Work began in recent weeks on the infrastructure for 247 townhomes by Ryan Homes at the One Westport development in the Westport neighborhood of South Baltimore. The townhomes are phase one of a development by Stonewall Capital on a 43-acre waterfront parcel on the Middle Branch.

Stonewall Captial sold the 11.2-acre Parcel B of the development to H&H Rock, a land developer working to create townhome pad sites for Ryan Homes. Ray Jackson of Stonewall Capital said he expects vertical construction to begin on the townhomes in the first quarter of 2025 with the completed homes being delivered in the spring or summer.

Read more at SouthBmore.

BY: MARISSA YELENIK

Capital News Service

ANNAPOLIS – Top state officials have approved a $3.4 million bond to revamp affordable housing in Columbia while maintaining their commitment to sustainability and clean energy.

The project targets Maryland citizens in Columbia who make between 30% and 60% of the area’s median income, with a mix of one, two and three-bedroom units in the apartment complex, said Gov. Wes Moore.

“This is really revolutionary work that’s already showing significant impacts for a lot of families,” Moore said. “We are working this, united, to address an issue that we know is a very real issue for a lot of families and a lot of communities all throughout the state.”

The project will demolish the existing 62-unit housing in Waverly Winds, replacing it with a new 68-unit apartment complex for rent, according to Board of Public Works documents. The board gave its approval at its meeting on Wednesday.

The community, located in Howard County, serves to provide affordable housing to underserved communities that have fewer housing opportunities. 

As of 2018, Howard County had the highest cost of living index, as well as the second-highest median sale price of a home, according to the Maryland Department of Commerce. State officials are working to combat these high numbers with expanded access to and support for affordable housing.

“[It is] based totally on considerations of merit and need, and they are being distributed equally across communities all across the state,” said Moore. “It’s a very targeted program about the families that we’re hoping to build for and that we’re hoping to serve. And it’s going to do a great deal to be able to address the affordability challenges that we know a lot of families continue to face.”

Maryland has spent over $132 million in state bonds to expand access to affordable housing in the state, said Moore, creating almost 4,000 units of affordable housing since his inauguration as governor in January 2023. 

Moore has worked to improve affordable housing in Maryland in response to the 96,000 unit housing shortage in the state. He has signed multiple bills into law that worked to reduce the instability of prices, increase the affordability of units and improve renters rights.

State funding for the Waverly Winds project makes up one of 13 funding sources, amounting to $31.4 million in total, according to Board of Public Works documents. 

The project intends to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the new apartment building, as well as save energy and promote water conservation. It will use energy-efficient materials, stay in compliance with energy guidelines, restrict the use of certain chemicals and install solar panels to be used in addition to common area electricity.

“It includes a number of sustainability measures that would align with the state’s commitment for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Moore, “Continuing to show that … we do have an ability to be aggressive when it comes to adding additional housing options, and that does not mean compromising a larger idea that the state needs to move forward and make sure that you have a cleaner and greater state as well.”

Representatives of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) held a ceremonial groundbreaking on Thursday for their next major campus building, a $120 million, six-story home for the School of Social Work at 600 W. Lexington Street.

The 127,000-square-foot building will consolidate the school’s Master of Social Work and Doctor of Philosophy programs, which are currently spread across three locations. Planners say it will be the first net-zero emissions building within the University System of Maryland and the first in downtown Baltimore, with features such as geothermal wells, solar panels and a green roof.

The construction site is bounded by Saratoga Street on the north, Greene Street on the east, Lexington Street on the south and Pearl Street on the west. It’s currently an empty lot on the north end of the UMB campus on the west side of downtown, between Lexington Market and the old Metro West complex, part of which is being converted to a new home for the Maryland Department of Health. It’s within easy walking distance of the state’s subway and light rail line and several parking garages.

Ballinger of Philadelphia is the architect and Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. is the builder. Plans call for a mix of research, teaching and gathering spaces, including 10 classrooms; two media labs; six simulation rooms; 13 conference rooms; 16 small meeting rooms; 27 huddle rooms; a coffee lounge; bike racks; showers; a foot-washing station; a prayer and meditation room; a lactation space; and a large multi-purpose event space for education and community outreach.

More than 200 people attended the groundbreaking event, where speakers touted the building’s sustainability features and said it will be a center for academic, community and civic engagement. School of Social Work Dean Judy Postmus said it represents “the future of social work” and was designed “with social work values in mind.”

The new school “will be more than just a place to develop the next generation of social workers, leaders and scholars – it will be a vibrant community hub where students, faculty and local partners come together,” she said. “I am enthusiastic that these adaptable spaces embrace social work’s core values of social justice, the importance of human relationships and service to the community, by going above and beyond in areas of sustainability and accessibility.”

UMB president Bruce Jarrell said moving the school to Lexington Street will align with and bolster efforts by city and state planners to revitalize the west side of downtown.  He said the School of Social Work will lead a new wave of activity and construction over the next several years on the north end of campus, where the university is working with private developers to convert spaces to housing, stores and research space.

“This is a new beehive of activity that’s going to happen at UMB over the next couple of years and Social Work will be at the very center of it,” he said. “I hope in the next several years, concurrently with the development of this building, that you will see other activity there in terms of new development, developers and people on the street. That’s the idea about this north campus.”

Jarrell suggested that School of Social Work students and faculty will benefit by being close to the future home of Maryland’s health department, which is moving from State Center: “There might just be some useful interactions that take place there.”

He said he hopes that the school’s students and faculty will flourish in their new home.

“The fact that Social Work is the center of attention up here leads me to think I have great expectations of them,” he said. “I expect them to create new energy, new vibrancy, in this city that we love, Baltimore. I expect them to spread out their tentacles around this whole area and become an important element of change in Baltimore.”

With features such as a “high performance building envelope” and a usable roof garden, the building is expected to use 65 percent less energy than a traditional building of its size, and zero operational fossil fuels. Planners say they’re aiming to achieve LEED Gold certification and aspiring for LEED Platinum certification – the highest level awarded by the U. S. Green Building Council. In addition, they say, the project is tracking to earn LEED Net Zero Energy certification.

The new building “reflects UMB’s deep commitment to our core values of Well-Being and Sustainability,” Jarrell said. “From its green roof and geothermal walls to its net-zero energy design that will power learning and gathering spaces, this building exemplifies our mission to reduce UMB’s environmental impact while enhancing our campus and our connection to the surrounding community.”

The School of Social Work is one of six professional schools and an interdisciplinary School of Graduate Studies on the UMB campus. The School of Social Work has about 700 students and 80 full-time faculty members. Other programs include the Center for Restorative Change; Promise Heights Family Connections and The Institute for Innovation and Implementation.

According to Jarrell, more than 15,000 people are on the UMB campus on any given day, and another 9,000 people are in the University of Maryland Medical System’s buildings. After the ceremonial groundbreaking on Thursday, construction of the School of Social Work is expected to begin in December and be substantially complete in the summer of 2027.

100 Bellemore Road, The Orchards, Baltimore.

Hot House: Norman Revival House with Loads of Great Details. 3 Beds/4 Baths. 2,998 square feet. Asking price: $699,000.

What: Located on the west side of Bellmore Road, this Norman Revival house has some of the hallmarks of the French Norman countryside, including the steeply pitched rooflines, iron-strapped door, arched doorways and more. The Norman style is not common, although there are a few good examples on Springlake Way in Homeland.

Although this house looks simple on the exterior, you will see that it abounds with myriad details that make it special. As you enter, the first thing you notice is a graceful spiral staircase with wrought iron railings with a long window lighting the way. This is a similar feature to several of Palmer & Lamdin’s houses, which I suspect this might be. Arched doorways lead off the hallway to a large living room, dining room, kitchen and small bathroom.

The living room features a curved window wall, a large fireplace with a mirror above it to bounce light from the curved window wall back into the room, plus a built-in bookcase and cabinet and matching corner cabinets adjacent to the bow window. The windows look like they may have originally been casements, but now they are two-over-two windows, an unusual combination.

The large dining room has French doors which lead to the back yard and an alcove for a sideboard. The newly-remodeled kitchen has custom cherry cabinets and granite counters, some of which incorporate a breakfast bar. There is a significant amount of storage, including a long run of cabinets which make up the pantry. There is a powder room off the kitchen and front hall with custom cabinetry.

The second floor features a large primary bedroom with the full bow window wall, an ensuite bath with a step-in shower, and a walk-in closet with a built-in vanity. The other two bedrooms share a Jack and Jill bathroom (access from both rooms).

