Local developers won preliminary approval on Tuesday to convert a dormant church on Roland Avenue to a restaurant with outdoor seating and are now looking for a tenant to fill the space.

Baltimore’s zoning board voted 4 to 0 to allow 3900 Roland Avenue LLC, headed by Josh Mente and Jesse Vann, to create a restaurant inside the former St. Mary’s Protestant Episcopal Church at 3900 Roland Avenue.

Samantha Claassen, the owner of Golden West Café at 1105 West 36^th Street, had expressed interest in moving to the church but decided to keep the café at its current location. 

Mente said he and Vann acquired the church last month and are moving ahead with their conversion plan now that the zoning board has approved their zoning application. He said Claassen’s decision means the space is still available and he is searching for a tenant that would be a good fit for the property.

The seller was the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Maryland, also known as the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. The diocese listed the property for sale last year. Mente declined to disclose the purchase price, and the deed has not been recorded in state records.

 Mente told the zoning board members that the sanctuary is about 6,000 square feet in size and will seat “less than 200” diners. He said he believes the church is a good candidate for conversion to a restaurant because of its location and distinctive architectural features: “It’s a pretty good setting to put this type of use,” he said. 

Zoning board approval was required because restaurants are considered conditional uses in R-6 districts, where the church is located. The commissioners were told that the church has a history of non-residential use, including periods when it housed a day care center, offices and, for many years, the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory. The board received two letters of support for the restaurant plan and two letters of opposition. The letters of support came from City Council member Odette Ramos, who had two community meetings about the proposal, and the Hampden Community Council. The letters in opposition came from private individuals with addresses on Roland Avenue 

The city’s zoning code requires that restaurants in an R-6 district provide one off-street parking spot for every 1000 square feet of indoor dining space. Mente said he’s aiming to create up to 25 spots for dedicated use by the restaurant.

Mente also plans to create up to 29 apartments on the one-acre parcel.  The city’s zoning code allows up to 29 apartments per acre and the new owners don’t need any zoning variances for housing as long as they don’t create more units than the code allows. Mente said he plans to use other parts of the property for the apartments, including a former Sunday school wing that was added in the 1950s. 

Update on sale of The Wine Source 

David Wells, owner of The Wine Source at 3601 Elm Ave., is planning to retire and has put his business and property up for sale. Wells hasn’t identified a buyer but he told members of the Hampden Community Council at a meeting this month that he hopes to have information to share about the sale in the near future. “You’ll know when I know,” he said at the community meeting. 

After the meeting, Wells said he has “gotten a lot of offers” for The Wine Source and “it’s taken a lot of time to sort through them.” He said he hopes to be able to name a buyer sometime in June. “I think I’ve worked my last [end of year] holiday,” he added. “I should be gone sometime in September.” 

As part of the ownership change, Wells said during the community meeting, he’s applying to the city’s liquor board for a new kind of liquor license. He said The Wine Source currently operates under a BD7 tavern license, which he purchased in 2009 but “doesn’t exist anymore” as a category for merchants who want to sell package goods for off-premise consumption. He said the BD7 license has been replaced by a Class A-7 license, which permits the sale of package goods. He said he is surrendering the BD7 license and pursuing an A-7 license to make it easier for a future owner, who won’t have to worry about operating with an “antiquated” license. 

Wells said obtaining the new license requires action from the Baltimore City Council, and he wants the community to know what’s happening. Ramos explained at the meeting that Wells can sell package goods because he was “grandfathered in” when the current zoning code went into effect in 2017, but a new owner can’t do so unless the City Council approves the sale of package goods as a conditional use at that address.

According to the liquor board and the City Council, a holder of a Class A-7 license may sell beer, wine and liquor seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to midnight, for off-premise consumption only. Before applying to the liquor board for a Class A-7 license, the applicant must obtain approval by resolution of the City Council. 

Ramos, who represents the area where The Wine Source is located, indicated that she will introduce the resolution required by the liquor board. She also told the community council members that she intends to introduce an ordinance that will allow The Wine Source to sell package goods as a conditional use, as required by the current zoning code, and that will help make it possible for a new owner to continue operating the way The Wine Source does at present. 

“Now that we have the new zoning code,” she said, “we want to make sure that all of the things that every resident and all of the customers are used to, stay in place.” She said there will no changes to the store’s operation under her legislation “other than they open one hour later.”  

Wells said after the meeting that he’s moving ahead with demolition of two semi-detached dwellings at 3618 and 3620 Elm Ave. to create a parking lot across the street from The Wine Source. The City Council last year approved legislation that allows him to raze the houses to create a parking lot to serve Wine Source customers. He said he hopes to complete demolition of the two houses and construction of the parking lot in the last quarter of 2024. In the meantime, he said, he has leased 10 spaces in another parking lot on the west side of Elm Avenue for use by Wine Source customers. 

Apartment plan stalls for 3818 Roland Avenue 

A developer’s plan to convert the former funeral home at 3818 Roland Ave. to apartments is not moving ahead.

Ramos said at the Hampden Community Council meeting that the developer who owns the building “was not able to get his financing together” for his apartment project and put the property up for auction but it didn’t sell. She said there’s a potential buyer for the property – a chiropractor who is already based in Hampden and would like to buy the building and use it as a doctor’s office. 

A doctor’s office is a conditional use in a residential district and the prospective buyer would need city approval to move his practice to the Roland Avenue address. Ramos said she plans to organize a meeting with residents who live near the property to see what they think about the idea before taking the proposal to the full community council.  

No demolition for the former Free State Bookbinders building

Ramos told community residents that the former Free State Bookbinders building at 3110 Elm Ave., where chimney swifts have roosted for generations as part of their seasonal migration, will not be demolished to make way for 155 apartments, as a developer, the Segall Group, proposed in 2022.

The book bindery began operating there in the 1980s but has since closed. Ramos said the building is in the final stages of being designated a city landmark, which means that any changes to the exterior would have to be approved by the city’s preservation commission. 

Dating from the 1930s, the building once housed a clothing factory and currently is zoned IMU, which stands for Industrial/Mixed Use. Ramos said uses could range from manufacturing to co-working space: “There’s all kinds of options.” 

Catholic church targeted for closure

Ramos said St. Thomas Aquinas Church at 1008 W. 37^th St. is one of the churches in Baltimore that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore has targeted for closure, but it may not happen until the end of 2026. She said the Catholic school on the same block is already closed and church leaders are expected to outline a community process for determining what will happen to the property once decisions are final about which churches will close.

 “Hampden Highlights’ festival

Saturday June 1 is the date of Hampden Highlights, a new spring festival that will take place from noon to 7 p.m. on West 36^th St.

According to organizers Susannah Siger of Ma Petite Shoe and Claassen of Golden West Café, the goal is to provide a platform for small businesses, organizations, artists and musicians in the community, to raise funds for local non-profits and to encourage neighborhood investment. May 23 is the deadline for applications from prospective vendors. More information is available at hampdenhighlights.com.

The proposed redevelopment of Harborplace led the news on the local real estate and development front in 2023, as people around the city warmed up to the idea of revitalizing Baltimore’s “crown jewel” on the waterfront after years of its deterioration.

Revitalization was a recurring theme in other parts of the city as well, from Camden Yards to the west side of downtown Baltimore to the Station North arts district. 

In some cases, big projects were announced but are still in the pre-construction stage, as developers work to secure design approvals and line up financing.

Others have been under construction all year and still aren’t open, including improvements in and around Penn Station; new waterfront headquarters for T. Rowe Price and Under Armour; and major additions to the Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus and East Baltimore medical campus. 

The past year also brought key openings in the central business district and elsewhere, including the $250 million CFG Bank Arena; a second theater for the France Merrick Performing Arts Center; a heavy timber office building in Canton; and a new nature education center at Cylburn Arboretum. 

Against this backdrop is a transportation-related project that has the potential to affect much of the city, the planned Red Line transit route that Gov. Wes Moore revived to connect East and West Baltimore. State officials are expected to announce a preferred alignment for the route and other details in the near future. 

Here are some of the projects that either changed the urban landscape in Baltimore over the past year or promise to do so. 

Harborplace: An affiliate of MCB Real Estate completed its acquisition of the two retail pavilions at Pratt and Light streets and launched a community engagement process designed to give city residents a chance to say what they’d like to see happen there. The process started as a cordial discussion about possible ways to reimagine the city’s waterfront. But reactions to the project have been more mixed after MCB unveiled renderings showing what it proposes to build – a mixed-use development including two high-rise structures containing about 900 apartments as well as offices, shops restaurants and public space.

As long as the subjects discussed were relatively abstract, the discourse was mostly upbeat. Once the developer offered a more specific vision to react to, the critics began to weigh in. While many welcomed the proposed private investment and the property’s return to local ownership, others questioned the planning and review process: Are the proposed buildings too tall? Why not recycle the existing pavilions? Is the city giving too much control to private developers?

The year is ending with a cliffhanger of sorts: MCB’s proposal has received strong endorsement from elected officials, and Baltimore’s Planning Commission voted unanimously this month to support legislation that would make it possible. But the development can’t proceed as presented unless city residents approve it when it comes up for a vote in the general election next November. That means 2024 will bring even more discussion and debate about the future of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, leading up to the election.

Camden Yards: As part of negotiations to extend the Orioles’ lease at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, team chairman and CEO John Angelos asked state officials to give the team control of state-owned property that could be used to create a mixed-use development that would help draw people to the area year round. One of Angelos’ models was the Battery Atlanta entertainment district near Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves. Many other cities have supported the creation of sports-themed developments adjacent to ballparks.

Unlike MCB, Angelos hasn’t released any renderings to show what he envisions. As with Harborplace, questions were raised about exactly what Angelos was seeking, and what the state would be giving up if it turned control over to the team without seeking competitive bids. In the end, state officials were able to extend the Orioles lease, but they delayed taking action on Angelos’ request to award development rights of state property to the Orioles. The decision means Baltimore won’t be getting a Battery Atlanta-type development in the near future, but the vision is still alive.

The west side of downtown: Another mixed-use project, The Compass, cleared a key hurdle when Baltimore’s preservation commission approved Westside Partners’ master plan for redeveloping 18 city-owned properties in the area bounded roughly by Fayette, Howard and Lexington streets and Park Avenue. The plan will add 302 residences, 120 hotel rooms, office space and ground level stores and gathering places in a mix of new and recycled buildings in the city’s Five & Dime Historic District.

Other action on the West Side of downtown included plans by the Episcopal Housing Corporation and Health Care for the Homeless to create a 42-unit affordable housing development called Sojourner Place at Park, incorporating the shells of vacant buildings at 142 W. Fayette St.; 102, 104 and 106 N. Liberty St.; and 111 Park Ave.

Lexington Market had a grand opening in January for its new home at 112 N. Eutaw St. and continued to add merchants throughout the year. Park Avenue Partners began construction on a $30 million, six-story, 94-unit apartment building in the 400 block of Park Avenue, including partial retention and restoration of the former Martick’s Restaurant Francaise at 214 W. Mulberry St. Developer Chukuemeka “Chukes” Okoro unveiled preliminary plans for a six-story apartment building at the northeast corner of Park Avenue and Lexington Street. 

The west side also benefitted from two of Baltimore’s biggest building openings in 2023: the CFG Bank Arena, a $250 million renovation of the old First Mariner Arena at 201 W. Baltimore St.; and the M&T Bank Exchange, a new theater and events venue for the France Merrick Performing Arts Center at 12 N. Eutaw St., home of the Hippodrome Theatre. France-Merrick Performing Arts Center president Ron Legler was honored by the Broadway League for excellence in theater management.

Station North: The Station North Arts District received welcome exposure and foot traffic when Baltimore’s Artscape festival returned after a four-year hiatus and expanded its footprint to include parts of Station North.  In advance of the festival, the city of Baltimore with newly-named arts czar Tonya Miller Hall commissioned several murals to help brighten the area long after the festival is over.

