is readying the first phase of retail and apartments for completion next summer.

“The Baltimore Public Markets doesn’t have the resources to do that,” Genco says of the Broadway Market renovation and expansion. 

Chesapeake Real Estate has leased the Bagby Building, Canton Crossing and other developments.

Writer: Julekha Dash
Sources: Casper Genco, Baltimore Public Markets; Richard Manekin, Chesapeake Real Estate; Dave Holmes, South Broadway Properties LLC 
 

Maria Smith, owner of Top Kitty boutique in Waverly, is opening a second location in Mount Vernon next month.

Smith will share a third floor, 300-square-foot rental at 516 N. Charles St. with Sharifah Gavins, owner of design consultancy Butterfli Affect. Top Kitty offers styling services, accessories, and clothes geared toward professional women. 

Smith and Gavins are in the process of painting and decorating the suite, located above A People United fair trade shop. The shop is located on the building’s ground level, with four stories of office space above. Smith has one intern, but no additional employees.

Smith says she believes having space in both Waverly and Mount Vernon covers many bases. Shoppers have discovered her Waverly boutique, while Mount Vernon tends to be home base for her VIP styling clients.

Smith and Gavins are still working on a name and slogan for the new location. They may go with: “House of DecoFash: Where a Butterfly Designs and a Kitty Styles.”

Smith will use the Charles Street office for Baltimore Fashion Week model calls, and for year-round one-on-one fashion consultations with clients.

Along with running Top Kitty, Smith serves as a stylist and production team member for Baltimore Fashion Week. Now in its sixth year, Fashion Week takes place Aug. 8 –11 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Pikesville.

“Most of my clients who come to me for styling are going to be the type of woman who wants to meet with me in Mount Vernon. She’s the upwardly mobile kitty. She’s busy. She’s a professional. She’s a business owner.”

In addition to operating Top Kitty, Smith works full-time in residential and commercial property management. She says she self-financed both the Waverly and Mount Vernon locations.

Writer: Amy Landsman
Source: Maria Smith, owner Top Kitty Clothing
 

There’s a new place in Mount Vernon for residents to pick up steamed pork buns, Cuban pastries, Turkish coffee and Paraguayan empanadas.

The Bun Shop opened last month at 239 W. Read St. Co-owner Andrew Bui says he and his business partner Minh Vo will expand the BYOB café’s offerings in the next month to include furniture, home goods and flowers since the 1,700-square-foot spot offers room to grow.

“Originally we wanted a small store front but we just found this place. It was a bakery so it had a lot of equipment that we needed that we couldn’t afford,” Bui says.

The owners also will begin selling Vietnamese spring rolls and other appetizers on the weekends starting this month. The café will host its first event with the May 17 launch party for Slight-Mag, a fashion magazine started by Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) students.

Childhood friends Bui and Bo spent about $30,000 to open the Bun Shop, using their own cash and money borrowed from family. Bui says he left a product design job in New York while Bo left his pharmacology Ph.D. program at Johns Hopkins University.

Bui says the Bun Shop has been attracting area residents, including MICA and University of Baltimore students, interested in late-night cheap eats. The Bun Shop is open until 3 a.m. 

Writer: Julekha Dash
Source: Andrew Bui, the Bun Shop

The relocation of a Hampden business gives neighborhood dogs something to bark about.
 
The nine-year-old Good Doggie Day Care will be moving from 3500 Ash St. to a larger space at 529 W. 29^th St. by early July.
 
The 14,000-square-foot location gives business owner JoAnne Garrett 5,500 square feet of more space and 13 playrooms instead of six. The new space, which formerly housed the Hanover Uniform Co., has two floors with a large ramp for the dogs.
 
“The new location is much easier to get to, and it won’t crowd the dogs,” Garrett says. “Also, some of our dogs are aging, and we’ll have a place for our ‘older kids’.” The new location will have a “Senior Paws” area dedicated to older dogs.
 
Garrett employs 23 and will will hire one assistant manager, one evening assistant manager and four daycare attendants for the new location.
 