The very spacious wood-paneled family room on the lower level has a woodburning fireplace. There is space for an additional bedroom or office, with an adjoining full bath, and a large utility room with utility sinks.

The grounds of this charming house included a stone patio with a koi pond and fountain, plus mature plantings that enhance its privacy. A two-car garage in the Norman manner with a cupola topping the roof is situated on a driveway that can accommodate additional cars. The property also included an additional half lot with access via a stone stairway.

Where: The Orchards is a quiet neighborhood nestled between Northern Parkway, Lake Avenue, Roland Avenue and Charles Street. The houses range from large stone houses to Cape Cods situated along winding roads. The campus of the Bryn Mawr school is located in The Orchards and it’s a quick walk to Gilman, the Roland Park schools, and Boys’ Latin.

Final Appraisal: The house was built in 1939, and it retains many of its original charming features. It’s in a great location in a neighborhood that prizes its community feeling. The listing for the house is here.

All photographs from the listing.

The Baltimore Development Corporation has terminated its agreement with Westside Partners LLC, the group that proposed to build a $150 million to $200 million mixed-use project called The Compass using 18 city-owned parcels on the west side of downtown.

“The Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) and the City of Baltimore have decided to terminate the Land Disposition Agreement (LDA) with Westside Partners LLC for the Compass Project on the Howard-Lexington block,” BDC President and CEO Colin Tarbert said in a statement issued on Monday. “Given the time elapsed since the project was awarded and the two extensions already granted, BDC believes that reissuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) is in the City’s best interest.”

Former Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young selected Westside Partners in December 2020 to purchase and redevelop the area once known as The Superblock, one of his last acts before leaving office. The area is bounded roughly by Fayette, Howard and Lexington streets and Park Avenue. The sale price was $4,500,001. The group’s latest plan called for 302 residences and 102 hotel rooms as well as street-level retail space and meeting venues.

The BDC had given Westside Partners until Sept. 30 to complete its purchase of the properties tentatively awarded by Young and move ahead with construction. The developer asked for a three-month extension. The request came two months after one of the buildings awarded by Young, a vacant four-story structure in the 200 block of West Fayette Street, partially collapsed onto the sidewalk and street and had to be taken down at the city’s expense. A second building also was removed and the land is now a vacant lot.

Tarbert said in his statement that a new Request for Proposals likely will be issued in early 2025 and Westside Partners would be able to respond at that time.

“This approach allows the current developer time to secure investors and financing partners, should they wish to resubmit a proposal,” he said. “Additionally, it enables BDC to gauge any new interest in the project, considering the significant progress on nearby developments such as the CFG Bank Arena and Lexington Market.”

11814 Park Heights Ave, Owings Mills.

Hot House: Three Ponds Estate in Caves Valley. 5 Beds/7 Baths. 11,400 square feet. 14 acres. Asking price: $3 million.

What: After a good stone house, a Georgian is one of my favorite styles. Three Ponds is a gorgeous Georgian-style house perched on a hill in the verdant Caves Valley. Built in 1925, Three Ponds have been completely renovated to the owner’s exacting standards.

The front of the house departs from a traditional Georgian, with the addition of a stone patio, overlooking the vast terraced lawn. As you enter the house through the double front doors, you come into a wide center hall, replete with numerous styles of millwork and trim, all in a classic glossy white.

Off to one side is the beautifully appointed living room with a large fireplace, numerous built-in bookshelves, and French doors leading to a sunroom. Across the hall is a smaller cozy family room with a built-in wet bar, perfect for socializing with family and friends.

A brand-new kitchen, features two quartz-topped islands, a Wolf six-burner range with a griddle, a grille and two ovens, a Sub-Zero refrigerator and an ice-maker, two dishwashers, and French doors which lead to another terrace, overlooking the valley beyond.

Other rooms on the main level include such amenities as a wine refrigerator, a wet bar, ice makers, laundry rooms, a covered porch, and several additional fireplaces.

The second and third floors contain another laundry room, plus four bedrooms and three full baths. The primary suite includes a dressing room, a private deck and a bath with heated floors, a double vanity, a steam shower with dual shower heads, and a spa tub. The third floor’s space has a variety of uses: yoga room, playroom, art studio or just additional bedrooms.

In addition to the main house, there is a smaller house on the property which overlooks one of the three ponds. It has a full kitchen, three beds and three baths, laundry, and a wrap-around porch.

The property also contains a raised vegetable garden, a fenced dog run/pasture, a Zen garden and, of course, three ponds.

Where: Three Ponds is located on Park Heights Avenue, just across from the Caves Valley Golf Club. It is a quick drive to Reisterstown Road, and all of the restaurants, stores and amenities which that offers.

Final Appraisal: This house is a perfect country escape for someone who wants the vista of wide, open spaces. The views from the house are expansive and would provide a soothing end to a busy day. The smaller house would be perfect for a house/property manager. The listing for the house is here.

All photographs from the listing.

After months of speculation by community residents, Walgreens has confirmed that it is closing its Hampden branch permanently.

“After careful consideration, we have decided to close your local Walgreens at 3700 Falls Road on Tuesday, November 12, 2024,” the company said in a letter sent recently to customers.

Signs posted outside the store carry a similar message.

With the announcement, Walgreens becomes the latest of several stores to cease operations in Hampden in recent years, and the first chain store. Others include Hunting Ground, Caravanserai, Sprout, Trohv and Hampden Junque.

The announcement means that one of Hampden’s largest stores will be vacant in five weeks. But some merchants and residents say it was just a matter of time, because the neighborhood has other drug stores and convenience stores nearby. Some noticed that the building has been listed on loopnet.com as being available for lease since early 2022.

“Maybe three large corporate pharmacies within a few blocks of each other never made any sense,” said one commenter on the Hampden Neighbors page of Facebook.

A member of the Hampden Community Council suggested it would be a good location for the Hampden Family Center, a non-profit organization that works to address homelessness, drug dependency and crime in the neighborhood.

According to the loopnet listing, the Walgreens building dates from 1950, contains 10,000 square feet of space at street level and 2,500 square foot in its basement, and has 21 parking spaces on its corner lot. The listing says the building is zoned for commercial use and can be subdivided.

“Corner Property at Traffic light in Prime Hampden Neighborhood,” it states. “Next to ‘The Avenue.’ “

The letter to customers noted that another Walgreens with a pharmacy is several blocks away, in the Green Spring Tower Square shopping center at 1030 W. 41^st St., and that customer prescription records at one Walgreens are available at all Walgreens branches.

“We’re committed to providing the same care and convenience you’ve come to enjoy at your current pharmacy,” the letter said. “We look forward to serving you at 1030 W. 41^st St.”

Developers of a $26 million affordable housing project on downtown Baltimore’s West Side cleared a key hurdle on Wednesday, when Baltimore’s Board of Estimates approved a request to sell five city-owned properties needed to build the residences.

The project, called Sojourner Place at Park, will be constructed at one of Baltimore’s most prominent yet neglected intersections, the corner where Liberty Street and Park Avenue meet Fayette Street, part of Baltimore’s Five and Dime Historic District.

The development is led by a joint venture of Episcopal Housing Corporation and Health Care for the Homeless, two non-profit organizations that responded to a request for proposals issued by the Baltimore Development Corporation. BDC was seeking a developer for the city-owned properties at 102, 104 and 106 N. Liberty Street and 142 and 144 West Fayette Street.

Episcopal Housing Corp. and Health Care for the Homeless were selected after they proposed to combine the five city-owned properties with a sixth building at 111 Park Avenue to create one 48,000-square-foot development containing 42 apartments on the upper levels and commercial space at street level.

At its meeting on Wednesday, with no discussion, the five-member Board of Estimates voted to approve a Land Disposition Agreement that allows the development team to finalize its plans to buy the city properties offered for redevelopment. The joint venture is Park Liberty Limited Partnership. The purchase price is $310,000.

The development occupies a highly visible site where the older buildings of downtown Baltimore’s West Side, on the west side of Liberty Street, meet the newer buildings of Charles Center, on the east side of Liberty Street. The land area is 6,732 square feet, and the buildings are three and four stories high.

In November of 2023, Baltimore’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) approved a design that calls for the facades of four of the city-owned buildings to be preserved as part of the development, with the new housing constructed behind them, and for a new building to be constructed in place of 144 West Fayette Street.