The historic North Avenue Market came alive during Artscape with a series of pop-up merchants and art installations. The market is under contract to the group led by developer John Renner, who wants to turn it into a community arts hub, and the temporary tenants showed how much a rejuvenated market can add to the area. Founders of Mobtown Ballroom announced plans to make the market the location for their new home, the Mobtown Ballroom and Café.

Baltimore was the recipient of a $1 million grant from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Art Challenge to bring more public art to the North Avenue corridor. The project, called “Inviting Light,” is led by the Central Baltimore Partnership, the Neighborhood Design Center and the Mayor’s Office. The Area 405 arts community at 405 East Oliver Street moved ahead with a second phase of renovation. The Maryland Film Festival announced plans to reopen the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Parkway Theatre at 5 West North Avenue, closed for most of 2023, as part of its 25^th anniversary celebration in May of 2024. The Parlor, an arts hub inside a former funeral home at 108 West North Avenue, opened for several pop-up events.

Baltimore Peninsula/Port Covington: In south Baltimore, developers welcomed the first office, retail and residential tenants to Baltimore Peninsula, the new name for the 235-acre mixed-use community formerly known as Port Covington. The developers tore down the Baltimore Sun Media Group’s former headquarters, Sun Park, after the media company moved its newsroom back downtown.

Across Cromwell Street, a group led by 28 Walker Development began construction on the first phases of an 809-unit, 25-acre residential community planned for the former Locke Insulators parcel at 2525 Insulator Drive, with DRB Homes, K. Hovnanian Home and Greystar also on the team. Under Armour completed work on an athletic field and stadium that’s part of the global headquarters its building on the Middle Branch waterfront.

Charles Village: Baltimore’s Planning Commission approved plans by Workshop Development and MCB Real Estate to construct a seven-story apartment building in the 3100 block of St. Paul Street, with a new Streets Market and other retailers at ground level. The developers still need the Baltimore’s City Council to pass legislation that would change the property’s height limit from 68 feet to 80 feet so they can move ahead with construction. A branch of Busboys and Poets restaurant closed at 3224 St. Paul St. A $26 million, 115-room hotel, The Study at Johns Hopkins, opened inside the former Blackstone Apartments building at 3215 N. Charles St.

More mixed-use developments

Midtown: The University of Baltimore selected a group led by Zahlco and Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures to redevelop a 2.35-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Maryland Avenue and Oliver Street, currently occupied by a former U. S. postal service vehicle maintenance facility.  Plans call for apartments, retail space and associated amenities. The estimated private investment is more than $150 million.

Reservoir Square: Reservoir Square is the new name for a $100 million community under construction on eight acres along the 700 and 800 blocks of West North Avenue, between Bolton Hill and Reservoir Hill. The project was previously called Madison Park North. The developers are MCB Real Estate, MLR Partners and Atapco Properties. Plans call for 120 townhouses, about 200 apartments, offices, a grocery store, and other retailers.

Food hall on North Avenue: The Mill on North is the name of a food hall that is scheduled to open in the spring of 2024 as the final phase of the $20 million Walbrook Mill community that has taken shape on the former Walbrook Mill and Lumber property in the 2600 block of West North Avenue, near Coppin State University. Other components of the community include apartments, offices and a bank branch.

Remington Yards: In Remington, Seawall Development is moving ahead with plans to build a mixed-use project called Remington Yards (formerly, Sisson East) in the area bounded roughly by Sisson Street on the west, 28^th Street on the south, Hampden Avenue on the east, and 29^th Street on the north. Plans call for offices, apartments, structured parking and retail spaces in a combination of new buildings and existing structures adapted for new uses.

Seawall’s Thibault Manekin also disclosed plans to build apartments in place of the 7-Eleven store at 211 W. 28^th St. after the store lease expires in about a year. In partnership with Onyx Development, Seawall is leading an effort to redevelop the 14-acre Pikesville Armory campus at 610 Reisterstown Road in Baltimore County, a multi-phase development expected to cost $100 million.

Shofer’s Furniture buildings:  Local businessman Henry Shofer asked Baltimore’s preservation commission at a hearing this month to approve demolition of the former Shofer’s Furniture Clearance Center at 107-113 South Charles Street to make way for new development. The commission is expected to hold a second hearing in early 2024 to consider his request.

Another Shofer’s-related property, a former warehouse at 810 Leadenhall Street, has been targeted for conversion to 165 apartments by a group that includes Workshop Development and Consolidated Equities Corporation. The furniture store at 930 South Charles Street closed in 2021 after 106 years in business, and that building is currently on the market. 

Redwood Street corridor: Developers Brad and Kemp Byrnes and others announced plans to convert the former Hotel RL Baltimore Inner Harbor at 207 E. Redwood St. to Redwood Place, an $18.5 million, 130-unit apartment project. Working with developer Brad Gupta, they have brought occupancy of the Redwood Exchange office building at 233 East Redwood Street to 80 percent, after signing a lease with Michael Graves Architecture.

Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake opened The Excel Center, a tuition-free public high school for students aged 21 and older, at 222 East Redwood Street. Space for the high school became available after Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake moved its headquarters from Redwood Street to the Baltimore Gateway office building at 3700 Kopper Street.

The Baltimore Development Corporation announced that it is seeking proposals from developers interested in acquiring the 21-story, city-owned office building at 7 E. Redwood St., possibly for conversion to residences. The deadline for bids is January 22, 2024. The BDC said it is looking for proposals that will preserve the building, which opened in 1924 as headquarters for The First National Bank in Baltimore.

More apartments: In addition to the Hotel RL conversion on Redwood Street, former hotels and office buildings throughout Baltimore’s central business district were targeted for conversion to housing. Three of the biggest projects are Vivo Living’s conversion to 558 apartments of the former Holiday Inn and Radisson Hotel towers at 101 W. Fayette St.; Chasen Companies’ conversion to 173 apartments of the former office building known as One Calvert Plaza; and Trademark Partners’ conversion to 240 apartments of the former Fidelity and Deposit Building and Charles and Lexington streets. That’s 1,098 new downtown residences in just those four projects.

Village of Cross Keys: Caves Valley Partners broke ground at The Village of Cross Keys for the first new building in years for the planned community at 5100 Falls Road. It will contain a two-level restaurant and bar operated by the Atlas Restaurant Group and featuring a moderately-priced “Chinese concept,” along with two other retailers. Caves Valley also welcomed Easy Like Sunday, a breakfast and lunch spot in the Village Square, and announced plans for an “upscale American restaurant” called Cece’s Roland Park, a venture of the Cordish Companies, to open in the spring of 2024.

Harbor Point: Developers of the 27-acre Harbor Point community made progress on several new projects, including the global headquarters of T. Rowe Price and a 500-unit development called Harbor Point Allied | Harbor Point.

Mondawmin Mall: A group led by Whiting-Turner Contracting Company president and CEO Tim Regan is converting the former Target store at Mondawmin Mall to the TouchPoint Empowerment Center, a community hub and resource center intended to help revitalize eight neighborhoods around the mall. 

Johns Hopkins: The Johns Hopkins University made construction progress on two major projects on its Homewood campus, the $250 million Hopkins Student Center on Charles Street and a new home for the JHU Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute on Wyman Park Drive.

For its East Baltimore medical campus, Hopkins topped off a 12-story research facility that is replacing the Brady Building on Monument Street and unveiled plans to expand its Bloomberg School of Public Health at 615 N. Wolfe St. with a seven-story addition. Hopkins’ largest completed capital project in 2023 was the 12-level Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue N. W. in Washington D. C., the former Newseum, now the university’s new academic base in the nation’s capital.   

Digital signs: After years in which Baltimore City had a moratorium on the erection of new billboards, a series of illuminated signs began appearing on downtown buildings within a specially-designated district for digital billboards, known as the North Harbor Area of Special Sign Control. More will appear in 2024.

Musical chairs: The law firm of Wright, Constable & Skeen moved its main offices from 7 St. Paul Street in Baltimore to 1 Olympic Place (once known as the Investment Building) in Towson. The law firm of DLA Piper LLP moved from Baltimore County to 650 South Exeter Street in Baltimore City. They’re two of many companies that changed headquarters but remained in the Greater Baltimore metropolitan area. Some moved from Baltimore’s central business District to Harbor Point and Harbor East.

Another case in which Baltimore gained a company headquarters was the decision by the development firm of Greenberg Gibbons to move its headquarters to the 40TEN office building on Boston Street in Canton, bringing in employees previously based in Annapolis and Owings Mills. Built with a heavy timber structural system instead of concrete or steel, 40TEN is also the headquarters of 28 Walker, the building’s developer.

Mount Vernon: Mount Vernon Belvedere Association president Jack Danna announced that the MVBA is working to find a grocery store to replace Eddie’s of Mount Vernon, which closed in June. The former home of Charm City Yoga at 107 East Preston Street will reopen in April as Tribe, a new sort of movement and wellness hub. The Loyola School started construction on an expansion that will incorporate the facades of several 19^th century townhouses in the 100 block of East Madison Street.

After 10 years, scaffolding came down from around the former New Refuge Deliverance Cathedral at Chase and St. Paul streets. Odorite of Baltimore merged with another business and vacated its home at 1111 Maryland Avenue. The Prime Rib restaurant reopened in September after a two-month renovation that signified its owners’ commitment to staying in Mount Vernon.

Inner Harbor anchors: The National Aquarium began construction of Harbor Wetland, a $14 million outdoor exhibit and educational resource that involves the creation of a network of floating manmade wetland “islands” and “learning docks” in the inlet between Inner Harbor Piers 3 and 4.

The Maryland Science Center unveiled preliminary plans to make its campus greener by landscaping the brick plaza leading to its harbor-facing main entrance. Maryland’s Board of Public Works granted a request to spend $4.2 million to demolish the vacant Bard Building at 600 E. Lombard St. and replace it with a temporary green space while the Baltimore City Community College comes up with a new vision for redevelopment of the property.

B&O Railroad Museum: The B&O Railroad Museum announced plans for a $30 million project that will add new exhibits and a public plaza called the CSX Bicentennial Garden. The project involves the renovation of the museum’s South Car Works building and will reorient the museum to face the Pigtown neighborhood. Visit Baltimore presented the museum’s executive director, Kris Hoellen, with its 2023 William Donald Schaefer Visionary Tourism Leadership Award.

Canopy Team: Janet Marie Smith, the architect and urban planner who was instrumental in the design of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, chose Meadow Mill at 3600 Clipper Mill Road to be the location for the East Coast headquarters of Canopy Team, a company that she and CEO Frances “Fran” Weld founded to share their planning expertise with others. They already have clients around the globe.

AIA Firm Award: Quinn Evans, a national design firm with a Baltimore office, received the prestigious Firm of the Year award from the American Institute of Architects in 2023. It’s the first time in many years that an architecture firm in Baltimore has been honored that way. Quinn Evans moved into the Baltimore market when it acquired a local firm, Cho Benn Holback and Associates, in 2017.

Cylburn Arboretum: Representatives for the Cylburn Arboretum Friends and Baltimore’s Department of Recreation and Parks cut the ribbon to open a $7.5 million Nature Education Center at the city-owned arboretum, capping more than a year of construction. The project included the restoration of a two-story carriage house behind the historic Cylburn Mansion at 4915 Greenspring Avenue and a 1,760-square-foot addition called the CFG Exhibit Hall, which houses educational exhibits related to the arboretum and its setting.

Designed by Ziger Snead Architects, the project was the Grand Design Award Winner in the annual design competition sponsored by the Baltimore chapter of the American Institute of Architects. It’s a sign that the city of Baltimore can still be a source of first-rate architecture, especially when it has support from groups as dedicated and resourceful as the Cylburn Arboretum Friends.

