Artists’ housing: Six-story, 160-unit, $37 million apartment building proposed for Baltimore’s Station North area

A parking lot in the Station North arts district will become the setting for a six-story, 160-unit apartment building designed for artists, under a plan by The Severn Companies of Annapolis and Cam Construction of Lutherville.

Art House Baltimore is the name of the project, which will rise in the block bounded roughly by W. 20^th Street on the north, the 1900 block of Maryland Avenue on the east, W. 19½ Street on the south and the 1900 block of Howard Street on the west. It’s close to Station North’s two main spines, Charles Street and North Avenue.

According to CAM Construction’s website, the project’s estimated cost is $37 million. Preliminary plans were presented on Thursday to Baltimore’s Urban Design and Architecture Advisory Panel (UDAAP). Architecture by Design and Kimley-Horn are heading the design team.

The block-long building will consist of five stories of wood-framed residential construction over a concrete base that will house a community gathering space, management offices, a telework lounge, a fitness center, covered parking and about 13,000 square feet of commercial space that can accommodate a mix of artist studios, a makerspace and a café.

The residences will be a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Plans presented to UDAAP showed the apartments laid out in a “figure-8” configuration, with some facing onto city streets and others overlooking landscaped, open-air courtyards.

According to a project overview presented by the developers, “all units will be affordable,” intended for individuals with a range of incomes varying between 30 percent and 60 percent of the Area Median Income, and preference in renting will be given to artists.

One unusual feature of the funding plan, the developers say, is that the building will be “condo’d” into two distinct ownership entities, enabling the team to leverage a combination of four percent and nine percent low income tax credits through a “twin financing structure.”

In addition, they say, Art House was the only project in Baltimore City that was selected to receive funding in the latest application round overseen by the state housing department’s Community Development Administration.