A memo in the Board of Estimates agenda states that “a new 4 story apartment building will be constructed on the Property behind the facades of 102, 104 [and] 106 North Liberty Street,” but does not promise that the building at 142 W. Fayette Street will be preserved. A condemnation notice was posted on that building several months ago after part of its cornice fell onto the sidewalk below and a city housing inspector was called to the scene. Members of the development team say they are still attempting to preserve the building. Moseley Architects is the lead designer.

‘A major change’

Colin Tarbert, president and CEO of the BDC, said after the Board of Estimates meeting that Sojourner Place at Park represents a significant step toward revitalizing the area, which is seen by thousands of commuters every day. It is also just north of an area where the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore is working to create a $4 million civic space, tentatively called Liberty Park.

“This project signals a major change for an intersection that has long been a symbol of blight in the heart of downtown,” Tarbert said in a statement. “By bringing high-quality housing and commercial space to this location, Sojourner Place at Park is not only addressing critical needs like affordable housing and homelessness but also helping to bridge the gap between the Central Business District and the West Side, fostering connectivity and growth for years to come.”

The developer’s plan calls for Sojourner Place at Park to feature affordable housing and permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless individuals. By opening the party walls between a newly constructed building at 144 West Fayette and the five redeveloped historic buildings, the developers say, the new unified structure will create 42 one-bedroom units priced for households with incomes ranging from 70 percent of Area Median Income to 30 percent or less.

Health Care for the Homeless plans to bring its expertise in providing housing stability and healthcare services to residents who have experienced homelessness.

“This project is a full-circle moment for us: our headquarters operated at this very location for two decades,” said Kevin Lindamood, CEO of Health Care for the Homeless and President of HCH Real Estate Co., in a statement. “Converting our former clinic into affordable housing is the fulfillment of our mission; it’s the very best way to end homelessness and improve health. And we’re proud to be part of this effort to revitalize our former neighborhood through Sojourner Place at Park.”

In addition to housing, Sojourner Place at Park will have about 10,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor that can help create a more vibrant streetscape.

“This development is part of a wave of investment that is transforming the West Side of downtown,” said Dan McCarthy, Executive Director of Episcopal Housing Corporation. “With new residential and commercial offerings, Sojourner Place at Park is helping to create a downtown that is active beyond business hours, fostering a safer, more engaging environment for residents, workers, and visitors alike.”

 No decision on The Compass

Sojourner Place at Park is one of two developments in the works that involve city-owned properties along Fayette Street, just west of Charles Center. The second is the $200 million mixed use development called the Compass, planned by a group called West Side Partners for 18 city-owned properties once known as The Superblock.

The BDC had given that group until Sept. 30 to acquire the properties from the city and move ahead with its development, but the group asked for a three-month extension. Tarbert said on Monday that a decision had not been made on whether to grant that request.

501 N. Calvert St.

300 E. Cromwell St.

200 St. Paul Place.

And soon, the 500 block of S. Exeter St.

After relocating from Baltimore Peninsula to St. Paul Place in 2023, Baltimore Sun Media’s newsroom is on the move again, this time to Little Italy.

Reporters and editors were told recently that the media company’s new owners are planning to move its editorial offices, the heart of its newsgathering operation, to the Bagby Building at 509 S. Exeter St.

The company’s business and advertising offices will remain in the St. Paul Plaza office building at 200 St. Paul Place for now but will eventually follow as part of a phased-in move over the next year.

This is the fourth move for the newsroom employees in the past seven years and the first time any part of the Sun’s operations have been targeted for relocation since the company was acquired in January by David Smith, the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Armstrong Williams.

The Sun was founded in 1837, and its newsroom was located at 501 N. Calvert St. from 1950 to 2018. In 2018 the newsroom moved to Sun Park at 300 E. Cromwell St., where the Sun’s printing plant was located, and then to St. Paul Place five years later.  Before moving to Calvert Street, the Sun’s headquarters were in the cast iron Sun Building at the southwest corner of Baltimore and Charles streets.

The newsroom contains offices for the reporters, columnists, editors, photographers and others who work on the editorial side of The Baltimore Sun and several community newspapers.

The four-story, 93,000-square-foot Bagby Building is part of the real estate portfolio controlled by WorkShop Development, a company headed by Doug Schmidt, Neil Tucker and Richard Manekin. It was constructed in 1902 as home for The Bagby Furniture Co., which was founded in 1879 and closed in 1990.

The building was repurposed for office use more than 20 years ago by Struever Bros., Eccles and Rouse, which sold the property in 2007. According to state land records, the official owner is Skylar Development LLC. Another address is 1010 Fleet St. WorkShop markets the building as being in Harbor East.

“Bagby is an icon in Harbor East, Baltimore City’s premier commercial district,” WorkShop says on its website. “The building is a hub for creative businesses, home to leading design, technology and medical companies.”

Also part of the Bagby property is the “Atlas Quarter,” which includes four restaurants operated by the Atlas Restaurant Group. The restaurant group is headed by CEO Alex Smith, the nephew of Sun owner David Smith. The restaurants that make up the “Atlas Quarter” include Tagliata, Italian Disco, The Elk Room and Monarque. Monarque and Tagliata are located in a low-rise annex that is separated from the main building by a courtyard with an entrance on the Fleet Street side of the property. It was originally a place to store and dry wood that the Bagby company used to make furniture. WorkShop converted it for the restaurants, along with reconfiguring the courtyard for dining and opening up the brick facades of the main building to create storefronts for other commercial tenants, including branches of PNC Bank and Verizon.

Some space in the Bagby building became available after the Atlas Restaurant Group decided to move its corporate headquarters by the end of 2024 from there to the E. J. Codd building at 700 S. Caroline St., but Baltimore Sun Media’s newsroom is not occupying Atlas Restaurant Group’s space. It will be on the third floor of the Bagby Building.

After negotiating a lease to move its offices from Baltimore Peninsula to St. Paul Place, the Sun published an article noting that moving downtown would put reporters within walking distance of City Hall, courthouses, police headquarters and major businesses.  

“We are thrilled to be back in the heart of the Central Business District in a space that is well suited to our needs,” Publisher Trif Alatzas said in a statement.

The move to Little Italy means the Sun’s newsroom won’t be as close to the Mayor’s Office and other city agencies. But it does fit in with a trend that has seen other organizations shift employees eastward from downtown, including Constellation, Allianz Trade, Bank of America, Gordon Feinblatt and, soon, T. Rowe Price.

The newsroom move is expected to start next month.

730 SKYWATER ROAD | GIBSON ISLAND, MD
OPEN THIS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1-4pm

Listing Price: $3,395,000

Tucked away from the hustle and bustle, a lovely shingle style home sits quietly nestled on a prime 1.1-acre waterfront lot offering stunning, panoramic views of the Magothy River, serene, wooded grounds, and wonderful privacy. Relax with your family and friends while watching bald eagles and osprey soaring and enjoy countless resplendent sunsets over the Magothy from the oversized open porch complete with a wet bar.  Offering many specimen trees, delicious apples, pears, peaches, and grape and berry vines await you!

Built in 2001, this five-bedroom, three and a half bath three-level coastal home is filled with natural light, magnificent water views throughout, high ceilings, clerestory windows above the stairway and skylights galore on every level of the house.  On the main level is a welcoming great room with a large Maryland sandstone fireplace opening into the kitchen, a large open porch off the great room, a study, and a first-floor master bedroom with en suite bath and laundry room. Ascend to the second level to three oversized bedrooms, all with fabulous waterfront views, two with walk-in closets, and a bathroom suite with a large jetted soaking tub.

With wonderful views of the Magothy throughout, the lower level has a large recreational room with a wet bar and hardwood piano alcove, a pool room with an Endless Pool with radiant heat ceiling tiles, and a large bonus room formerly used as a workshop that could potentially be finished and made into conditioned living space.  The lower level also offers a waterfront guest suite with its own private entrance, a sitting room, full bath and washer/dryer.  Also on the lower level is a large walk-in cedar closet and FEMA emergency hurricane shelter room.

A virtually invisible solar array provides electricity to the house. Power is stored in a Tesla Powerwall, which provides power automatically to key components of the house during utility power outages. With plentiful room for parking, a large detached three car garage, and more than 4,800 square feet of living space, this waterfront home awaits its new owner for many years of unparalleled enjoyment.