For Baltimore, 2022 was largely a year of setting up development projects for 2023 and beyond. Here’s a look back at the city’s biggest openings, closings, construction projects, and other real estate and business news of the past year.

One of Baltimore’s newest buildings took a little longer to complete than expected.

When it opened on Inner Harbor Pier 1 last June, the $5 million education center for the USS Constellation had been in the works since 1999.

It’s taken “about 22 years,” said Christopher Rowsom, vice president of Living Classrooms and executive director of Historic Ships in Baltimore, the building’s operator. “But it got done.”

Not every new building that opened in Baltimore over the past 12 months took 22 years to complete, but sometimes it seemed that way. The restored Peale museum, which had a grand reopening in August, was a five-year effort. The Middle Branch Fitness and Wellness Center was 11 years in the making.

For those hoping to see Baltimore experience another urban “Renaissance” comparable to what residents witnessed during the “Do It Now!” years of the late 1970s and early 1980s, 2022 was more of a rebuilding year than one filled with ribbon cuttings.

A number of key projects were completed, including Baltimore Unity Hall, a $9.95 million center for arts, education and job training at 1505 Eutaw Place; the Creative Alliance’s $5.2 million Creativity Center at 3137 Eastern Ave. in Highlandtown; and Topgolf Baltimore at 1411 Warner Street. Lexington Market welcomed the first tenants to its $40 million new home downtown. The city’s first Lidl grocery store opened at Northwood Commons.

But much of the activity was behind the scenes, involving projects that have the potential to be transformative but haven’t yet opened to the public. Some are under construction, such as Penn Station shrouded in scaffolding; the CFG Bank Arena with its indoor webcam showing progress; and the giant pit from which the Johns Hopkins University’s $250 million student center will rise. Others haven’t gotten to the construction stage but are going through design reviews and lining up financing.

If one added up the cost of all the projects in the pipeline for downtown Baltimore, between those now under construction and those on the drawing boards — think Harbor Point, the Port Covington area, new housing in East Baltimore, and more — the figure would exceed the capital investment made in the 1980s. The past year brought both signs of progress and setbacks, including an emergency building demolition in Mount Vernon and the abrupt closure of the just-restored Parkway Theatre on North Avenue. Will the new developments add up to another Baltimore Renaissance, a case where the stars align and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts? That is clearly the hope.

On the drawing boards

Harborplace: One of the most important development projects that didn’t have a grand opening this year but was the subject of extensive behind-the-scenes activity, was the Harborplace “festival market” at Pratt and Light streets, the symbol for a revitalized Baltimore when it opened in 1980 but, in its current state, an emblem for how far it has to go.

In April, Mayor Brandon Scott announced that P. David Bramble of MCB Real Estate LLC was selected to buy and redevelop the two nearly vacant pavilions, which have languished in receivership after the previous owner, New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation, defaulted on a loan. This month, a Baltimore City Circuit Court judge approved the sale. His order paves the way for the start of a “civic engagement’ process through which Bramble aims to arrive at a new shared vision for rejuvenating Harborplace.

“With the order in place, we will begin the hard work of equitably investing in one of Baltimore’s most critical assets by engaging every neighborhood and any resident that wants to be a part of this process,” Bramble said in a statement. “Inclusion will be the hallmark of our redevelopment process. We will reimagine this underutilized asset to create unique value for all of our communities. People like to count Baltimore out. This project will show what we, as a city, are capable of – and showcase the best of Baltimore for our own families, the region and the entire world.”

“This is the holiday gift that I’ve been waiting for!!” Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) President and CEO Colin Tarbert said on LinkedIn. “Baltimore City will finally have a reputable and local owner to collaborate on the transformation of this key site in order to position the Inner Harbor as an iconic destination once again.”

Middle Branch: A second transformative waterfront project is the master planning effort underway for the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River. James Corner Field Operations and the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership are leading a team that has been exploring ways to reconnect a dozen South Baltimore communities to more than 11 miles of shoreline along the Patapsco.

Some elements of the plan have already materialized, including the $23.1 million, 35,000-square-foot Middle Branch Fitness and Wellness Center that opened last month in Cherry Hill. After a series of community meetings were held this summer and fall, the final plan is expected to go to Baltimore’s Planning Commission for review and formal adoption in February. The draft report can be found at reimaginemb.com.

Westport: One community that stands to benefit from the Middle Branch planning effort is Westport, where Monkton-based Stonewall Capital plans to create a 43-acre mixed-use waterfront community with 1,500 residences, office space and parkland. But Stonewall is in a legal dispute with Baltimore-Washington Rapid Rail, an organization that wants to use the same parcel as part of its route for a $10 billion superconductive magnetic levitation (maglev) system that would connect Washington, D. C. with New York City. The two sides will face off next year during a hearing in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.

The Compass: Also still in the preconstruction stage is The Compass, the proposed redevelopment of the so-called “Superblock” at Howard and Lexington streets, a mixed-use project that’s been in the works with various developers for at least two decades. For months after former Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young selected the current development team in late 2020, city officials touted the project as a key to the rejuvenation of the Howard Street corridor, along with construction of a new home for Lexington Market and renovation of the Royal Farms Arena, now called the CFG Bank Arena. “If we could get all three projects going – Lexington Market, Royal Farms Arena and The Compass – you would have a new center of gravity in the traditional downtown business district on the west side,” Tarbert said in a statement posted on the Compass developer’s website.

But the team that Young selected, Westside Partners LLC, missed a June 2 “target” deadline to acquire 18 city-owned parcels needed to move ahead with construction, and one of its members, Landmark Partners, withdrew from the project. During the Downtown Partnership’s annual meeting in September, when speakers touted key projects on the horizon, The Compass wasn’t mentioned at all.

The $100 million project calls for a mix of existing buildings and new construction to contain apartments, offices, a hotel, parking, retail space and other uses. The first phase calls for 262 apartments and 400 parking spaces. The sale price of the land is $4,500,001.

Kim Clark, executive vice president of the BDC, said in July that the target deadline wasn’t the absolute deadline, and that her office was still working with the developers on the acquisition of the parcels. Dan Taylor, managing director of Business and Neighborhood Development for the BDC, said essentially the same thing following a Planning Commission hearing in November. Because it’s in a city historic district, the design must be approved by the city’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP), before any construction can begin, and no recent public hearings have been held on it by that review board.

Christopher Janian, the founder of Vitruvius Co. and a member of the Westside Partners team, said in an email on Dec. 21 that the Compass development recently was awarded $500,000 from the state’s Project C.O.R.E. program (Creating Opportunities for Renewal and Enterprise) to help fund site improvements. “The project is moving forward and we’ve been working on various community, government and institutional partnerships to deliver a highly impactful development,” he said. “There is encouraging momentum in the neighborhood led by the opening of Lexington Market and the impending opening of the CFG Bank Arena by Oak View Group and we’re looking forward to sharing more details about the project’s progress in the coming months.”

Hendler Creamery: On the east side of downtown, part of the façade of the historic Hendler Creamery has stood for several years on a two-block parcel that has otherwise been cleared to make way for a $75 million, 290-unit apartment project called Hendler Creamery.

The developer, Kevin Johnson of The Commercial Group, never moved ahead with construction after the demolition phase. Now a non-profit in the area, Helping Up Mission, has emerged as a potential buyer, with plans to create an “urban green space” on the site, according to The Baltimore Business Journal. As with The Compass, its plan must be approved by Baltimore’s preservation commission before any work can begin.

State Office Complex: Perhaps the ultimate example of behind-the-scenes activity is the Hogan administration’s plan to move 3,300 government employees from the State Office Complex near Bolton Hill to downtown office buildings, filling vacancies there and freeing up land for new development near the State Center Metro station.

Maryland’s Board of Public Works has approved leases that will allow 12 state agencies to move downtown, occupying 934,000 square feet of space in structures stretching from the Candler Building on Market Place to the Metro West office complex on Greene Street. The state also plans to transfer the State Office Complex property to Baltimore City for future development, and the Board of Public Works recently approved a $500,000 grant to Baltimore City to help the city plan the redevelopment. One of the area’s gems is the Fifth Regiment Armory, which has been envisioned for everything from a grocery store to a performing hall.

Visible signs of progress

Baltimore Peninsula: Construction has been underway for more than a year at Baltimore Peninsula, the $5.5 billion, 235-acre “city within a city” in south Baltimore that was previously known as Port Covington. 2023 will be the year when five new buildings open along East Cromwell Street, the main road that runs parallel to the Middle Branch shoreline.

MAG Partners of New York and McFarlane Partners of San Francisco this year replaced the previous lead developer, Weller Development Partners. The new team is now seeking tenants for the buildings that Weller started, including apartments, offices and a Morris Adjmi-designed building with a 45,000-square-foot market and food hall that’s connected to building with office and meeting space. MAG and McFarlane also brought in a new design firm, AtelierTek Architects of New York, to revise the project’s master plan

The first office tenant to sign a lease at Baltimore Peninsula, H. Chambers Company, is an architecture and interior design firm that’s currently at Montgomery Park. Chambers hired J. C. Porter Construction of Lutherville to build out the 9,000-square-foot space it leased at Rye Street Market and expects to take occupancy by spring.

One company that’s leaving the development is Baltimore Sun Media, which opted not to renew its lease at Sun Park, its sprawling white headquarters and former printing plant at 300 E. Cromwell St. Publisher Trif Alatzas told employees this week that the company has leased office space at 200 St. Paul Place and that its new offices will be ready in the first quarter of 2023 – a return to downtown for the reporters and editors previously based at 501 North Calvert Street. One possible new addition to the Baltimore Peninsula project is a 10,000-seat soccer stadium, the subject of a feasibility study by the Maryland Stadium Authority.

Under Armour and Locke Insulators: South of Cromwell Street, not part of the Baltimore Peninsula tract, Under Armour is building its new global headquarters, a 280,000-square-foot midrise that will overlook a multi-purpose track and field facility. West of Under Armour’s property, Mark Sapperstein of 28 Walker Development heads a team that plans to build about 800 residences, including apartments and townhouses, on the 25-acre Locke Insulators property at 2525 Insulator Drive.

Harbor Point: Another hotbed of construction is Harbor Point, the 27-acre mixed use community taking shape on the former Allied Signal property between Harbor East and Fells Point, with the Beatty Development Group as the master developer. In March, T. Rowe Price broke ground for a 550,000-square-foot global headquarters that’s due to open in 2024.

Also under construction are 500 residences in two towers that will rise above a 1,250-space garage; an eight-story, 152-key Residence Inn by Marriott extended-stay hotel and Point Park, a 4.5-acre green space with views out to Fort McHenry and back to the downtown skyline. The developers say the amount of construction activity may make it difficult in 2023 to open a popular seasonal attraction that started in 2017 at Harbor Point, the outdoor “beach bar” and recreation area known as Sandlot.

Office relocations: Currently located at 100 E. Pratt St., T. Rowe Price is part of a wave of companies that are moving from older buildings in Baltimore’s central business district to newer buildings in Harbor East and Harbor Point, where occupants will have “front row” views of the harbor. Other companies that have made or announced moves include Transamerica Corporation; Bank of America; Ernst and Young LLP and the Gordon Feinblatt law firm.

The downside to these moves is that they increase the office vacancy rate in Baltimore’s central business district, forcing owners to backfill spaces that open up. One bright spot about the companies moving from downtown Baltimore to Harbor East or Harbor Point, city officials say, is that they’re at least remaining in Baltimore. Pandora, by contrast, announced plans to move its headquarters from Maryland to New York City. Design Collective, an architecture firm that started in Howard County, is bucking the trend and moved this week from Pier 4 to 100 E. Pratt St., where T. Rowe Price will be moving out.