Good Doggie takes care of 50 to 100 dogs per day. Prices range from $20 for one half-day session to $28 for five full-day sessions. One-third of the customers come from the neighborhood while many also come from downtown, Garrett says.
 
Contact: JoAnne Garrett, owner of Good Doggie Day Care
Writer: Jolene Carr

A new art gallery, café and gift shop is coming to Highlandtown this summer that will showcase local artists in permanent and revolving art exhibits.  
 
Highlandtown Art Gallery Owner Felicia Zannino-Baker will showcase10 to 12 artists per month at the 1,000-square-foot gallery at  248 S. Conkling St., near the recently opened Baltimore Threadquarters. Baker will devote an area to slideshows of historical Highlandtown and host book signings, artist talks and workshops with local crafters making scarves, wooden puzzles, textiles, wooden puzzles, collages and handbags.
 
The gift shop will sell notecards, duffle bags, mugs and local books, including Gary Helton’s “History of Highlandtown.” Baker says she is working with the owners of Highlandtown's High Grounds Coffee Roasters to create a special blend specifically for the gallery café.
 
Baker was born and raised in Highlandtown and owns the residential and commercial design company Magnolia Studios LLC. In addition to a Washington, D.C., location, Magnolia previously had a location next to the gallery and now has a studio on Eastern Ave.
 
Baker is also a member of the Highlandtown Arts and Entertainment District advisory board. “This is a wonderful experience. Once you tap into these people, you see it’s very rich and diverse, and there’s something for everyone. It’s all different mediums: sculpture, watercolor, collage. You name it, they’re there. It’s in their hearts and in their minds.”
 
Baker owns the building that houses the gallery. The gallery will occupy the first floor while the second and third floors are residential space.
 
Writer: Jolene Carr
Source: Felicia Zannino-Baker, Highlandtown Art Gallery

The owner of Waverly’s Darker Than Blue Café is talking to the developers of two of Baltimore City’s biggest residential and retail projects near Johns Hopkins University about relocating the popular restaurant to a bigger spot. And he’s cooking up plans for a new eatery at his current home on Greenmount Avenue.

Casey Jenkins says he is working with Artios Retail LLC, a Bel Air leasing and brokerage firm, to assist with the expansion by 2015. The business owner is looking at the Rotunda in Hampden and the lot at 32^nd Street and Saint Paul Street in Charles Village as possible locations for the expanded Darker Than Blue.

“Our dream is to move to a large development,” Jenkins says, noting that a larger development will give the restaurant more visibility.

Jenkins opened the 85-seat Darker Than Blue at 3034 Greenmount Ave. seven years ago. The move will hopefully allow him to seat as many as 150 in the expanded location. The new Darker Than Blue will be more polished and upscale and have less of a mom-and-pop feel.

The restaurant will still serve Southern-inspired food, including catfish and grits and chicken and waffles. Jenkins will also continue to feature regular live jazz. A bigger restaurant will allow Jenkins to feature new items, including a rotisserie with ribs, pork and chicken. 

Virginia’s Armada Hoffler and Baltimore’s Beatty Development Group LLC are leading the redevelopment of the lot near Johns Hopkins University. Formerly a condo project called the Olmsted, it is now dubbed the St. Paul Street Project in Charles Village.

New Jersey’s Hekemian & Co. is leading the $70M Rotunda redevelopment in Hampden, slated to include a local grocer, apartments and restaurants when it is completed in summer 2015.

Meanwhile, Jenkins says he will open a new restaurant in the current Darker Than Blue location — most likely West Indian or Latin. Jenkins says he’ll probably open up the space a little more, and that the new place will be a bit more casual than Darker Than Blue. The as-yet unnamed restaurant would seat the same number of people.

Jenkins is in expansion mode. In May, he’s opening Birdland Sports Bar and Grill in Cedmont.
 
Writer: Amy Landsman
Source: Casey Jenkins, owner of Darker Than Blue and Birdland Sports Bar & Grill

There’s a new place in downtown Baltimore for hookah parties.
 