725 SKYWATER ROAD | GIBSON ISLAND, MD
OPEN THIS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1-4pm

Listing Price: $3,690,000

A restored historic farmhouse graces the top of Skywater Road on Gibson Island. Located on more than an acre, with four levels, this special six bedroom, five full and two half bath home is a wonderful gathering place for family and guests.

Enter the front door to a bright and airy hallway with a soft painted checkerboard pattern on the floor. An inviting eat-in kitchen opens to a simply magnificent outdoor porch perfect for entertaining, connecting the main house and the guest house. A powder room is conveniently located on the main level in the kitchen. A large dining room with gas fireplace and beautiful crown molding is to the right of the front door, and a glorious sunporch overlooks the backyard with pool and garden with magnificent plantings.  French doors open to a stunning living room with a large woodburning fireplace flanked with wide plank heart of pine floors.  A comfortable den opens to the dining room, offering serene views, exposed stone walls, a flagstone floor, and built -in bookcases.

Ascend a gracious staircase upstairs to a landing where to the left is a laundry room hidden behind closeted doors, and an en suite bedroom. The landing leads to an en suite bedroom and an office on the left, and to the right is the primary suite with full bath and sitting room. On the third level is a bedroom, full bath, and bonus room. The lower level has a family room, half bath, and sunporch opening to the heated swimming pool with bluestone surround.

A gardener’s delight, flowering trees, shrubs and perennials surround the property. There is a dahlia cutting bed and three vegetable gardens. A tree house beckons the young at heart.

The guest house above the three-bay garage has a sitting room, two bedrooms and a full bathroom.

ABOUT GIBSON ISLAND:

Gibson Island is less than an hour from Baltimore with no Bay Bridge crossing! Located on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Magothy River, Gibson Island is an enchanting, two by three mile private island in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The Island is accessed by a private, man-made causeway. There is an entry gatehouse staffed around the clock and the Island has its own police department.

The topography varies and includes low-lying, tidal wetlands, a 44-acre spring-fed lake, and rolling hills. Home sites account for about one third of the land, and the remaining two thirds of land is devoted to open space, natural woods, a bird sanctuary and recreation. 

The Gibson Island Harbor is a broad cove of the Magothy River sheltered from all sides, offering safe anchorage to both power and sail boats.  A place of natural beauty and with no Bay Bridge to cross, Gibson Island is less than an hour from Baltimore, Washington and Annapolis, and less than 25 minutes from BWI Airport and the train station, yet feels like it is a world away.

The Island has just over 200 homes and houses a private country club (by invitation only) offering golf, tennis, swimming,  yachting and year-round fine dining —the Island is a special sanctuary indeed!

Directions:
Route Ten North to Route 100 East, Route 100 merges on Mountain Road, right on Mountain Road which dead ends on Gibson Island. Gate House will provide directions to 730 Skywater Road. Please call Sarah Kanne at 301-351-1319.

Sarah Kanne, Realtor, Gibson Island Corporation Real Estate
(Cell) 301-351-1319 (Office) 410-255-1341
sarahkanne@gibsonisland.com
www.gibsonisland.com

Private Tours & Showings by Appointment Only.
Please call Sarah to make arrangements to attend the Open Houses this Saturday!

Gibson Island Corporation Real Estate
534 Broadwater Way, Gibson Island, Maryland 21056

Lawrence F. Haislip, Broker

All properties are offered without respect to race, religion, physical or mental disability, color, sex, national origin, familial or marital status.

OPEN HOUSE
Sunday, September 29 • 12:00pm – 1:30pm,
hosted by Cindy Conklin, Sally Pfaeffle & Brandon Golueke

206 E. Montgomery Street, Baltimore, MD 21230

3 beds | 3 baths | 2,440 sq. ft.
Listing Price: $695,000

Listing agents: Cindy Conklin, Sally Pfaeffle & Brandon Golueke
Monument Sotheby’s International Realty

Cindy Conklin | Cell: 443-629-0152
cindy.conklin@monumentsothebysrealty.com 

Sally Pfaeffle | Cell: 410-404-2491
sally.pfaeffle@monumentsothebysrealty.com

Brandon Golueke | Cell: 443-618-5090
brandon.golueke@monumentsothebysrealty.com

Welcome to 206 E. Montgomery Street – located on one of the premier blocks in the Federal Hill Historic District, steps from Federal Hill Park and the Inner Harbor. This stunning property offers the perfect blend of modern luxury, including an attached GARAGE and an ELEVATOR, with historic charm and hardwood floors throughout. Step inside to an open main level featuring a custom made wooden spiral staircase highlighted by the skylight above. This floor contains a living/dining area with a wood stove; a large galley kitchen with custom cabinetry and access to the main deck; and a study with a wood burning fireplace.

Up one level you will find the primary bedroom with an en-suite bath and access to the 2nd floor deck. This floor is also home to the 2nd bedroom equipped with a Murphy bed allowing the room to be multi-functional and a hall bath. The top level offers a large family room with a wood burning fireplace and an additional space with a wet bar and access to the 3rd floor deck(views getting better & better as you ascend) making it perfect for entertaining! The lower level doesn’t disappoint, offering another bedroom, hall bath, huge storage room with laundry, and access to the attached garage. This home is the perfect balance between historical architecture, modern amenities, and outdoor access. It is also conveniently located close to the newly renovated Cross Street Market, I-95, Camden Yards/M&T Bank Stadium, the MARC train for easy travel to Washington DC, and BWI airport.

CINDY CONKLIN | Monument Sotheby’s
International Realty
Cell: 443-629-0152
cindy.conklin@monumentsothebysrealty.com 

SALLY PFAEFFLE | Monument Sotheby’s
International Realty
Cell: 410-404-2491
sally.pfaeffle@monumentsothebysrealty.com

BRANDON GOLUEKE | Monument Sotheby’s International Realty
Cell: 443-618-5090
brandon.golueke@monumentsothebysrealty.com

The University of Baltimore’s Academic Center would be torn down and replaced with a smaller building under a new Facilities Master Plan that has been created to guide the institution’s growth over the next decade.

In a presentation this month, University of Baltimore President Kurt Schmoke said the plan represents an effort to “right-size” the midtown campus, eliminate outmoded facilities, and create teaching spaces that better suit and align with the way its students will want to learn in the future.

The plan’s chief recommendation is to demolish the 226,387-gross-square-foot Academic Center in the 1400 block of North Charles Street and replace it with a smaller academic structure. The Academic Center is the largest single structure on the University of Baltimore campus — actually three interconnected buildings that together occupy a full city block near Baltimore’s Penn Station.

One of those buildings is a structure once known as The Garage — the former headquarters and showroom of the Mar-Del Mobile Company, the first location where Cadillacs were sold in Baltimore and former home of the Maryland Automobile Club. Among other noteworthy characteristics, it was one of the earliest reinforced-concrete structures in Baltimore and one of the first local buildings influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie-style architecture.

The facilities master plan states that the replacement structure, which administrators are calling a “center for learning,” would provide about 134,000 gross square feet, or about 60 percent as much as the current Academic Center. Planners say that number is a “guesstimate” and that the exact size of the replacement will be determined during a later phase of programmatic planning that will begin after the master plan is approved.

A related recommendation is to convert the former headquarters of a local non-profit organization, The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore at 101 West Mount Royal Avenue, into a “UBalt Welcome Center” housing the President’s Office, admissions, financial aid and other administrative departments now located in the Academic Center. That part of the master plan already is underway, after The Associated announced plans in July to move to Park Heights Avenue and lease its 36,000-square-foot building to the university. The 10-year lease began September 1 and has an option that allows the university to acquire the building and make it a permanent part of campus.

Other recommendations in the master plan include improving the public realm, including streets and plazas, and making interior and exterior changes to seven other structures on its core campus, such as making façade improvements to the H. Mebane Turner Learning Commons and adding athletic facilities on its basement level.

The master plan also notes that a study is underway to evaluate the benefits of moving the university library’s Special Collections and Archives from the Turner Learning Commons to renovated space in the Charles Royal Building at the southeast corner of Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue. “By relocating Special Collections and Archives to this stand-alone building in a prominent corner location,” the plan notes, “these special UBalt library resources can be made more public-facing in a way to encourage community access” and increased visibility.

In the works for more than a year, the long-range plan was outlined September 16 in a virtual presentation to the finance committee of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents. The presenters were Schmoke; Maribeth Amyot, Advisor to the President for Strategic Initiatives and chair of the university’s Facilities Master Plan task force, and Barbara Aughenbaugh, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President for Business Affairs. An executive summary and the full 96-page report have been posted on the University of Baltimore’s website.