Office building and hotel conversions: Baltimore is also seeing a trend of older downtown office buildings and hotels undergoing conversion to residences, making downtown more of a residential neighborhood. One Calvert Plaza at Calvert and Baltimore streets; the Fidelity & Deposit Building at Charles and Lexington streets; and the Radisson and Holiday Inn hotel towers on West Fayette Street are among the properties that are becoming residences. Even One Charles Center, the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe landmark that has been put up for sale as part of the real estate portfolio amassed by attorney Peter Angelos, has been mentioned as a candidate for conversion to apartments.

Penn Station: Beatty Development Group and Cross Street Partners are leading the team that’s working with the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, better known as Amtrak, to redevelop historic Pennsylvania Station and the area around it. One of the first phases involves restoring the exterior of Kenneth Murchison’s 1911 train station and creating office space on its upper levels.

Plans also call for construction of a new passenger terminal on the north side of the tracks; upgrades at track level to accommodate Amtrak’s new high-speed trains, and additional development on several parcels around the train station, including the “Lanvale lot” at Charles and Lanvale streets. Jonathan Borofsky’s 51-foot-tall “Male/Female” sculpture, a gift to the city from the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore, is expected to remain where it is, on the plaza in front of the historic train station.

Johns Hopkins: The Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medical institutions are keeping contractors busy with major projects, including the 150,000-square-foot student center rising in place of the Mattin Center on the Homewood campus, a new home for the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute on Wyman Park Drive, and a $400 million research tower facing Monument Street on Hopkins’ East Baltimore medical campus.

Hopkins tore down seven 1911 rowhouses at 5 to 19 West 29th Street to make way for a green space and Lee Coyle, Hopkins’ Senior Director of Planning and Architecture, told Charles Village residents that Hopkins most likely will raze the vacant Dell House at 2850 North Charles Street as well. This fall Hopkins shared plans to construct a new building just north of the medical campus that will be named in honor of former patient Henrietta Lacks.

Morgan State University: Enjoying record enrollment figures, Morgan State University opened a 10-story, $95 million 670-bed student housing tower named after Thurgood Marshall, and it plans to add a 604-unit tower by 2024. It has selected Moody Nolan Inc. to lead its design team for a $250 million science complex scheduled to open in 2027.

The university plans to demolish the former Montebello Hospital Complex off Argonne Drive and lease the land for construction of a new, for-profit, private medical school called the Maryland College of Osteopathic Medicine. It also received approval from the city to purchase the former Lake Clifton High School property in and around the 4800 block of St. Lo Drive to create a $1 billion research-oriented “innovation park” and satellite campus. The city agreed to sell the 59-acre campus for $93,652.80; Morgan State’s Lake Clifton development is expected to be built in phases over the next 15 to 20 years.

Research tower: Bio-Park Fremont LLC, an affiliate of Wexford Science and Technology, broke ground at 4 North Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard for an eight-story, 330,997-square-foot, ZGF Architects-designed research facility that will mark a new gateway to the UMB Research and Technology Campus.

Madison Park North: In August, developer David Bramble’s MCB Real Estate; Mark Renbaum’s MLR Partners and Kevin McAndrews’ Atapco Properties broke ground in the 700 block of West North Avenue for the first phase of Madison Park North, containing 120 market-rate residences by Ryan Homes. Later phases of the $100 million initiative along a three-block stretch of North Avenue will include rental apartments and retail space. Besides making progress with Harborplace, Northwood Commons, Madison Park North and Yard 56 near the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Bramble’s company unveiled plans to build market-rate apartments on Harford Road, Druid Park Lake Drive, and St. Paul Street.

Affordable housing: Many blocks of East Baltimore are under construction by developers building housing at a variety of price levels. Projects range from affordable housing consistent with the Perkins Somerset Oldtown Transformation Plan to amenity-rich apartments along the Central Avenue corridor. The activity is a sign that development is moving inland from the waterfront.

Opening in 2023

CFG Bank Arena: One of the first major projects to open in 2023 is the CFG Bank Arena, following a $200 million renovation by the Oak View Group and its partners. The arena will offer seat leases next year as a part of their premium seating options. The operators have promised that the building at 201 West Baltimore Street will be ready for the 2023 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament that’s scheduled to be held there from February 21 to 25. Other bookings so far include concerts by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band; Lizzo; Janet Jackson with Ludacris; Anita Baker and Blink-182.

City House Charles: Developed by Jonathan Pannoni and George Watson IV of Landmark Partners, the eight-story structure at 1001-1103 N. Charles St. replaced the Grand Central nightclub and is Mount Vernon’s first new office building in more than a decade. Baltimore’s liquor board approved a license for a restaurant at street level, and the owners of Roggenart European Bakery, Bistro and Café of Howard County are planning to open a café next to it. Construction of this project destabilized the neighboring historic apartment building at 4 East Eager Street, and it was taken down after city inspectors declared the structure unsafe to occupy.

40TEN Boston: At 4010 Boston Street, 28 Walker Development is completing Baltimore’s first heavy timber office building of the 21st century, a four-story, 97,000-square-foot structure called 40TEN Boston. Designed by Moseley Architects as part of the Collective at Canton community, it’s one of three major buildings in Baltimore that features a structural system built with heavy timber components, rather than concrete or steel, along with the Under Armour headquarters and Hopkins’ student center. One of the tenants will be 28 Walker, which plans to move its headquarters there.

Hippodrome Foundation: The Hippodrome Foundation has begun work on an $18.6 million renovation project that is transforming the 1887 Eutaw Savings Bank building at Eutaw and Fayette streets, adjacent to the Hippodrome Theatre, to a new performance and events space. When complete in 2023, the M&T Bank Pavilion will be able to accommodate a wide range of community events and performances, separate from the Broadway shows at the Hippodrome but still part of the France Merrick Performing Arts Center.

More openings and reopenings in 2022: Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse opened at 3128 Greenmount Avenue. Patagonia unveiled its largest store ever – 15,000 square feet — inside the historic E. J. Codd building at 700 S. Caroline Street. Ma Petite Shoe has a new location at 1001 West 36th Street in Hampden. Giant Food opened at Southside Marketplace in Locust Point, its first new store in the city in more than a decade. The National Aquarium on Pier 3 replaced 684 panes of glass in its pyramid-shaped roof and reopened its Upland Tropical Rain Forest exhibit. Visit Baltimore reopened the Baltimore Visitor Center at 401 Light St., following its COVID-related closure.

Noteworthy closings: Belle Hardware at 240 McMechen Street in Bolton Hill, closed after nearly 45 years. Price Rite grocery store closed at the Mount Clare Junction shopping center in southwest Baltimore, leaving area residents with few alternatives nearby.

This month, the Maryland Film Festival board announced that it plans to pause film screenings at the Parkway Theatre, the subject of a recent $18 million refurbishment, while it attempts to come up with an operating model that doesn’t lose money.

On the restaurant front: Werner’s Restaurant reopened at 225 East Redwood Street with a new owner, Ray Crum of Pete’s Grille on Greenmount Avenue. At Clipper Mill, chef Spike Gjerde changed Woodberry Kitchen to Woodberry Tavern, with less space for formal dining and more space for catered events. The Atlas Restaurant Group reopened James Joyce Irish Pub in Harbor East.

Café Hon closed after 30 years at 1002 West 36th Street to make way for a new concept by Tony Foreman and Cindy Wolf of the Foreman Wolf Restaurant Group; artist Randall Gornowich is looking for a new home for his giant Pink Flamingosaurus sculpture that was on the front of the building. The Edgar Allan Poe-themed Annabel Lee Tavern went on the market but remains open at 601 S. Clinton Street. The owners of Bertha’s Mussels in Fells Point put their building up for auction but didn’t immediately find a buyer. The Baltimore Banner reported that Bertha’s will reopen “at least for a while.” Owners of The Prime Rib decided to stay in Mount Vernon rather than move to The Village of Cross Keys.

Also in the works: Workshop Development and MCB Real Estate unveiled plans to construct an eight-story apartment building in Charles Village. Workshop, with other partners, also has plans to construct 165 apartments in place of the former Shofer’s furniture warehouse in the 800 block of Leadenhall Street, and 183 apartments at 1300 Bank Street in East Baltimore.

The Segall Group proposed a 155-unit apartment building to replace the Free State Bookbindery at Elm Avenue and 32nd Street in Hampden. Developers Brad and Kemp Byrnes breathed new life into the Vickers Exchange and Garrett buildings on East Redwood Street. A 4,000-seat entertainment venue called The Paramount Baltimore is rising at 1300 Warner Street as part of a district recently named “The Walk at Warner Street.” Christopher Janian said Vitruvius expects to receive building permits in January so construction can start on the six-story, 94-unit apartment development approved for 400 Park Avenue.

Baltimore SquashWise began converting the former Greyhound bus station at 601 North Howard Street to the SquashWise Center for Youth Partnership. The former Landmark Theatres in Harbor East were rebranded as Harbor East Cinemas, with Flagship Premium Cinemas of Boston as the new operator. A food hall is coming to The Mill on North near Coppin State University in west Baltimore. The Area 405 arts hub at 405 East Oliver Street was sold to a limited liability corporation that plans to upgrade it and keep it affordable; the corporation was formed by the Central Baltimore Partnership and real estate developer Ernst Valery. Developer John Renner announced plans to turn the former Stewart & Mowen funeral home at 108 West North Avenue into a mixed-use arts hub called “The Parlor.”

City officials and parks advocates unveiled ambitious plans to add amenities and other improve Druid Hill Park. The producers of Artscape announced plans to return in 2023 and change the festival’s footprint to include more of the Station North arts district. Waverly is hosting a book festival in April. The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore launched a monthly festival series and unveiled plans for the second phase of its popular Rash Field makeover. The Downtown Partnership won approval from Baltimore’s Planning Commission to mount illuminated signs on certain downtown buildings.

The Orioles moved back the left field wall of Oriole Park by almost 27 feet and raised its height from a little over seven feet to 13 feet, and they had a much better season that they did the year before. They won 83 games in 2022, including 45 at home, compared to winning 52 games in 2021, including 27 at home.

Landmark Partners and Bozzuto Construction began converting the properties at 17 to 23 Gay Street and 10 S. Frederick Street to Guardian House, a 62-unit apartment building with some apartments reserved for “Baltimore City first responders.” Cylburn Arboretum began construction of a $6 million Nature Education Center. The American Visionary Art Museum restored its 55-foot-tall Whirligig by Vollis Simpson, entitled “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,” and retired director Rebecca Alban Hoffberger published a sweeping vision for revitalizing Harborplace and bringing more people downtown. Whiting Turner CEO Tim Regan purchased the vacant Target store at Mondawmin Mall with plans to turn it into a community center serving surrounding neighborhoods.

Surprises for 2023: The new year promises to bring more development activity that will add to the momentum. The Ravens are working with the noted sports design firm Populous on plans for another round of improvements to M&T Bank Stadium. Arena Players just received $4 million in federal funds to help renovate its home at 801 McCulloh St., the oldest continually performing and historically African American community theater in the United States.

The University of Baltimore is expected to announce a team to redevelop the former U. S. Postal Service Vehicle Maintenance Facility property at Maryland Avenue and Oliver Street; Zahlco Companies is thought to be a leading contender. A new vision is due for the dormant Gallery at Harborplace shopping mall at Calvert and Pratt streets.

Finally, Maryland Governor-elect Wes Moore has talked about reviving planning for the Red Line, the light rail route that would have linked East Baltimore with West Baltimore but was killed by Governor Larry Hogan. That’s the sort of transformative project that could help connect many of the developments that are already reshaping Baltimore’s urban landscape.

Baltimore civic leaders gathered on Nov. 2 to cut the ribbon on Highlandtown’s newest arts hub.

The Creativity Center is the name of a $5.2 million multi-purpose arts facility at 3137 Eastern Avenue, built by Creative Alliance as an addition to its flagship location in the renovated Patterson Theater at 3134 Eastern Avenue.