Midnight Kings Lounge opened April at 318 North Charles St. next to Cazbar Turkish restaurant in a space once occupied by London’s Boutique. Co-owner Amir Shuaib says he and his cousin will ultimatley spend $400,000 to open the 1,500-square-foot business, which sells cigarettes, cigars, hookahs and tobaccos in more than 20 flavors.
 
The lounge area includes two televisions and seating for about 100. Shuaib says he’s working to get a liquor license so he can add a bar. He also hopes to serve food within the next couple of months and expand into the location’s second floor.
 
Midnight Kings offer $15 individual hookah use Sunday-Wednesday, with Thursday college night specials. 
 
“With the casinos and everything coming in, (entertainment business) seems to be popular.” Shuaib says. “And downtown is where all of the entertainment is.”
 
Shuaib and his cousin will employ two during the week and three on weekends.
 
Writer: Jolene Carr
Source: Amir Shuaib, co-owner of Midnight Kings Lounge
 

Urban Design Group LLC  is going green for the Riverside Wharf project in South Baltimore. The sustainable architectural firm in Fells Point has designed a green roof for the building, the first project under Baltimore’s Key Highway South Urban Renewal Plan.

Urban Design Group is bringing sustainable measures to two other high-profile projects in Baltimore: the new Merchant Point townhomes in Fells Point and the renovation of the Inner Harbor's World Trade Center, which will be done this year.
 
Urban Design President Michael Burton says he expects the $10 million Riverside Wharf project to be done in 2014. Caves Valley Partners is developing the former industrial site located along Key Highway at Lawrence Street into a 100,000-square-foot, three-story building with parking garage.
 
On the main floor, Walgreens drugstore will occupy 14,000 square feet along with other retailers; the upper two floors have 31,000 square feet of office space; a parking garage accounts for the remaining space.

He says the green roof will enable the building to comply with Baltimore’s green building standards and the state’s storm water management regulations.
 
Passed by the City Council in 2007, green building standards apply to new and existing commercial and multi-family residences over 10,000 square feet.

For the almost 8,000-square-foot green roof, a layer of soil and plants that can withstand weather and wind is laid on top of a drainage system. “The building occupies an entire city block. You’ve got to find a way to deal with storm water management,” says Burton.

Merchant Point involves the conversion of a church into a private school and office space, an existing building into offices and 18 new rowhouses. Located at the intersection of South Ann and Aliceanna streets, the townhomes will be ready this summer and are sold out. Urban Design Group used sustainable construction material and created an urban garden to meet the city’s green building standards.
 
The Maryland Port Authority awarded a contract to Pepco Energy Services to install energy-efficiency measures in several buildings, including the 40-year-old, 30-story World Trade Center.
 
Urban Design Group designed a geothermal system for the building’s mechanical systems. The system pumps water from the Inner Harbor through the building’s mechanical systems. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and federal Environmental Protection Agency had to approve the design.
 
Burton founded Urban Design Group in 2009. In 2011, the company moved into the incubator, Emerging Technology Center at Canton. Last February, the company graduated from the incubator and moved to an office in Fells Point.
 
During its time in the incubator, revenue tripled to over $1 million in 2013 and the staff doubled to nine. Urban Design Group is looking to hire a project manager.
 
Source: Michael Burton, Urban Design Group
Writer: Barbara Pash; [email protected]

Pepe’s Pizza, a neighborhood hangout in Mount Washington for 34 years, is undergoing a $1.5 million expansion and renovation that will wrap up in August.

The makeover will include an expanded dining area with new wood floors, a new kitchen, bathroom heating, and second floor storage and an office for the restaurant’s catering business, Owner Andy Makris says. The 6,000-square-foot addition will bring 124 seats to the establishment and an outdoor patio. It currently seats 50.

Makris says he hopes to open a second location within the next five years.

The Pepe's Pizza building is run down, and the time is right for a new look, especially as more competition enters the market, Makris says. The Mt. Washington Tavern unveiled a $4 million renovation in the fall.