The master plan “aligns the physical campus more closely with the institution’s mission, vision and values,” the executive summary states. “It addresses key issues and opportunities facing the campus today and looks ahead both toward UBalt’s Centennial in 2025 and towards a 10-year future and beyond.”

UBalt “serves a unique student body that is composed of distinct groups of students who require a more modern campus that better supports multi-modal active learning and operations for nontraditional adult students,” the summary states. “The plan leverages needed redevelopment in the campus core to address deferred maintenance and reimagine the heart of campus…These investments will position the institution to remain The University of Baltimore – and The University for Baltimore – for years to come.”

Three-building complex

At last week’s meeting, Schmoke said the master plan was commissioned to guide physical changes on campus between now and 2034. Ayers Saint Gross is the lead architect working on the master plan; architects for any individual buildings arising from the plan would be selected separately.

The connected buildings that make up the Academic Center include the former automobile showroom, which dates from 1905-1906 and features large windows fronting on Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue; a former hotel that rises six stories and dates from 1905, and a four-story annex at the north end of the block that was constructed in 1961. The university’s decision to preserve and recycle buildings from the early 1900s to create an academic center resulted in one of the earliest adaptive reuse projects in Baltimore.

The university currently has 3,100 to 3,200 students, down from a high point of around 6,000 students in 2014. Schmoke said enrollment has stabilized since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 – “We’ve stopped the bleeding — and the master plan is designed to accommodate a campus with about 4,000 students, a figure the university is aiming to reach by 2032. Of those 4,000 students, administrators say, they expect that 60 percent will be graduate and professional students, 40 percent will be undergraduates, and 70 percent of the undergraduates will be students who transfer from another institution.

Schmoke and Amyot told the finance committee that the Academic Center contains more space than the university needs at present and that much of the existing space is either obsolete or in need of repairs. Schmoke said the master plan doesn’t call for additional square footage: “We’re actually downsizing.”

Of all the buildings on campus, Schmoke and Amyot said, the Academic Center accounts for 47 percent of the university’s deferred maintenance cases. In addition, they said, its layout can be confusing because the three buildings were designed for different purposes and aren’t fully integrated.

For example, Amyot and Schmoke said, the Academic Center has two elevators that are in separate parts of the block but neither one leads to every part of the building. In addition, the floors in the different buildings don’t line up. Students, employees and visitors say it’s a rabbit warren of spaces and that it can be difficult to find one’s way around once inside. Schmoke joked that the Academic Center was cobbled together by “the same person who designed the camel.”

“The building was not designed as an academic building,” Amyot said. “There’s two elevators. You have to know which elevator to get into because you cannot traverse north to south in the whole building on all floors. You have to go down to the ground floor [and switch elevators.] It’s very confusing for students. The building leaks. It was three buildings that were later connected. It’s just a dysfunctional building and therefore, making the investment to replace it is the way to go. That’s the smart choice.”

Another factor in the planning effort, Schmoke and Amyot said, is that teaching methods have changed in recent years, especially with the popularity of online and hybrid classes, and the teaching spaces in the Academic Center are less than ideal for the way university students want to learn today.

“They don’t have tiered classrooms,” Amyot said. “Chairs don’t have wheels on them. They’re on linoleum floors. Many of the classrooms don’t have windows [because] not all the rooms are on the perimeter. We have low ceiling heights…It’s just not great” as opposed to more modern spaces such as those in the law center.

From a campus planning standpoint, she said, the three-building complex stretches from Mount Royal Avenue to Oliver Street and forms a barrier that makes it difficult to see or get from Charles Street to the west side of campus. “The Academic Center is blocking everything off,” she said. “It’s not a connector.”

Non-traditional campus

Instead of trying to reconfigure the existing structure and introduce new technology, the administrators said, the architects recommended tearing it down and constructing a replacement that aligns more with the university’s mission.

Schmoke told the finance committee that the University of Baltimore is different from other campuses in the University System of Maryland because of the students it serves. He described it as a “commuter institution with a heavy focus on graduate and professional programs.” He noted that its student population is older on average than at other state schools and that many of its students are professionals who are taking classes while also holding a full-time job and raising a family.

Schmoke said 58 percent of UBalt’s students are taking graduate and professional-level courses, 42 percent are undergraduates, and the split is expected to remain at about 60 percent graduates and 40 percent undergraduates into the next decade.

According to the facilities master plan, 46 percent of UBalt students attend part time; 50 percent of the undergraduate students are low-income or first-generation, and 47 percent are members of an “underrepresented minority race.”

The median age of undergraduates at UBalt is 28, as opposed to a university system-wide median age of 22 for undergraduates; 86 percent of UBalt students originate from Maryland, and 30 percent are from Baltimore City. Although it’s not considered one of the state’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), UBalt is Maryland’s only four-year institution designated by the federal government as a “Primarily Black Institution.”

Because they have jobs and family obligations, Schmoke and Amyot said, many of the university’s students prefer to take classes online and in the evening, and many of its classes are scheduled after the traditional work day to suit their schedules.

“These folks that come to school to get their bachelor’s degrees are very different than a traditional undergraduate student,” Amyot said. “In fact, most of our undergraduate students, nearly all of them, come to us as transfers. They don’t come to us out of high school. They either have their associate’s degree or they’ve accumulated credits in some other manner and then they come back later in life because they want to complete that degree. And then together with the undergraduate students being older, we have more graduate students than undergraduate students.” As a result, she said, what students at the University of Baltimore want from the physical campus “differs from what you might see at a lot of other universities.”

The University of Baltimore is focused on what matters to its students, Amyot said.

“In order for our students to attend,” she said, “we need to offer night classes. We need to offer some online classes. We need to offer classes where some students are sitting in the room and some students are remote. Then it works and it’s engaging and folks stick with it.”

There are no residence halls in the master plan because that’s not what UBalt students want, she added.

“Our students don’t want to live in residence halls,” she said. “They already have families. They have jobs. They have living arrangements. And there’s no intercollegiate athletics. Our students are very professionally-oriented.  They’re coming to an accredited degree program really to enhance their career opportunities. They have different needs, and we respond in order for them to be successful. The amenities that they want are not necessarily what a traditional university would offer.”

While UBalt’s business school offers an MBA program that is “completely online,” Schmoke said, many students indicate that they want the option of taking courses either in-person or remotely.

“What we are hearing from our students is that they like the hybrid,” he said. “They like some in-class and then some online. It’s the flexibility that they really like, and that’s what we want to make sure that we can offer. All the classes will have technology that would allow for this.”

Two components

The master plan by Ayers Saint Gross shows the existing Academic Center replaced by a new structure that’s divided into two components. Renderings in the master plan show one section rising five or six stories and one section rising six or seven stories, and they’re connected by a three-level link that doesn’t come down to the ground.

At a potential height of seven stories, the profile would be “more comparable to the adjacent 12-story Angelos Law Center than the previous academic center,” the master plan states. “A two-level roof profile with lower roof to the south can create opportunities for both green roof/event space and onsite power generation through solar panels.”

Renderings in the master plan show that the two sections of the building would be separated at ground level by a pedestrian pathway that runs through the block diagonally. The pathway would lead from Penn Station at 1515 North Charles Street to the new Welcome Center on Mount Royal Avenue. This configuration, along with removal of the existing Academic Center, gives the university an opportunity to enlarge and reimagine Gordon Plaza, the large open space at the northeast corner of Mount Royal and Maryland avenues, where UBalt’s Edgar Allan Poe statue is.

Schmoke and Amyot said development of the master plan has been informed by a community engagement process that has included meetings with stakeholders from both within and outside the university. In addition to representatives of various academic and administrative departments, they said, community groups that have been involved in the planning process include the Bolton Hill Community Association, the Mount Vernon Belvedere Association, the Central Baltimore Partnership and the Midtown Community Benefits District.

According to its authors, the master plan was developed around five principles. They are to:

“Foster a sense of place that reinforces the identity of UBalt as an anchor institution of and for Baltimore.”

“Create a vibrant and inclusive campus that matches the unique needs and priorities of [UBalt’s] non-traditional professional and career-focused student body.”

“Ensure learning environments are flexible and adaptable to meet the evolving needs and priorities of our students and community.”

“Realign and renew existing space to reduce deferred maintenance and prioritize student recruitment, retention, growth and success.”

