Remington’s newest apartment and office development, a $29 million project called The Service Center, has leased nearly 75 percent of its apartments and 100 percent of its office space even before it opens.
The newest office tenant is CollegeBound Foundation, a non-profit that helps Baltimore City high school students get into college. Seawall, the developer of the mixed-use project at 2507 N. Howard St., announced on Tuesday that CollegeBound has signed a lease for 14,000 square feet of space on the second floor of the six-story building and will move its headquarters there. With that transaction, the office space in the building is now fully leased.
Founded in 1988, CollegeBound seeks to help low-income and first-generation Baltimore City public school students realize their dreams of a college education through advising and financial support. Since 2020, it has been a tenant of Seawall’s Miller’s Court development at 2601 N. Howard St. Serving more than 4,000 high school students and 700 college students every year, it recently received sizable donations from the Baltimore Orioles and the Ravens/Biscotti Foundation.
CollegeBound will join another non-profit, Wide Angle Youth Media, which has leased 11,000 square feet on the first floor for a headquarters with a production studio, learning labs, offices, and a gallery and events area. Its mission is to cultivate and amplify the voices of Baltimore youth through media arts education.
The Service Center also contains a 1,700-square-foot first-level retail space and 64 upper-level apartments, with the first residents scheduled to move in later this month.
‘Civically engaged‘
Seawall says its goal is to make The Service Center “the most civically engaged building in the city” by connecting residents to local volunteering opportunities and by leasing office space to community-minded organizations and companies.
In Seawall’s current newsletter, company co-founder and partner Thibault Manekin described the project as a building that is “in service to the community it is in and to the amazing organizations and residents who will call it home.” He said his team explained to lending partners that “we weren’t just building 25,000 square feet of office space, we were creating a community of companies and individuals who are committed to changing the narrative of what it means to truly be in service of our city. We helped them see that in our experience, organizations gravitate towards impactful projects that lead with purpose and soul.”
Manekin said he has known and admired the team at CollegeBound for years and is “stoked” to have the organization at The Service Center.
“We will be helping them create a new headquarters so they can expand their mission of aiding Baltimore City public school students in realizing their college dreams, advising them through middle school, high school and college, and awarding millions of dollars in scholarships to high school graduates every year,” he wrote in the newsletter.
“We at CollegeBound are thrilled to be moving to The Service Center,” said Executive Director Cassie Motz, in a statement. “The large, modern, light-filled space will allow our growing team of over 50 to collaborate and work productively in supporting Baltimore’s great students on their paths to and through college. The new building will also provide ample space for us to meet with the students and families we serve, as well as our community partners.”
ServiceWorks
The Service Center will pilot a new community involvement initiative for Seawall, called the ServiceWorks program, which seeks to connect apartment residents to local volunteering opportunities through partnerships with local nonprofits and community organizations. Under Seawall’s initiative, the Service Center will make monthly contributions to each nonprofit for every hour that residents volunteer with the program.
The Service Center’s apartments are priced for key workforce members — such as nurses, first responders, nonprofit employees, and social workers — seeking to create a community of like-minded, “neighborhood-enmeshed” residents. The approach is similar to what Seawall has done with its teacher housing at Miller’s Court and Union Mill. According to Seawall, The Service Center’s apartments are nearly 75% pre-leased and a $500 rent credit is available for remaining apartments until Sept. 1.
Seawall utilized a mix of funding sources to finance its project, including New Markets Tax Credit financing from US Bank, Enterprise Community Partners, Harbor Bank, and Mid City Communities. JP2 Architects is the designer. Ground was broken in March of 2023 and the building will be completed by the end of this month, with CollegeBound and Wide Angle Youth Media expected to finish their buildouts and move in later in the year.
“We are extremely proud of how the Service Center project has come together around its mission of being Baltimore’s most civically engaged building, and CollegeBound is the final piece of that puzzle,” said Matt Pinto, partner and development lead at Seawall, in a statement. “We’re excited to get this project open and see these incredible nonprofits and residents join in on the inspiring work being done in Remington already.”
More info about the project and its apartments is available at www.servicecenterremington.com and www.hello@seawall.com.
Why is it, when an area gets hot, some developer builds a large modern building that is as architecturally foreign to Baltimore’s style as one can get?
April Smith, the area in question is “hot” because Seawall made it so. Had Seawall not had the vision and sense of community, that “area” wouldn’t be so hot. Instead of criticizing the building maybe try to consider the positive impact it will have on the community?