To celebrate the grand opening, Creative Alliance will have an open house at both buildings on Saturday, Nov. 12, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Designed by Quinn Evans Architects and built on the site of the old La Raza Cantina bar, the Creativity Center contains a dance studio, classrooms, a professional kitchen and other spaces to support programs in the visual, performing and culinary arts. Construction began in July 2021.

After an “opening libation and drum call” with WombWork Productions, activities will include: crafts lessons in the storefront classroom; cooking demonstrations in the teaching kitchen; salsa, capoeira and hip hop performances in the dance studio; Sidewalk Serenades; stilt-walkers; drag story time; art studio tours and cocktails in the theater’s Marquee Lounge.

“We can’t think of a better way to celebrate than opening all our doors so you, your family, friends and neighbors can dance, eat, create and explore throughout the day,” organizers said in an invitation to the event. “There’s even free hot chocolate!”

Middle Branch Fitness and Wellness Center opens on Saturday

Farther south, the city of Baltimore is having a Community Celebration Event on Saturday starting at 11 a.m. for the Middle Branch Fitness and Wellness Center, a $23.1 million, 35,000-square-foot “super” recreation center at 201 Reedbird Ave., near the Middle Branch waterfront.

Located in Reedbird Park, the center has been designed to be a regional hub for indoor and outdoor recreation, fitness and wellness with ties to existing trail networks, including the Gwynns Falls Trail and the Middle Branch Trail. It includes three pools; a community room; fitness studios; a gymnasium with a basketball court; a maker space and an indoor walking track.

The fitness center is one of the first major capital projects to open since Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration and the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership launched a multi-year effort to develop and implement a comprehensive plan to guide revitalization of more than 11 miles of waterfront along the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River.

City officials and others had a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday. Future plans for the area include: three additional grass fields, a playground; a fishing pier, a dog park; basketball courts, and a field house.

155-unit, seven-level apartment building proposed for Hampden

The Elm Residential is the name of a 155-unit, seven-level apartment building proposed for 3110 Elm Avenue at the corner of Elm Avenue and 32nd Street in Hampden. Plans shown to Baltimore’s Urban Design and Architecture Advisory Panel called a building with 242 parking spaces “wrapped” on all sides by the residences.

The Segall Group is the developer and FILLAT+ Architecture is the designer. Morris & Ritchie Associates is the landscape architect.

Architect Peter Fillat told the review panel that it isn’t feasible to retain the building on the site, the Free State Bookbindery, so his team is proposing all-new construction. He said the team would include a 90-foot smokestack in the design in hopes of attracting flocks of migratory chimney swifts that now frequent the site in spring and fall. The review panel urged the designers to reduce the size of the building as much as they could.

An Indian restaurant is moving into the former Evergreen Café space in Roland Park

The space formerly occupied by Evergreen Café & Deli at 501 West Cold Spring Lane, has a new operator.

Binod Uprety, the co-owner of Namaste Baltimore Indian Cuisine at 413 W. Cold Spring Lane, said he’s planning to open a new Indian restaurant at 501 West Cold Spring Lane, where Evergreen Café & Deli used to be

Uprety and his wife Shrijana took over the old Loco Hombre space at 413 W. Cold Spring Lane in 2015 and opened Namaste. Uprety told members of the Roland Park Civic League this month that the new restaurant will have a range of offerings and he wants to specialize in vegan fare. Uprety said he doesn’t yet have a name for the new restaurant. He said he hopes to open it in three to four months.

Station North building sells at auction for $300,000

A four-story, 5,484-square-foot commercial building at 1816 N. Charles Street sold at auction last week for $300,000 to Bradford Phillips of Tyjuan Amor, a construction and development company that’s increasingly active around the Baltimore area. A. J. Billig Auctioneers handled the sale.

The stone-fronted vacant building previously contained a café and five upper-level apartments. Phillips said he plans to stabilize and renovate the building for new tenants. It’s his first investment in the Station North area, where much of the Artscape festival will be held next year.

Billig is also selling a 5,460-square-foot restaurant building at 5722 York Road on Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 11 a.m.

Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower open this weekend for free

The Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower at 21 S. Eutaw St. will be open to the public for free Friday, Nov. 11, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., and on Saturday, Nov. 12, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

During these times, visitors will have a chance to view artwork throughout the building, including 15 floors of artist studios. Many of the building’s artist-tenants will be around to talk about their work. For $8, visitors can take a side trip to the clock room at the top of tower, to get an up-close view of the clock’s workings.

A former public library in Fells Point is expected to become a community resource hub and collaborative work setting, after city officials backed a local design and development team’s proposal to renovate and expand the property.

Baltimore’s Board of Estimates this month approved a land disposition agreement that calls for former Enoch Pratt Free Library Branch No. 19 at 606 S. Ann St. to be sold for $330,000 to Library 19 LLC, a group headed by architects Pavlina Ilieva and Kuo Pao Lian of PI.KL Studio. The sale still must be approved by the Baltimore City Council.

The sale price is lower than the cost of many Fells Point townhouses. But it comes with one big condition: The buyer must agree to renovate the building and use it in a way that will enrich the civic life of the Fells Point community. Part of a historic district, the midblock site is very deep, extending the full length of a city block from South Ann Street to South Regester Street.

Library 19 LLC was one of two groups that responded to a request for proposals issued in 2020 by the city’s housing department for the Fells Point property, which hasn’t been a Pratt library since 2001. The second group proposed to build six houses in place of the library’s back garden and renovate the library as a community space using proceeds from the home sales.

The second team offered to pay the city $1 for the library but said that six houses selling for $600,000 each would generate more than $800,000 in tax revenue to the city after 10 years. But some residents said they weren’t happy that so much of the green space behind the library — once a World War II Victory Garden and later a community “reading garden” — would be filled in by private residences.

City Council member Zeke Cohen said at a meeting held to review the two proposals that, given the property’s history, he wanted to see it remain accessible to the public.

“From my perspective, I really, really, really hope to see some community use, whether that’s as a library, whether that’s as a meeting space, whether that’s as an arts space for artists to gather, whether it’s a space for young people, whether it’s a space to serve…our immigrant community. I just want to make sure that community truly plays a role, that it’s not just sold off to the highest bidder.”

Following the community review meeting, Ilieva and Lian were granted an exclusive negotiating privilege that allowed them to flesh out their proposal in greater detail so they would have a good idea of its cost and construction time frame. They plan to move their company’s offices to the property and make space available for other groups or individuals from the community. They say possibilities range from holding events in the space to using it for teaching, for co-working, for community meetings, or as a business incubator, food lab or gallery.

Initially, Lian said, PI.KL’s office’s will move into the library. The long-range plan is to build a separate “annex” on the west side of the property for the design firm’s offices, freeing up space in the library for others from the community, and keep a green space in the middle. The projected budget is $1 million to $1.5 million. PI.KL will be the project architect, and the tentative name is Library 19.

Ultimately, Lian said, he and Ilieva want to make it a public asset and amenity. “We want this to be a collaborative effort with the community,” he said.

The library opened in 1922. It was designed by William W. Emmart and built with funding from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and others. The most recent occupant was Education-Based Latino Outreach, an organization that moved out four years ago.

PI.KL is active in a wide range of projects in the city, from housing to offices to recreational and retail facilities, including R House in Remington and Broadway Market in Fells Point. Much of its work involves restoring and rehabbing historic structures such as Library 19. Developer clients include 28 Walker Development; Workshop Development and La Cite Development.

The architects are working to turn the former Greyhound bus station at 601 N. Howard St. into a community center and squash courts for SquashWise, a non profit previously based at Meadow Mill Athletic Club. It designed a series of park structures for Port Covington. When North Roland Park residents weren’t happy with the design of the proposed Claiborne Senior Living community planned for a site near Falls Road and Northern Parkway, Claiborne added Ilieva as design consultant.

Ilieva serves as chair of Baltimore’s Urban Design and Architecture Advisory Panel. Lian is on the city’s Public Art Commission and Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation.

According to the Board of Estimates agenda for its Oct. 19 meeting, the library property had an appraised value of $333,000 as of Nov. 24, 2021. Under the land disposition agreement, Library 19 LLC will pay $100,000.00 at the time of settlement by certified funds, and the City of Baltimore will provide $230,000 towards the purchase price of the property in the form of a subordinate seller take-back mortgage that will terminate 30 years following the date of settlement.

Depending on when the city’s sale process is complete, Lian said, his team is aiming to start construction on the first phase of the project in the first or second quarter of 2023.

Zahlco said to be in talks to redevelop key University of Baltimore property

The University of Baltimore has narrowed its search for a team to lead redevelopment of a key parcel it controls, the former United States Postal Service Vehicle Maintenance Facility at Maryland Avenue and Oliver Street.

The university received proposals from three teams that expressed interest in redeveloping the property and is “proceeding with further interaction with one of the three firms,” university spokesman Chris Hart said in an email message.

Besides being on the western edge of the university’s campus, the former garage occupies a strategic location between Mount Vernon, Bolton Hill and Station North. With mostly blank walls facing Maryland Avenue and Oliver Street, it’s almost always covered with graffiti.

Hart would not identify the one finalist or say how it proposes to redevelop the property. Others familiar with the selection process say the developer still in talks with the university is Yonah Zahler of Zahlco Companies, an organization that has completed several projects close to the midtown campus, including apartments at 9 E. Mount Royal Ave.; office and retail space at 11 E. Mount Royal Ave., and apartments at 824 N. Calvert St.

Zahlco Companies includes Zahlco Construction, Zahlco Management and Zahlco Development. A specialist in building and managing housing near urban campuses, it’s nearing completion on apartments and arts-oriented space at The Bell Foundry at 1539 N. Calvert St., near Penn Station; and apartments at 725 W. Pratt St., near the University of Maryland-Baltimore and the University of Maryland Medical System.

It also owns the former Congress Hotel at 306 W. Franklin St., now apartments; The Gilman at 3025-3043 N. Calvert St.; 613 Portland St., and 313 S. Broadway. It’s planning apartments in and around the salvaged front façade of the historic Mayfair Theatre at 506 N. Howard St., with Moseley Architects as its designer.

The selection of a developer for the Maryland Avenue property requires approval from the University System of Maryland Board of Regents and the Maryland Board of Public Works. Hart said it’s likely that the redevelopment plan would be presented to the Board of Regents in late winter or early spring of 2023, followed by a session with the Board of Public Works.

Patagonia sets Nov. 5 and 6 as its Grand Opening Weekend

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Patagonia will have a Grand Opening Weekend for its new Baltimore store on Nov. 5 and 6. With 15,000 square of space in the historic E. J. Codd building at 700 S. Caroline St., the Baltimore store is the largest yet for the retailer, known for its outdoor clothing and gear. The first 150 customers will receive a limited-edition print by artist Caleb Luke Lin that celebrates the work of Blue Water Baltimore.

Station North building hits the auction block

With Baltimore’s Artscape festival moving up towards the Station North arts district in 2023, one long-dormant building on Charles Street is ready for a new owner.

The stone-clad building at 1816 N. Charles St., just south of the SNF Parkway Theatre, will go up for auction on Nov. 1 at 11 a.m., in a sale on the premises by A. J. Billig Auctioneers. According to Billig’s website, ajbillig.com, the most recent use was a café and five upper-level apartments.

Jonathan Jensen’s Ode to Dumpster Day

As community groups around Baltimore organize neighborhood clean-up events in preparation for the holidays, local musician and composer Jonathan Jensen has written “an ode to a long-awaited neighborhood event” – Dumpster Day.