“Strengthen the pedestrian experience through safe streets and active first-floor experiences.”

The September 16 presentation to the finance committee was the first step in a review process that’s intended to culminate with adoption of the facilities master plan by the full Board of Regents. Once the master plan is adopted, the university will begin another round of planning to determine exactly what programs will be housed in the new center for learning and how much space it will contain. This detailed round of programmatic planning will help architects and planners come up with a final design, for which the university will seek funding.

Creation of the 36,000-square-foot Welcome Center on Mount Royal Avenue affects long-range planning as well, administrators say, because the relocation of any departments there potentially means less space needed in the building that replaces the Academic Center.

The finance committee took no action on the master plan after the initial presentation.  In keeping with the Regents’ standard practice, members of the finance committee will vote at their October 30 meeting on whether to recommend the master plan to the full Board of Regents for approval. If it does, the full board will then consider UBalt’s master plan at its November 22 meeting.

Architectural history

The three-story building at the northwest corner of Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue was the third location of the Mar-Del Mobile Company, an early car dealership that built it for “the sale and storage of automobiles,” according to a 1905 article in The Sun. Previous locations were 101 North Charles Street and 617-619 W. Pratt Street.

At various times, the Mar-Del Mobile Company sold Packards, Franklins, Waverly Electrics, Searchmonts and other types of automobiles. It was the first dealer in Baltimore to sell Cadillacs, Oldsmobiles and Dodges. It initially sold Cadillacs when it opened on Mount Royal Avenue, stopped selling them in 1909, and then began selling them again in 1922 when it merged with the Baltimore Cadillac Company. Its move to the corner of Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue has been credited with helping to transform that area into an automotive business district with other dealerships operating nearby.

Compared to other car dealerships in the area, Mar-Del’s building was unusually large because the company made it a sort of department store for cars, a multi-purpose emporium that contained sales showrooms, car service bays, meeting rooms for the Maryland Automobile Club and other spaces for car owners and their families to spend time while their cars were being repaired.

Known as The Garage, with 90,000 square feet of space, the building “was once the hub of Baltimore’s early car culture,” according to a plaque in the building’s lobby. “Here, while clients waited for their cars to be serviced, they amused themselves in ‘the most up-to-date place of amusement for ladies and gentlemen in the world.’ In addition to the car showrooms, the building boasted billiard rooms, 36 bowling alleys, a skating rink, women’s gymnasium and restaurant. A few special occasions at ‘The Garage’ reportedly drew as many as 20,000 people a day.”

The building was designed by Clyde Nelson Friz, who also designed the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s central building on Cathedral Street; the Standard Oil Building on St. Paul Street, UBalt’s Liberal Arts and Policy Building and, with John Russell Pope, the Scottish Rite Temple on North Charles Street. The Garage’s “wide overhanging roof and strong horizontal lines showed similarities to the early work of Frank Lloyd Wright,” the plaque notes.

Instead of echoing the Beaux Arts Classical style buildings on Mount Vernon Place, Friz took a daring departure from the more conventional styles of the 19th century for the new building type serving the invention that would largely define the next century, the automobile.

Eschewing classical ornamentation, Friz worked with what is now called the Eclectic style of early 20th century architecture to design a building that combined elements of the Mediterranean Revival style with the popular Prairie style that was emerging at the start of the 20th century from Wright’s studio in Oak Park, Illinois.

“The Midwestern style is most apparent in The Garage’s planar brick facade articulated with deeply set windows, the shorter third-story windows set within the shadow line of the projecting hipped roof, and the excessive masonry corbeling at the first floor openings,” observed architectural historian James Russiello. ” To support the weight of cars and equipment for this modern building, Friz for once hid the modernity of his structure’s reinforced concrete under a cladding of brick.”

Centered above the second-floor windows on the two primary facades were large white letters that spelled out “The Garage.” Early photos show a wide sidewalk along Mount Royal Avenue with cars spilling out of the building.

“While the Mar-Del Company’s new home is no ‘Castle in Spain,’ there is a decided suggestion of Spanish architecture in its appearance and proportions,” observed a 1910 article in The Packard, which called the company’s headquarters “unique and handsome” and pointed to the six-foot-wide balcony that “projects from the second floor along the two main fronts of the building.” The article’s headline was “Bully for Baltimore.”

Windows for gawking

Before the introduction of the Ford Model T in 1908 as the first mass-affordable automobile, car ownership was an elite luxury that drew the curious and status seekers. Early auto showrooms were decorated in a variety of styles throughout the East Coast, with an emphasis on large display windows to facilitate gawking by pedestrains on the sidewalk peering deep into the showroom.

“Many of these outfits in the early 20th century were older businesses rehabbing their look as they cautiously adapted in the transitional period between horse-powered vehicles and vehicles with horsepower,” Russiello noted. “As such, new buildings for clubhouse-like businesses offering an array of services are especially distinct.”

Due to their connection to luxury products, Russiello said, auto showrooms were often designed by notable architects, “even as late as the 1954 Hoffman Auto Showroom in Manhattan by Frank Lloyd Wright, which was demolished in 2013 but considered a prototype for his Guggenheim Museum.” In 2014, he said, The Audrain Auto Museum of Newport, Rhode Island, relocated into a restored auto showroom designed by the noted architect Bruce Price, who was born in Maryland, and built in 1902-1903 for Adolph Audrain.

The University of Baltimore acquired the building in 1968 and worked with Allen C. Hopkins of Fisher, Nes, Campbell and Partners to convert it for academic use. “The renovation which produced the new academic and administrative complex was completed in 1971 and earned the architects an award from Baltimore Heritage Inc.,” the plaque notes.

Although the interior was modified extensively and administrators have problems with the way the building has been joined with the structures to the north, the exterior has retained many of its original elements, including the solid-to-void ratio of the window and door openings; the Flemish bonded textured brickwork of varied brown hues with deeply raked mortar; brick piers at the base supported on masonry plinths that blended with the sidewalk; the third-floor sillcourse supporting brick-engaged columns between windows, and the projecting hipped roof.

CHAP review

UBalt’s three-building Academic Center complex falls within the boundaries of the city’s Mount Vernon Historic District, where the city’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) typically has authority to review and approve proposed changes to building exteriors, up to and including demolition.

According to CHAP executive director Eric Holcomb, CHAP does not have legal authority to review changes to state-owned buildings in a Baltimore City historic district. Holcomb said CHAP does ask state agencies to present their plans to the commission for review but that doesn’t necessarily prevent demolition.

He pointed to the university’s plans more than a decade ago to replace a structure called the Odorite Building at the southeast corner of Mount Royal and Maryland avenues with a new student center. In that case, some local preservationists argued that the Odorite Building was architecturally significant and should be preserved, but university leaders at the time opted to replace it with a new structure.

If a building is owned by the University of Baltimore, which is a state agency, “they legally don’t have to go through the CHAP process (that’s how we lost the Odorite building),” Holcomb said in an email message. “But we always ask state agencies to comply with city regulations (permits, CHAP review etc.). In most cases they honor that request.”

Asked before the finance committee meeting if university planners had considered preserving any part of the current Academic Center, Schmoke said they did but concluded it would not be as cost effective or space-efficient as building a new structure that’s designed to meet the university’s current needs and the latest standards for environmental sustainability.

“Because next year’s our Centennial, we’ve been looking at what the University of Baltimore is going to look like in the next 100 years, and we know we have to make adjustments to the way people learn now, which is a combination of online and in class,” he said. “We have more physical facilities than we really need for the way higher education is delivered in the future, so we are going to tear this down” and “redesign something that is smaller but also consistent with environmental regulations, the way the law school is…We want all of our buildings to be environmentally-sustainable and meet not only today’s but tomorrow’s environmental rules.”

In addition, he said, “we’re trying to figure out how we can knit the campus more with the rest of the development in the community.”

Use by Baltimore City College

Before the Academic Center is demolished, it will serve as a temporary home for Baltimore City College, a public high school with about 1,500 students. Baltimore’s Board of School Commissioners voted 8 to 1 in May to accept an offer from Schmoke, a City College graduate, to have the university house students, teachers and other staffers on its midtown campus while City College’s historic building at 3220 The Alameda undergoes renovation.