Makris says he is also renovating for his father, who was murdered in the restaurant 12 years ago. Two brothers are serving life in prison for the crime.

“This is something my dad and I planned,” he says. 

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Pepe’s attracts neighborhood residents, construction workers and parents and kids from the Gilman School.

Regulars include Sinclair Broadcasting Vice President Duncan Smith, who’s been known to grab a towel and clean his own table.

Makris is expanding the menu with more coffee selections, bagels, and Danish for the morning crowds. Makris says he is adding fried chicken for the construction crews, and more salads for female patrons.

“Thai salad. My wife says that’s what she eats when she goes out.”

Pepe’s employs 23. Makris says he isn’t sure if he will add staff.
 
Writer: Amy Landsman
Source: Andy Makris, Owner, Pepe’s Pizza

Two independent clothing stores in Hampden, Sixteen Tons and Doubledutch Boutique are moving into a shared space on the Avenue next month.

The move will allow the two stores to share overhead expenses and carry a wider array of merchandise, Sixteen Tons Owner Daniel Wylie says. 

The two-story, 1,400-square-foot spot at 1021  W. 36^th St. is the former home of Denova furniture store. Doubledutch — a women's clothing store owned by Wylie's wife Lesley Jennings and Sixteen Tons will retain their separate names and brands.  

Wylie says he hopes the central block on the Avenue, next to the Food Market — a restaurant named a "hot spot" by Open Table diners — will give both stores more visibility and foot traffic. For Doubledutch, it's a chance to move off Falls Road and onto Hampden's central thoroughfare, the Avenue. Wylie opened Sixteen Tons at 1100 W. 36th St. in 2010.  

Moving into a larger space will allow him to sell more shoes, accessories, shaving products and house wares. Diversifying his inventory will hopefully increase sales, Wylie says. If someone doesn’t want to buy a pair of trousers, maybe they might buy a table or shaving cream.

Wylie says he does not yet know how much the move will cost. He says the store is profitable, though sales fluctuate with the seasons. 
 
Learn more about Sixteen Tons in this video made by Shine Creative. 

Source: Daniel Wylie
Writer: Julekha Dash

Developer Howard Chambers is spearheading a six-story, $6.5 million apartment, office and restaurant project at the vacant Mount Vernon building where his great-grandfather once ran one of Baltimore’s oldest design firms.
 
Chambers says he will break ground on 1010 North Charles St. between November and March of next year, adding 35 market-rate apartments behind and above it as part of the 47,000-square-foot project. The building will feature a mix of studio and one-bedroom units, with an average size of 640 square feet. Residents will have access to a rooftop patio. 
 
The building will contain a 2,850-square-foot restaurant with outdoor dining. The type of eatery remains wide open, Chambers says. The building’s second floor will be turned into office space. Chambers says he is still working on the final configuration of the building.
 
1010 N. Charles St. was once the headquarters of 108-year-old design firm, The H. Chambers Co., which moved to Baltimore office building Montgomery Park in 2006. It most recently housed Bath Time Inc., a showroom containing high-end faucets and other bath hardware that closed four years ago. 
 
The Mount Vernon Belvedere Association, The Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation and the city’s planning department have all signed off on the project. Engineering studies are underway.
 
Mount Vernon’s many transportation options make 1010 North Charles an attractive location for apartments, Chambers says. “Right next door there are 14 Zipcar spaces, the bus line to and from Hopkins, the train station to and from D.C. is three or four blocks north of the site, so apartments make a tremendous amount of sense.”
 
Mount Vernon has attracted more interest from developers as enrollment at the University of Baltimore has grown from 5,000 to 7,000 in the past five years. Since UB doesn’t have dorms, many of those students are clamoring for nearby apartments. Plus, Chambers thinks 1010 North Charles will attract hospital workers from Mercy Medical Center and Johns Hopkins Hospital, as well as faculty from University of Baltimore's new law school building set to open next month.
 
 
Writer: Amy Landsman; [email protected]
Source: Howard Chambers, president of 1010 North Charles LLC