Jensen is the playwright behind “Do It Now,” the recent musical tribute to the late William Donald Schaefer at the Fells Point Corner Theater. His ode can be sung to the tune of Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday”:

Dumpster Day –
All my rubbish will be hauled away,
Though it seemed like it was here to stay.
Oh, I’m relieved it’s Dumpster Day.
Suddenly
There’s not half the crap there used to be.
So much neat uncluttered space I see,
Oh, Dumpster Day came finally.
Well, it had to go, don’t you know,
It couldn’t stay.
So I came along with the throng
On Dumpster Day —-
Dumpster Day
Busted chairs and ugly macrame.
Now the junk’s no longer in my way.
Oh, I’m relieved – it’s Dumpster Day!

The former Shofer’s furniture warehouse at 836 Leadenhall St. will become the site of 165 market-rate apartments, under a plan presented Thursday by Workshop Development and Consolidated Equities Corporation.

Several dozen South Baltimore residents gathered inside the century-old warehouse Thursday to learn about the proposed development, which will be designed by PI.KL Studio.

The block-long building has been a storage facility for Shofer’s Furniture, a retailer that closed its store at 930 S. Charles St. in March 2021. Before that, it housed Gaines McHale Antiques and Home, which later moved to Harbor East and eventually closed in 2008.

Currently used as retail space, the Leadenhall Street building was acquired by the developers earlier this year. It’s also the base for the production team that has been filming “Lady in the Lake” for Apple TV+ this year.

Workshop principals Doug Schmidt and Richard Manekin said they hope to save part of the brick front of the existing building and incorporate it into their development, while adding new sections rising four and six stories. Their plans also call for 165 parking spaces.

The informational meeting was hosted by Councilman Eric Costello. Residents asked questions about a variety of topics, including the project’s impact on traffic, parking, crime, rats, trash and general congestion in the area, which is where Otterbein meets Sharp Leadenhall.

One resident noted that 165 apartments will mean more dogs that will need to be walked in the area and asked where the animals will relieve themselves; Schmidt said the project will address that. Some area residents have said they’d like to see a branch of Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods Market, but a grocery store wasn’t part of the plan presented Thursday.

Costello said the meeting was the first step in informing the community about the as-yet unnamed development and that other meetings will follow as design work progresses. No plans have been disclosed, meanwhile, for the shuttered Shofer’s building on Charles Street.

10-story apartment building proposed for 1300 Bank Street

The principals of Workshop Development had a busy day Thursday, unveiling plans for a second large apartment building along the Central Avenue corridor in East Baltimore.

1300 Bank Street is the name and location of a 10-story building that would contain 183 apartments and 91 to 94 parking spaces, according to plans presented to Baltimore’s Urban Design and Architecture Advisory Panel.

The development parcel is on the eastern edge of Little Italy and north of Harbor Point, and the project is a sign that private investment is moving inland from Baltimore’s revitalized harbor. In this case, Workshop is collaborating with CLD Partners, headed by Christopher Mfume, and Canal Group, the property owner. MRA City Studio, the architecture and urban design arm of Morris & Ritchie Associates, is the architect.

The building will rise in place of Mustang Alley’s Bar, Bowling and Bistro. Team members said it will contain apartments in a range of sizes, with a café at street level and a south-facing outdoor deck and other tenant amenities on the third level. The land is zoned to permit commercial development rising up to 60 feet; the developers will need a conditional use zoning waiver to build up to 100 feet, the height of the proposed structure.

The total number of apartments planned for the two Workshop projects: 348.

Under Armour track and field facility taking shape in Port Covington

Work is nearing completion on a track and field facility that Under Armour is building as part of its global headquarters campus in Port Covington. The field is west of Building 37, a two-story work setting that Under Armour created inside a former Sam’s Club branch, with seating west of the multi-purpose field. The next phase is a 280,000-square-foot office building along East Cromwell Street.

Nov. 12 is the grand opening date for Creative Alliance’s Creativity Center

Creative Alliance has set Saturday, Nov. 12, as the grand opening date for the Creativity Center, a $5.6 million multi-purpose arts facility across the street from its flagship location inside the renovated Patterson Theater at 3134 Eastern Ave.

Designed by Quinn Evans Architects and built on the site of the old La Raza Cantina bar, the Creativity Center contains a dance studio, classrooms, a professional kitchen and other spaces to support programs in the visual, performing and culinary arts. Construction began with a groundbreaking ceremony in July 2021.

Creative Alliance is planning an open house in both of its buildings and other events from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 12 to mark completion of work on the Creativity Center, which now helps frame a “cultural gateway” to Highlandtown’s Arts and Entertainment District.

Bolton Hill’s ‘Nut and Bolt’ sculpture refreshed

Principal Stephen Skeen of Mount Royal Elementary/Middle School on Friday joined with students and teachers there to cut a ribbon and celebrate the $73,000 restoration of the school’s colorful “Nut and Bolt” sculpture, one of Baltimore’s “one percent for art” projects.

The school is located at 121 McMechen St. in Bolton Hill. Completed in 1982, the sculpture was a collaboration between artist Art Benson, former chair of the undergraduate Sculpture Department at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and architect Jim Pettit. It was created to enhance a two-level pedestrian bridge that linked two structures on the school’s campus. After nearly four decades, the sculpture’s vibrant colors had faded and parts of it were rusting and needed caulking.

The Maryland State Art Council allocated $50,000 to restore and conserve the sculpture. PNC Bank contributed $5,000 and the rest was raised from a combination of public and private sources. The conservators, Lori Trusheim and Diane Fullick, consulted with Benson, now 84 and still making art, on issues such as identifying the original colors to use in the restoration.

Benson, who attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, said he was pleased with the way it turned out. He said his goal in the 1980s was to take a utilitarian structure and make it more of an “event” for the students and teachers who use it every day.

“I think they did an excellent job,” he said. “I think it looks better than when I installed it.”

Why the theme of Nuts and Bolts?

“Nuts and bolts represent growth, and there’s a lot of growth going on here” at the school, said instrumental music teacher Russell Kirk, during the ceremony. The sculpture “represents the growth that happens here.”

“Projects like these show our students that we care about them,” said Skeen, the principal. “It’s building a bridge to a future that our kids can see.”

Univest Bank and Trust Company coming to Baltimore County

Univest Bank and Trust Company, which operates as the retail division for Univest Financial Corporation, has signed a lease with Valley Gateway, LLC for 6,250 square feet of space at 10801 Tony Drive in the Lutherville-Timonium section of Baltimore County.

The site will be the first Maryland office for the Souderton, Pennsylvania-based financial institution, which lists assets of approximately $6.7 billion. Bill Whitty and Henson Ford of MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services represented the landlord in this transaction. Scott Wingrat of Cresa represented the tenant.

Founded in 1876, Univest Financial Corp. provides financial solutions for individuals, businesses, municipalities and nonprofit organizations through a network of more than 50 offices throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. It announced plans earlier this year to move into the Baltimore and Pittsburgh markets.

10801 Tony Drive is a two-story, partially stone-clad, 12,000-square-foot building that was built in 1976 and rises like a castle on a hill across Falls Road from Green Spring Station. It was one of the last buildings designed by the late Warren Peterson of Peterson and Brickbauer. Long and Foster occupied the entire building previously. Univest plans to opens its office there in the first quarter of 2023.

Univest wanted a distinctive building in a busy, upscale location for its first Maryland office, Ford said in a statement. MacKenzie is handling all property management and leasing for the building.

“With its entry into the Baltimore area, it was essential for Univest Bank and Trust to establish its first locations in high-profile areas with direct access to major highways and above-average demographics, and the financial institution accomplished these objectives with its lease at 10801 Tony Drive,” he said.

“With four private schools in the immediate area, this section of Baltimore County is heavily traveled each morning and afternoon, with the adjacent Green Spring Station attracting a high volume of employees, shoppers and medical patients throughout the day,” he added.

“The unique stone exterior of the building, and iconic appearance, is in keeping with Univest Bank’s mission to stand out from the existing competition in the financial services industry. Additionally, the landlord’s willingness to create additional surface parking spaces, plans for a new building elevator, and other capital improvements helped to secure the deal.”

Senator Theatre turns 83

The Senator Theater turned 83 this week, according to its marquee. The Art Deco landmark at 5904 York Road, designed by John Zink, was built by Durkee Enterprises at a cost of $250,000 and opened on Oct. 5, 1939, with 1,150 seats. It now has three smaller theaters next to the main one and shows first-run movies and classics.

The first film shown at the Senator was “Stanley and Livingstone,” starting Spencer Tracy, Nancy Kelly, Cedric Hardwicke and Walter Brennan. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, its sidewalk bears the names of numerous celebrities who have had movie premieres there over the years.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lord Baltimore Hotel became a city-supported shelter for homeless people, providing a safe place to live during a public health crisis.

This year, it’s housing 440 Morgan State students after the university ran short of rooms on campus.

Opened in 1928 and dubbed “One of the Most Haunted Hotels in the United States” by Historic Hotels of America and others due to reported paranormal activity there, it also periodically hosts tours such as one organized by a group called Get Haunted on National Ghost Hunt Day, Sept. 24.

For pivoting to meet public needs while protecting local jobs and having a sense of humor about it, the hotel at 20 W. Baltimore St. and general manager Onahlea Shimunek are being honored by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore with its 2022 Downtown Innovation Award, one of five awards the organization’s leaders will hand out at their annual meeting Thursday night.

Owned by Rubell Hotels, the Lord Baltimore is being recognized for taking a “transformative approach to business” that has helped it “weather the lasting impacts of the [COVID-19] pandemic, saved local jobs, and created transformative public and private partnerships,” the Downtown Partnership states on its website. “This historic hotel is more than a place to rest your head; it’s become a beacon for community in Downtown.”

The Downtown Partnership will hold its annual meeting Thursday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the plaza of 100 Light St. with the building’s owner, Corporate Office Properties Trust, as the presenting sponsor. Other award recipients are:

Lexington Market: The team behind the transformation of Lexington Market, which will open a new market building this fall, is the 2022 Downtown President’s Award winner.

“Lexington Market Corporation has led the charge with the development of the new shed while honoring the traditions of the incomparable and historic Lexington Market,” the organization states on its website.

“Their selection of Seawall to lead development catapulted the project as they have been a committed and driving partner, helping to deliver the world-class market we know Lexington Market can be. The team’s commitment to community outreach and equitable retail attraction, led by Pickett Slater Harrington, is on its way to opening this fall with more than 50 percent minority-owned and women-owned businesses, representing Baltimore City in a way that we can all be truly proud of.”

Edwin Brake and Ellin & Tucker, will receive the Revitalization Award, which goes to a stakeholder that is “heavily contributing to the future success of Downtown Baltimore.” The accounting firm is based at 400 E. Pratt St.

“The commitment that Ellin & Tucker have shown Downtown Baltimore for 70 years is still going strong,” the partnership states. Managing director and CEO “Ed Brake and his team believe in investing outside of their four walls. In just the past year, they have invested in safety improvements in and around [the] 400 E. Pratt Street block and been a fierce supporter of events and promotions, including the Baltimore by Baltimore series” of waterfront festivals.

Dr. Kyla Liggett-Creel, an associate clinical professor from the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland Baltimore, will receive the 2022 Downtown Leadership Award, “in recognition of her grassroots efforts in the areas of social and economic matters.”

LIVEbe [Live Beyond] Communities, the residential division of Berman Enterprises, owners of the 2 Hopkins Plaza apartment tower, has been chosen to receive the 2022 Downtown Baltimore Clean & Green Award “in recognition of its efforts to go above and beyond” in the maintenance of 2 Hopkins Plaza.

“The company’s commitment to making Downtown Baltimore cleaner and safer makes a noticeable difference in the streetscape surrounding the property, with new trees, improved sidewalks, and the addition of public art,” the Downtown Partnership says.

50 apartments proposed for South Baltimore

Mark Sapperstein of 28 Walker Development this week presented preliminary plans for his latest project, 50 apartments on three levels above an existing four-level garage in the 1200 block of Wall Street, south of Federal Hill.