The university’s plan calls for City College to relocate to the University of Baltimore campus from August 2025 to August 2028. The Academic Center is one of two major campus buildings that City College would temporarily occupy, along with portions of the William H. Thumel Sr. Business Center. Once the City College renovations are complete in 2028, the high school students and teachers will move back to The Alameda and the university will be able to move ahead with its long-range campus plan.

Although demolition of the Academic Center can’t start before late 2028 because of the lease agreement with the city school board, university leaders say, they can use that time to finalize plans for the replacement project and line up funding. They say the target date for completion of a new campus building and plaza is sometime in the early 2030s.

September 23 was 100 days from the start of 2025, the 100th anniversary of the year UBalt was founded. Schmoke told the finance committee members that the university plans to mark the institution’s 100th anniversary in 2025 with a yearlong celebration that includes events in January, the spring of 2025, and the fall of 2025, looking at its past, present and future. He said the master plan also includes recommendations for adding new signs and graphics around campus that will underscore the university’s presence in the city.

No ’time-out sign’

Schmoke, 74, served as Mayor of Baltimore from 1987 to 1999 and has been president of the University of Baltimore since July of 2014. He said he has no plans to retire and is enthusiastic about realizing a new vision for the university and its campus.

“I’ll do what I can,” he said. “So far my wife hasn’t given me the time-out sign…It’s been a real team effort. I’d like to particularly get through the Centennial and then we’ll see what happens after that.”

The master plan is intended to complement other major development initiatives for midtown, including upgrades to Penn Station and a mixed-use development on Maryland Avenue at Oliver Street, Schmoke added.

“I think it is an outstanding investment for Baltimore, because we’re right in the center of the city,” he said. “It’s coming at the right time.”

7 Midvale Road, Roland Park.

Hot House: Tudor-Style House in Roland Park. 6 Beds/6 Baths. 5,549 square feet. Asking price: $1.595 million.

What: Midvale Road in Roland Park is one of the many circles on the west side of Roland Avenue. The original Olmsted design had every other road or lane as a through road down to Falls Road, and in between, “dead end streets” with eight to twelve houses. Midvale sits between Longwood Road and Indian Lane, where the houses on the south side drop down to.

Number Seven Midvale is a very stoic Tudor-style house which sits on the south side of Midvale. The Tudor woodwork on the façade has been painted and updates the look of the exterior. Fortunately, much of the interior detailing has been left intact. The front door, side lights and transom are all lightly frosted leaded glass, giving you privacy, but also light. Entering, you come into a large, grand hall, with the major rooms on either side.

On one side is the living room, with beautiful millwork details, and a gorgeous fireplace. This room leads to a cozy, less formal family room, and then into the kitchen, which is in an addition that spans most of the back of the house. The kitchen features Monogram appliances, white subway tiles, a kitchen island with “leathered black granite” and a heated floor. It leads to a Trex deck for lounging and entertaining.   

On the other side is a formal dining room, again with elegant trim, leaded glass windows, a chandelier, and a fireplace. Adjacent to the dining room, oddly, is the laundry room and a mudroom with access to the outside, and then a sunroom leading to the deck.

The second floor features the primary suite with a fireplace, loads of light, an en suite bath with heated marble Calacutta marble floors, and a double vanity. The next-largest bedroom includes a double closet and a built-in desk. The third bedroom has its own full bath, and there is an additional full bath in the main hall, adjacent to the second bedroom.

The third floor contains three additional large bedrooms, with large closets, skylights and a mini-split HVAC system for comfort. Any of these rooms could be used for a home office.

The lower level includes a large playroom, additional laundry room and another full bath, with heated floors.

The entire house has been recently renovated and upgraded.

Much of the back of the property is on a wooded hill, with a stream at the bottom, leading to Indian Lane. The back, closest to the house has been made into a stone-paved play area. The slightly sloped front yard included a driveway that holds three cars, plus on-street parking.

Where: As mentioned above, Midvale is one of the cul de sac streets on the west side of Roland Avenue. It is close to the schools along Roland Avenue and up to Lake Avenue, Eddie’s and the banks on Roland, and the Roland Park branch of the Pratt Library.  

Final Appraisal: Because Midvale is a dead-end street, there is no through traffic, so the street is very quiet. The Tudor style of the house, which dates from 1913, is one of several of that style. As mentioned, it’s newly renovated, so there’s scant work to be done. The listing for the house is here.

All photographs from the listing.

A sign on a vacant building at The Rotunda office and retail center announces that a new restaurant is “coming in 2025” and that it will offer “brunch, lunch, dinner, happy hour, live music, private events & more.”

The potential operators of the business, called The Barn & Lodge at The Rotunda, say it represents a capital investment of more than $4 million and will create 75 jobs, eight of which will be salaried. The operator is Titan Hospitality Group of Crofton, Maryland. MCB Real Estate, the owner of Harborplace, Northwood Commons, Yard 56 and other commercial centers in Baltimore, owns a majority stake in the Rotunda property.

But residents who live across the street from The Rotunda have gone on record as opposing live entertainment at the proposed restaurant and events space after the company and its attorney began but then broke off negotiations involving issues such as hours of operation, noise control and provisions for off-street parking.

The residents say The Rotunda already has an outdoor concert series called “Rotunda Rocks” every Friday from May to September and a Farmer’s Market on Tuesdays that also has live music. They say they’re afraid that The Barn & Lodge is a thinly-disguised banquet hall that will bring noise and crowds to the area all year long.

The opponents say that live entertainment is a conditional use in C-2 zoning districts in Baltimore, including The Rotunda at 711 West 40^th Street, and Titan doesn’t have legal authority to offer the “live music” promised on its sign. They say they tried for months to meet with Titan and its attorney and the company would not meet with them, adding to their fears.

City Council member Odette Ramos, who represents both The Rotunda and the surrounding Hampden community, and the board of the Hampden Community Council also have gone on record as opposing Titan’s current application to provide live entertainment as part of its operation. More than 75 residents have signed a petition asking the zoning board to deny Titan’s request for live entertainment.  

Baltimore’s Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals (BMZA) held a public hearing on the live entertainment request on September 3. But after listening to more than two hours of testimony, the commissioners said they were unable to reach a decision on the spot and scheduled a second meeting for deliberations on Tuesday, October 1.

Residents not initially consulted

The zoning board hearing comes six months after Baltimore’s liquor board granted a Class B “beer, wine and liquor” license for the project. That license allows Titan to serve alcoholic beverages at The Barn & Lodge but, because the Rotunda is a C-2 zoning district, Titan needs zoning board approval before it can offer live entertainment.

Part of the controversy is that while The Rotunda is zoned for commercial use, a row of houses immediately to the west, in the 3900 block of Elm Avenue, is part of a residentially-zoned area where live entertainment is not permitted.

The Barn & Lodge is proposed for a vacant structure on the western edge of The Rotunda, a historic complex that dates from 1921 and housed the Maryland Casualty Insurance Company before developer Bernard Manekin converted it to an office and retail center in the early 1970s.

Manekin’s conversion was one of the first adaptive reuse projects in Baltimore. Starting in 2014, Hekemian & Company invested $85 million to upgrade The Rotunda as an 11-acre, 300,000-square-foot mixed-use center, and MCB acquired a majority stake in 2021. Current tenants include a MOM’s grocery store, a seven-screen cinema complex and the 379-unit ICON Residences at The Rotunda. Nearby communities besides Hampden include Roland Park, Wyman Park and the Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus.

The Barn & Lodge is planned for a freestanding brick structure that served as a “boiler room” when the property was occupied by Maryland Casualty, plus an adjacent outdoor patio that would be covered. Located at 729 W. 40^th St., and dormant for years, the structure backs up to Elm Avenue and looms above the two-story houses on the opposite side of the street. The houses have bedrooms facing the street, less than 100 feet from the building and patio where Titan wants to open its restaurant and events space.

Residents who live on Elm Avenue have led the opposition to the Barn & Lodge project, saying they can hear music from the Rotunda Rocks concerts and are worried about what they’ll hear if Titan is permitted to offer live entertainment. They note that banquet halls are not permitted uses in C-2 districts and they believe Titan is calling its business a restaurant and events venue, and then seeking approval to offer live entertainment, as a way of getting around the zoning code restriction on banquet halls in C-2 districts.

The residents have been working with an attorney from the Community Law Center to make their concerns known to the zoning board, and about a dozen Hampden residents attended the September 3 zoning board hearing with law center senior staff attorney Shana Roth-Gormley. The residents also have met with leaders of the Hampden Community Council and council member Ramos, who attended the September 3 hearing and spoke on their behalf.

