Developers unveil plans for a ‘shrunken’ apartment building in Charles Village

Reacting to criticism that the apartment building they proposed for Charles Village was too big, developers on Tuesday unveiled plans for a “shrunken” version.

More than 50 Charles Village residents gathered at the Homewood Friends Meetinghouse to learn about the revised design for a building that would replace Streets Market at 3117 Saint Paul St. and a former Bank of America branch at 3119 Saint Paul St.

Douglas Schmidt of Workshop Development, one of the partners in the project, told the audience that his team has spent the past year “rethinking the entire project” in response to comments received about an earlier design that was presented to city planners in early 2022.

“We listened,” he said. “There was a lot of negative feedback about the scale of the building last time and so…we started over and we shrunk the building substantially.”

As shown to the city’s Urban Design and Architecture Advisory Panel in February of 2022, the previous design called for an eight-story building that would rise 92 feet and contain 223 “beds,” with a new Streets Market and one to three other retail spaces at street level.

The new design calls for a seven-story building that would rise about 78 feet and contain 164 beds, with the grocery store and other retailers on the first floor.

Current city zoning allows a new building on the site to rise up to 68 feet, which means even the revised design would need approval from Baltimore’s Planning Commission and City Council, in the form of an amendment to the North Charles Village Planned Unit Development (PUD) legislation that currently dictates what can be built on that block.

In addition to Workshop, the development team includes P. David Bramble’s MCB Real Estate and Chris Mfume’s CLD Partners. The privately-financed project’s estimated cost is $40 million to $44 million, the developers said.

Schmidt said the target market for the as-yet unnamed building would be students of the Johns Hopkins University and that Hopkins is working with the team as an “investor in the land.”

The exterior would be a combination of brick, glass and fiber cement panels. Moseley Architects is the designer, with Tom Liebel as principal-in-charge and Aaron Zephir as the project manager. Caroline Hecker, managing partner of Rosenberg Martin Greenberg, is the attorney.

Schmidt said the original concept called for apartments that would be mostly three- and four-bedroom units. The revised design has about 135 apartments on floors two to seven, mostly studios and one- and two-bedroom units. Schmidt said the rent per bed could be in the range of $1,000 to $1,600 a month. City Council member Odette Ramos said the project likely would not be a candidate for affordable housing units if it is aimed at students.

Some residents said they believe the building is still too tall, compared to the rowhouses just east of the site. One resident said she thought people living in the nearby rowhouses would feel “closed in” with a seven-story building looming so close and casting shadows. “It’s not just the shade,” she said. “It’s the feeling of being closed in, whether it’s cast in shade or not.”

Another resident said she thought buildings in Charles Village ought to step down in height from the 12-story structure at 9 East 33^rd Street to the three-story rowhouses south of 31^st Street, and that the 3100 block of St. Paul Street was a transitional zone where the current height limit shouldn’t be exceeded. Still others asked where all the residents, and customers of the retailers, would park their cars.

Not everyone was critical of the revised design. Two people in the audience indicated they would support a taller building. Others thanked the team for investing in the city and taking community comments into consideration.

Schmidt and Liebel said the designers have conducted studies indicating that the apartment building won’t cast shadows on the neighboring rowhouses for most of the year. Schmidt and Josh Neiman of MCB said the building will have “just shy of 40” underground parking spaces and consultants believe that most of the building’s residents won’t have cars. Neiman said the team will work with the city to widen Hunter Street east of the development site to improve access for delivery and garbage trucks and other service vehicles.

Asked about the status of the grocery store, the developers said it will have to close for 20 to 24 months while the replacement building is constructed but the new Streets Market will be about the same size as the current store — approximately 6,000 square feet — and will have a more efficient layout. Streets Market vice president Campbell Burns said the store will deliver items from other locations during the construction period. The developers said the team will aim to lease other commercial spaces to local restaurateurs or merchants. 

City Planning Director Chris Ryer said the community will have more chances to provide feedback about the project because the Planning Commission and City Council will hold public hearings on the legislation once it’s introduced. Ramos gave out her email address and said she wants to hear the community’s thoughts and concerns about the project and the new design. She said after the meeting that she has not yet committed to introducing legislation that would change the height limit and wants to hear from the community first.

“This is a big deal for the neighborhood,” she said at the meeting. “Your input is extremely important.”

Schmidt also requested that residents send him their comments and suggestions regarding the design, and he offered to meet with several of the residents separately to hear their concerns.

Asked by an audience member whether the project will move ahead if the City Council doesn’t approve a height limit increase, Schmidt said he doesn’t think his team can shrink it any more and still have an economically-viable project.

“We don’t have an economic model that works” with the current height limit of 68 feet, he said.

Schmidt said after the meeting that he didn’t know if Streets Market would stay in its current Charles Village location if a new building isn’t constructed. He said Streets joined the project early on, replacing Eddie’s Market of Charles Village with the expectation that the company would be able to move into a new grocery store when construction is complete, and the replacement building is being designed with its new store in mind.

Eddie’s closed on Dec. 30, 2020, after 58 years of service, and Streets Market opened in June of 2021.

“They came with a promise that we would get them a new building,” Schmidt said during the meeting.

If the City Council legislation passes and the project is approved for construction, Neiman said, the team aims to clear the site and open the replacement building by the summer of 2026.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify that City Council member Odette Ramos has not yet committed to introducing legislation that would change the height limit allowed for the proposed apartment building.