In an informational meeting on Zoom that was organized by the Federal Hill South Neighborhood Association (FHSNA) and drew more than 80 participants, Sapperstein said the apartments would rise above the garage, some with balconies or decks. He said no apartment would have more than one bedroom and each apartment would have access to one parking space in the garage. PI.KL Studio, headed by Pavlina Ilieva and Kuo Pao Lian, is the architect.

Residents voiced concerns about a variety of issues, including the project’s potential impact on the surrounding area in terms of views, light, air, noise and parking. Both Sapperstein and FHSNA president Meg Murray said the presentation was a starting point for discussions and promised more community meetings.

Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake moving to Baltimore Gateway; its current location will become a school called The Excel Center

Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake, Inc. has selected Baltimore Gateway, a five-story, 100,000 square foot commercial office building at 3700 Koppers St. in Baltimore City, as the site of its new headquarters, and its current home at 222 E. Redwood St. will become a school for adults called The Excel Center.

Goodwill signed a lease with St. John Properties, Inc. for 14,662 square feet of space at Baltimore Gateway and plans to move 40 employees there from its current location on Redwood Street by next month. Michael Tait of St. John Properties represented the landlord and Goodwill was self-represented in the transaction.

Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake, Inc. provides job training, job placement and other human services for people who are unemployed or face other challenges to employment, including people with disabilities. Last year, Goodwill provided employment services to more than 2,500 individuals. Revenue generated from the sale of donated goods helps fund these programs. The organization has operated in Central Maryland and the Eastern Shore for more than 100 years.

According to Larry Lichtenauer of Lawrence Howard & Associates, a representative for St. John Properties, the Baltimore Gateway location will house most of Goodwill Industries’ administrative and leadership team, and the move will free up space at 222 East Redwood Street for The Excel Center to open in the fall of 2023. The Excel Center is a tuition-free high school that’s designed for adults 21 years of age and older, and it will provide competency-based high school curriculum with embedded job training.

“Our expanded offices at Baltimore Gateway will allow us to open The Excel Center in Baltimore’s Business District, while keeping our administrative staff in Baltimore City,” explained Lisa Rusyniak, President & CEO of Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake, in a statement. At Baltimore Gateway, “the footprint of the building allows our team to work on the same floor, and the strategic location off Interstates 695 and 95 provides us immediate access to our network throughout Maryland.”

St. John Properties executed a top-to-bottom renovation of the Koppers Street property that included a complete modernization of the lobby and common areas, the installation of a new HVAC system, energy-efficient windows and three new high-speed elevators, as well as a state-of-the-art tenant fitness center. The $8 million investment also included the construction of an LED pylon sign with a 200-square-foot message board that’s visible to the more than 200,000 vehicles that pass the site every day. Baltimore Gateway earned LEED Gold Core and Shell Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Founded in 1971, St. John Properties, Inc. has developed more than 22 million square feet of flex/R&D, office, retail, warehouse space, and it has investments in more than 2,600 residential units. In addition to Maryland, it has clients in Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Utah, and Wisconsin.

“Our capital investment strategy has been validated at Baltimore Gateway, as the combination of quality commercial office space, a high-profile and visible location from Interstate 95 and on-site amenities have attracted multiple new clients, including Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake,” said Matt Lenihan, Senior Vice President of Leasing for St. John Properties, in a statement. “With the addition of Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake, Baltimore Gateway now stands at approximately 95 percent occupied.”

‘Stop the Road’ book launch in Fells Point

Urban development expert and former city planner E. Evans Paull is having a book launch at the Fells Point Fun Festival this weekend for “Stop the Road: Stories from the Trenches of Baltimore’s Road Wars,” an “up close and personal account of Baltimore’s 40-year battle over expressways plans” that would have decimated communities such as Fells Point and Federal Hill.

The book launch is ‘timely and appropriate, because the first Fun Fest, held on October 8, 1967 (55 years ago) is where the cause of saving Fell’s Point started to hit paydirt,” Paull said in a statement.

Besides having a booth at the Fun Fest, which runs from September 30 to October 1 in Fells Point, Paull will take part in two “author talks” at the Robert Long House garden, 812 South Ann Street, on Saturday and Sunday at 4 p.m. both days. He will be joined at the talks by Art Cohen, the second president of Movement Against Destruction. Published by Boyle & Dalton, Paull’s 353-page book is also available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Crystal Moll wins Grand Prize in Plein Air painting competition

Baltimore artist Crystal Moll won the grand prize on Sunday in the 2022 Mount Vernon Place Plein Air Art Show for her painting, “Marquis de Lafayette Rides in Mount Vernon.”

The exhibit featured entries from 33 members of the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association, all painted in and around Mount Vernon Place in 2022.

Lance Humphries and Robert Quilter were judges for the event, held at the Garrett Jacobs Mansion and hosted by the Garrett Jacobs Mansion Endowment Fund; The Engineers Club; Mount Vernon Place Conservancy and Baltimore Heritage.

Fifteen awards were given out for categories ranging from architecture and historic preservation to paintings of the Flower Mart, the Mount Vernon Club and the Washington Monument. Michael Kotarba won this year’s Audience Choice Award.

Sandlot, the seasonal bar that brings the beach to Baltimore, will serve its last cocktails in less than two weeks.

A spokesman for the 27-acre Harbor Point community said Sandlot will close for the season after the weekend of Sept. 24 and 25.

Sandlot started in 2017 as a joint venture of Beatty Development Group, the lead developer of Harbor Point, and restaurateur Spike Gjerde and his colleagues at Foodshed LLC. This year it moved to a different location within Harbor Point, 1299 Dock St., and was run by John and Mary Miller of Bar Movement and branded as Sunset Beach at Sandlot.

The idea has been to take advantage of undeveloped land at Harbor Point to create a temporary attraction that would draw people to the area until it was ready for construction. This year, construction has begun on several major projects, including a new global headquarters for T. Rowe Price, 500 apartments, 1,250 parking spaces, ground-level retail space and a 152-key extended stay hotel.

Sandlot’s hours are Thursday and Friday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m.

Chris Seiler, director of marketing and communications for Beatty, said it’s unclear whether Sandlot will be back in 2023.

“As we said at the start of this season back in May, we envision this iteration of Sandlot being only a 1-2 year operation, depending on the progress of the rest of the development,” he said in an email message. “We’ll be taking a look at things this fall and then we’ll make a decision.”

Even if Sandlot doesn’t return, Harbor Point will still have a large outdoor gathering spot for residents and visitors. The community’s master plan calls for a 4.5-acre public space called Point Park to be created just west of the T. Rowe Price headquarters, and it will feature the same sweeping harbor views that Sandlot does.

Restaurant liquor licenses approved for ventures in Harbor East, south Baltimore, Waverly and Locust Point

At its meeting on Sept. 8, Baltimore’s liquor board approved a liquor license for a restaurant to replace the James Joyce Irish Pub and Restaurant at 616 S. President St. in Harbor East.

The applicant was James Joyce Baltimore LLC., including Aaron Taylor, corporate chef of the Atlas Restaurant Group, and Alex Smith of Atlas. A name for the restaurant was not disclosed. Smith told the board the new venture would be an Irish pub and that his group aims to open it within a month. Minimum investment: More than $700,000. Minimum seating capacity: 150 people.

“James Joyce was closed during the pandemic in December of 2020. It sat vacant for two years in the Harbor East neighborhood,” Smith said. “We intend to revive it as an Irish pub but remodel on the inside with a large capital investment, new team, new chef, and hope to invigorate the area.”

At the same meeting, the liquor board approved: a restaurant license for Top Golf USA Baltimore, an attraction nearing completion at 1411 Warner St. south of M&T Bank Stadium; a restaurant license for the new location of Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse, 3128 Greenmount Ave.; a restaurant license for Mindpub, an existing business at 554 E. Fort Ave. that didn’t previously have a liquor license; and a restaurant license for Kneads Bakeshop, 506 S. Central Ave., a new venture from the family that runs H&S Bakery.

Lady in the Lake production seeks extras

After halting filming briefly last month, producers of the Lady in the Lake limited series are filming around Baltimore again and looking for extras.

4 Star Casting has put out a call for paid extras, both union and non-union, representing all ethnicities and ages. The Apple TV+ production, based on the bestseller by Laura Lippman, is expected to continue filming into October. For more information, contact extras4flamingo@gmail.com.

Developer Mark Sapperstein honored

Developer Mark Sapperstein, chief executive officer of 28 Walker Development, will receive the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Baltimore District Council of the Urban Land Institute at its Wavemaker Awards ceremony at Port Covington on Oct. 6.

Sapperstein’s projects include McHenry Row in Locust Point; The Shops at Canton Crossing in East Baltimore; Wheelhouse in Federal Hill; an 814-unit town house community in Port Covington, tentatively called Waterside Port Covington; and one of the city’s first heavy timber office buildings at 4010 Boston St.

Made in Baltimore “Lookbook” launch party

Made in Baltimore, a program of the Baltimore Development Corporation, will have a free launch party this week for its 2022 “Lookbook,” featuring hundreds of products made by more than 60 Made in Baltimore members.

The party will take place at Whitehall Mill, 3300 Clipper Mill Road, on Friday, Sept. 16, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Spots can be reserved through Eventbrite. More information is available at madeinbaltimore.org.

Hord Coplan Macht expands

Hord Coplan Macht, already one of Baltimore’s largest architecture firms, announced this week that it has acquired FWA Group, an architecture firm based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

FWA is known for its expertise in health care and education-related design, among other strengths. The acquisition gives Hord Coplan Macht its first South Carolina office, in Hilton Head Island. Besides its headquarters at 700 E. Pratt St. in Baltimore, Hord Coplan Macht has offices in Alexandria, Virginia; Denver, Colorado; and Charlotte, N. C. Terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed.

Roland Park Place forms partnership with Medstar Health

Roland Park Place, an upscale retirement community at 830 W. 40th St. in North Baltimore, has formed a partnership with Medstar Health, operator of Medstar Union Memorial Hospital at 201 E. University Parkway and health facilities in the region.

Under the arrangement, Medstar will provide medical services to Roland Park Place residents in the community’s on-site Ambulatory Care Center and Health Care Center. The partnership will also help ensure a “consistent continuum of care” for Roland Park Place residents, administrators say, by streamlining communications between Roland Park Place and Union Memorial or other MedStar Health facilities for the transfer of records and coordination of care, in case a resident needs to be hospitalized.

Last year, Roland Park Place expanded by opening an eight-story addition with 58 luxury apartments. “As the community grows, we want to be sure we can provide adequate coverage for any residents who wish to utilize our clinic services, and our connection with MedStar Health will ensure our continuing ability to provide those services,” said Roland Park Place President Sam Guedouar, in a statement.

At first glance, the construction site along Boston Street may look like others in Canton or elsewhere in the city – crane in the sky, columns and beams rising from the ground.

But there’s one trait that sets it apart from others in Baltimore: the method of construction.

The four-story structure is the first office building in Baltimore to be constructed primarily of heavy timber, rather than steel or concrete.

Local developers of apartment buildings often rely on “stick-built” framing systems made of wood cut on site, but for office buildings they typically use steel or concrete.

Other cities have led the way with heavy timber, a construction method that uses large wooden beams to form the framework of a building.

The National Fire Protection Association defines heavy timber construction as a system that has main framing members measuring no less than eight inches by eight inches and exterior walls made of non-combustible materials. The beams can either be glue-laminated or sawn.

The construction process involves prefabricating structural components that are delivered as a “kit of parts” that can be assembled on site – a method different from what homebuilders generally employ. Buildings that use wood in a non-structural, mostly decorative way, such as the recycled wood visible in the elevator lobbies of the Exelon Building at Harbor Point, aren’t considered heavy timber structures.