At the September 3 hearing, the Hampden residents told the zoning board members that they asked to meet with Titan early on to learn about its proposed restaurant and events space but were unable to get a meeting until Ramos intervened.

When they finally got a meeting, they said, they wanted to know if Titan would be willing to limit its live entertainment to certain days of the week and certain hours of the night and not have music on its outdoor patio.

The residents said Titan initially seemed willing to consider accepting certain conditions if the community would support its request to provide live entertainment. But when the community council indicated it would still oppose Titan’s application, they said, Titan’s attorney, Drew Tildon, withdrew the offer to work with the residents. The residents say that made them worry all the more about how Titan would operate without any limits on live entertainment.

‘Mea culpa’

Tildon is an associate attorney with Rosenberg Martin Greenberg who specializes in land use and zoning cases and frequently represents applicants seeking waivers and variances from Baltimore’s zoning board. Rosenberg Martin Greenberg represents MCB in its efforts to secure city approvals to replace the Harborplace pavilions with a $500 million mixed-use development at Pratt and Light streets.

At the September 3 hearing, Tildon apologized for not scheduling a meeting with Hampden residents until Ramos intervened. She said she didn’t do so because she considered The Rotunda to be a commercial center and didn’t think it was necessary to meet with homeowners in the surrounding area.

In terms of community outreach, “I will note that we did not initially reach out to the Hampden Community Council, which is our policy,” she admitted to the board. “We always reach out, when we submit an application, to the applicable neighborhood community association. But given the fact that this is in the Rotunda shopping center where there are already two uniquely live music events that are actually outdoors, it just, it didn’t cross our minds, and we really very much appreciate the fact that the councilwoman reached out in advance of our initial hearing date in June and requested a meeting and we said, ‘Of course, we’re happy to share our plans.’ ”

 A 2021 graduate of the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, Tildon said it was her fault that Titan didn’t meet with the community sooner.

“It is, frankly, mea culpa,” she said. “I should have reached out.”

When Ramos raised the issue of setting certain restrictions on Titan’s application for live entertainment, Tildon said, Titan initially indicated it would be willing to accept conditions, including removal of outdoor live entertainment entirely, “if that is something that was going to bring greater comfort” to area residents.

But when the Hampden Community Council said it was still going to oppose its application for live entertainment, Tildon said, Titan changed its stance about negotiating with the community.

Tildon said Titan had already postponed its previously-scheduled June meeting with the zoning board in hopes that it could “discuss other opportunities to bring comfort to the community.” But seeing that its efforts “were not met with any sort of response outside of outright opposition from the community,” she said, Titan didn’t want to wait any longer and decided instead to present its application directly to the zoning board.

“Given the fact that the conditions that we proposed had not alleviated their concerns, we are no longer proposing to add them to this application,” she said at the September 3 hearing. “We present them to the board at this board’s discretion. In fact, we are happy to have the board condition this approval on any sort of operational needs that the board believes are in the best public interest, but we are not here today presenting specific conditions.”

 $4 million investment

In her presentation, Tildon emphasized the economic benefits she said the Barn & Lodge project would bring to the city, including its monetary investment and the number of jobs created. Tildon said the plans include a “traditional dining room” with about 100 seats, two 14-seat private dining rooms, a “private events space” for about 100 people, and a covered outdoor space with about 73 seats, just south of the building. She said the capital investment would be $4 million; Titan representative James King later referred to it as a $7 million investment.

Tildon said the hours of operation would be from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays.  Unless there is a private event, she said, the restaurant generally will not stay open on weeknights until 1 a.m. Unless there is an event in the private events space, she said, indoor live entertainment will be limited to dinner service, with acoustic music, and outdoor live entertainment will be limited to happy hour, with acoustic music.

“Unless there is a private event in the private events space, there will not be public shows,” she said. “Live entertainment is going to be limited to dinner hour and happy hour.”

Tildon told the board that the restaurant is permitted “by right” at The Rotunda and that Titan’s zoning board application only concerns “accessory live entertainment.” She said The Rotunda “has an abundance of off-street parking,” that accessory live entertainment does not require additional off-street parking under the city’s zoning code, and that the restaurant is not required to provide additional off-street parking. She said she was not appearing to address hours, staffing or other details related to the restaurant, only the project’s live entertainment component.

‘Arbitrary and capricious and illegal’

Tildon warned the board members that the conditional use standards they must follow state that it would be “arbitrary and capricious and illegal” for them to deny live entertainment at The Barn & Lodge, so long as the adverse impact of the live entertainment there is “not going to be any worse than any other C-2 zoned property.“

The applicants “understand and recognize that there are homes that are adjacent” to the proposed project, she said, “but that is inherent to a community commercial district. The C-2 commercial district is designed to be adjacent to residential properties and to actually provide commercial uses that will serve the residential properties.”

But the residents said denying Titan’s conditional use application would not be arbitrary and capricious. They say they are concerned because the structure that was used as the boiler room is on the edge of the Rotunda property, very close to houses on the other side of the street, and that makes it different than if it were in the middle of the 11-acre Rotunda parcel.

The residents noted that the zoning board recently turned down an application for live entertainment for a proposed food and beverage operation in the 4000 block of Falls Road on the grounds that live entertainment would have an adverse impact on nearby residences there, and they believe the board should do so for Titan’s application as well. They argued that the Rotunda project is another case with unusual circumstances for the zoning board to consider, starting with its location on the dividing line between a commercial district and a residential zone, the attorney’s failure to reach out to the residents from the start, and the community’s distrust of Titan.

“The applicant…has not been forthcoming with neighbors in sharing a plan for this space, which it proposes to turn into a 271-seat venue with an outdoor patio, live entertainment and events,” states the petition signed by Hampden residents.

“We love restaurants, but this project will simply not work in this space,” the petition continues. “We are extremely concerned about the effect this venue would have on our community and on our ability to continue to live, work and play without significant nuisance caused by traffic and late-night noise.”

The Rotunda is not known for its night life, and people who live nearby “do not wish to have live music and entertainment entering their homes and bedrooms at any hour, much less until 1 a.m. or later,” said Blaise Ahearn, an executive board member of the Hampden Community Council.

“The Summer Concert Series, Rotunda Rocks, is one day a week, five months out of the year, until 9 p.m.,” Ahearn said. “It accounts for six percent of all days of the year. This is troublesome enough for these residents and they do not wish to increase this headache 60-fold by allowing live music 365 days a year and certainly not specifically into early morning hours.”

The Barn & Lodge “is different than any other place at the Rotunda,” Ramos said her letter of opposition to Titan’s application. “Not only will it be an upscale restaurant, but also an event space…The indoor live entertainment request is challenging for the residents of the apartments at the Rotunda, customers to the many shops, and for the residents on Elm Avenue behind the venue. Moreover, the parking and traffic is already a challenge at the Rotunda, and without valet, all of the shops will suffer.”

Not coming to the community initially was a misstep, Ramos said.

“They should have known to come to me and the community with their proposal,” she said. “They took for granted that all of the plans in the Rotunda have been approved recently. It was not until I brokered a meeting with the [Barn & Lodge] representatives and the community members did anyone from either party really understand the impact. That first meeting, there was agreement on a few items with the community, like no amplification of the outdoor music and reduced hours of the outdoor music. In their email back to us confirming the items we agreed to, those were modified along with some of the other items. The distrust began right there.”

Ramos said she would like zoning board chair James Fields to require that more negotiating meetings occur, and that a formal Memorandum of Understanding be drawn up with formal conditions on the conditional use.

“These should include every day of the week valet parking, no loading on Elm Avenue, leaving the original brick on the façade, and other requests the community has had but no agreement has been reached,” she said. “While it is exciting [Barn & Lodge] would like to move into Baltimore City, they cannot move forward with their project without consideration for the impact on the surrounding community.”

Currently, she said, “there seems to be no regard for any past agreements between the former owners of the Rotunda and the community, and no regard for at least making the community — the residents in the apartments and the residents in the surrounding community — aware of their plans and asking for feedback. For this reason, I am asking the BMZA to vote to oppose the use. Hopefully with your help we can get back to the negotiating table and come up with resolutions to each of the community’s concerns.”

The zoning board’s deliberations on Appeal No. 2024-028 have been scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on October 1 in the eighth floor conference room in the Charles Benton municipal building, 417 E. Fayette Street. The meeting is open to the public, but the board is not expected to take public testimony.