In Europe, Canada and on the West Coast of the United States, heavy timber construction has become popular as developers find that it can be more environmentally-friendly than building with steel or concrete, since wood is a renewable resource. Heavy timber construction can also help set a building apart from its competitors, aesthetically and for marketing purposes.

Proponents say heavy timber has sufficient structural strength to support buildings up to 18 stories high yet weighs about one-fifth what comparable concrete structures do, reducing the cost to build foundations. Heavy timber construction also has a smaller carbon footprint than steel and concrete construction, and developers say exposed wood can give interiors a warmer, more “rustic” feel.

In Baltimore, builders have been slow to embrace heavy timber construction, even though it’s allowed under the city’s building code.

The only other office building that’s being designed as a heavy timber structure is the Under Armour headquarters planned for Port Covington and not yet under construction. Besides that, the only other heavy timber structures in the works in Baltimore are the Johns Hopkins Student Center under construction along Charles Street near 33rd Street, and a multi-family housing development on Aliceanna Street.

The Boston Street office building, called 40TEN Boston because its address is 4010 Boston St., is a project of 28 Walker Development. It’s part of 28 Walker Development’s Collective at Canton mixed-use community.

Moseley Architects is the designer; Chesapeake Contracting Group is the general contractor; StructureCraft is installing the wood frame, and NAI KLNB is the leasing agent. Columbia National Real Estate Finance provided a $28 million construction loan, and MD Energy Advisors provided a $2.5 million “clean energy” loan.

According to the developers, 40TEN Boston will contain 97,000 square feet of space. Half of its office space is leased and all of its ground-floor retail space is leased. Ceilings will be 15 feet high. The building’s wood columns and beams will be visible on the interior. The roof will have an “amenity deck” available to all tenants, featuring views of the downtown skyline and Canton waterfront.

The first tenants will move in during the first quarter of 2023. One of the first tenants, and the only one announced so far, is Celebree School, a childhood education and care center that leased 10,275 square feet of indoor space and will have a 6,000-square-foot outdoor playground.

Mark Sapperstein and Scott Slosson, leaders of 28 Walker Development, have often been on the cutting edge of real estate trends in the area, from their decisions about where to build to marketing ideas such as offering a free bicycle to anyone who rents living space at The Wheelhouse Apartments on West Cross Street. As seen with the redevelopment of the former Phillips Seafood property in Locust Point, they like to offer buildings with “charm” and “character” that helps them stand out in a competitive market.

In an announcement about 40TEN Boston that was published last year on citybizlist.com, the developers said “28 Walker chose to utilize heavy timber based on the material’s positive energy efficiency attributes” and its ability to create “an organically warm exterior and interior design with flooring, columns and exposed ceilings all comprised of natural wood.”

Throughout the design and execution of the Canton Master Plan, “we have consistently introduced elements that represented firsts for Baltimore City including attracting retailers such as Target, Sprouts Farmers Market and Mission BBQ, and this heavy timber building represents the latest evolution of this program,” Sapperstein said in the company announcement.

“The aesthetic appeal of wood and projection of warmth and beauty cannot be replicated with steel,” and its use recalls “the iconic interior images of buildings that were constructed during our city’s infancy,” he said.

Sapperstein added that he believes the exposed-wood aesthetic will be valuable for company leaders who want to give employees reasons to return to the office after working remotely.

“The interior design of 40TEN itself reflects a post-pandemic world that meets the evolving needs of companies and employees, with an emphasis on healthy indoor environments and the efficient use of flexible workspaces,” he said.

“Now, more than ever, buildings, creative layouts and employee amenities play an integral role in attracting and retaining talent. We had this in mind when designing 40TEN and believe its one-of-a-kind ambiance and health features will be a corporate advantage that businesses can leverage.”

The developers’ decision to use heavy timber construction has received widespread attention in the real estate industry. 40TEN Boston has been the subject of articles in Commercial Observer; the Design Develop Construct Journal; Commercial Property Executive and Costar Research, as well as local news outlets.

“We believe that if an office tenant wants to work in a run-of-the-mill standard office building, there are plenty of those already within the city of Baltimore,” Sapperstein told Commercial Property Executive. “We didn’t need to add to that.”

Planning Commission approves final design for TouchPoint Empowerment Center at Mondawmin Mall

A local business leader working to convert the vacant Target store next to Mondawmin Mall into a community hub cleared a key hurdle Thursday when Baltimore’s Planning Commission gave final design approval to the project.

Working with the Greater Mondawmin Coordinating Council, Whiting Turner Contracting Company CEO Tim Regan this year purchased the former Target store at 3201 Tioga Parkway for $1 million and is leading an effort to turn it into the TouchPoint Empowerment Center, a community hub that will help revitalize Mondawmin Mall and the areas around it.

The vision involves bringing in shops and services and launching “businesses, organizations, programs and collaborations” that will empower the community and “lift up Baltimore.” Whiting Turner will have an office there, and several of the services will be health care-related.

The project will also include a workforce development consortium with participants such as the Center for Urban Families; Catholic Charities; BGE; Whiting Turner and Carefirst Blue Cross Blue Shield, Regan told the commissioners during a virtual meeting.

“The plan is…to really be a catalyst for development and improvements in the surrounding area, and in a way change the narrative of Mondawmin and in some ways I guess, in a small way, West Baltimore,” he said.

“We all feel very strongly that there is tremendous human capital that’s in these communities and much of it is trapped and never has a chance to see the social capital and the interaction so that it finds its way out. We’re really trying to find a way to do that.”

BCT Design Group is the architect. Mahan Rykiel is the landscape architect and MK Consulting Engineers is the engineer. Planning Commission design approval was required by the Planned Unit Development legislation that guides redevelopment around Mondawmin Mall and the Mondawmin Mass Transit Station. Design review before the planning commission meeting was conducted at staff level. Brookfield Properties owns Mondawmin Mall.

Before it closed in February 2018, the Target store contained 127,000 square feet of space. Regan told commission members that total redevelopment costs for the project are “in the $25 million to $30 million range.” He said his team is aiming to begin construction by early next year and move in tenants starting in the summer of 2023 and continuing for the next year.

Patagonia opening this month at 700 S. Caroline Street

Maryland’s first branch of Patagonia, the California-based outdoor clothing and gear retailer, is expected to open this month in the historic E. J. Codd Company building at 700 S. Caroline St. in Fells Point.

The company hasn’t announced a specific opening date, but its website says it will be in “Summer 2022.” It will be Patagonia’s biggest store, the website states.

“The 15,000 square foot, fully remodeled brick & steel building was constructed in 1882 by the E. J. Codd Company, a boiler manufacturer,” the company said. “We’re excited to repurpose a part of Baltimore’s industrial past.”

Goats, nature’s weed wackers, return to Wyman Park Dell

In 2020, the Friends of Wyman Park Dell brought in a herd of goats to eat away at the overgrown vegetation on “BMA Slope,” a steep hill that frames one end of the park. Now the group is raising money to bring them back for an encore.

The volunteer organization has launched a GoFundMe drive to raise $3,750 to bring goats from Prosperity Acres, a farm in Sunderland, Maryland, to graze on the slope from October 13 to 16, as part of its long-term plan for managing vegetation. More information about the Friends of Wyman Park Dell is at www.wymanparkdell.org.

Bonstra Haresign Architects and PI.KL Studio named to design next phase of the Center/West development in Poppleton

La Cite Development of New York has selected Bonstra Haresign Architects of Washington to lead a design team for the second phase of its Center/West development in Baltimore’s Poppleton neighborhood.

The first phase of Center/West, completed in 2021, includes 262 apartments, a salt-water pool, landscaped courtyards and two fitness centers. According to the developer, Center/West’s next phase will provide about 600 units of rental housing, including 200 “senior living” apartments and 120 “inclusionary” units.

In addition to Bonstra | Haresign Architects, La Cité’s design team includes Baltimore-based PI.KL Studio, headed by Pavlina Ilieva and Kuo Pao Lian; landscape architect iO Studio; KES Engineering and the Baltimore office of civil and structural engineer Delon Hampton Associates, with retail planning advisor MV+A, and MEP engineer Salas O’Brien.

La Cite’s master plan for Center/West calls for 2,850 units of mixed-income housing plus retail and community space, in four phases of construction.

Hampden is a little more ordinary this month after the giant pink Flamingosaurus disappeared from in front of the former Café Hon restaurant on West 36th Street.

Artist Randall Gornowich said he and several others took down the last section of the 30-foot sculpture — its torso – around 6 a.m. on July 30. He had previously removed its head and legs.

Laying on the sidewalk the day it came down, the headless pink torso looked like “a big piece of silly putty,” he said.

The bird, known as Big Pink, had to come down because owner Denise Whiting closed Café Hon at 1002 W. 36th St. in April to make way for a new restaurant by the Foreman Wolf Restaurant Group, and the flamingo was part of Café Hon.

Gornowich, who created the sculpture in 2002 as a holiday decoration for the cafe, has put it in storage. Now he’s working to build support for a plan to bring it back as a three-dimensional work of art that could be a symbol not just for one business but for the entire community.

The artist has a Facebook page called “Give Baltimore the Bird,” in which he shows a rendering of the pink flamingo high above the entrance to Roosevelt Park, the city’s 18-acre recreational area at Falls Road and 36th Street.

Gornowich started the Facebook page in 2009, when city officials wanted to charge fees for a minor privilege permit because the sculpture was occupying ‘public air space’ over the sidewalk. That never happened, but the group still exists and has more than 400 members. Now, he wrote this month, “I’m rebooting this group with a new passion to raise the Pink Phoenix to new heights.”

Gornowich’s rendering shows the flamingo sculpture raised off the ground the same way Rodney Carroll’s pig-shaped weathervane sculpture rises above Carroll Park in Pigtown. It shows the flamingo surrounded by a metal frame in the shape of a dinosaur, with lights that glow at night.

“My goal is to have a quarter-inch metal [frame] in the shape of a T-Rex on the outside of it and then LED lights on that so by day it looks like a flamingo but by night it has a T-Rex glowing behind it, and that’s where it’s the Tyrann-amingo,” Gornowich said.

“It would not be the world’s largest” flamingo, he added. “I don’t even think it’d even be the largest flamingo in the United States. But as the T-Rex it would be the world’s largest, which makes it more of a destination sculpture, because who doesn’t’ want to see that, right?”

If it’s high enough, Gornowich reasons, the sculpture won’t be tagged with graffiti, and it would be visible from many directions, including Jones Falls Expressway to the west.

In its old location, the flamingosaurus couldn’t be seen from the back, because it was attached to a three-story building. For the new location, Gornowich said, he’d have to make it more of a three-dimensional object and be sure it’s structurally sound and well supported.

Gornowich said he’s confident the sculpture can make the move. He said he modified it once before, changing it from plywood, sheets and chicken wire to Fiberglass in 2009. He said the relocated sculpture would still be the same size and still be made of Fiberglass.

Gornowich said he made a presentation to members of the Hampden Village Merchants Association and plans to reach out to others. He knows he’ll need approval from city officials since Roosevelt Park is public property and wants to show that he has community backing.

The artist said he’s heard suggestions of other possible locations for the sculpture, but he prefers Roosevelt Park because he’d like it to stay in Hampden. He doesn’t know yet how much it would cost to bring back, but he’s putting together a team of construction experts and is hopeful support will grow as word gets out on social media. He’d like to create an on-site mock-up to know exactly what drivers would see from the Jones Falls Expressway.

“A movement starts with an idea,” he said in one recent posting on Facebook. “When others share the dream and move forward with enthusiasm, BIG (PINK) THINGS will happen. A roadside attraction of this magnitude will benefit the local community as well as the surrounding merchants. This is fun, quirky and quintessential Baltimore!”

Groundbreaking ceremony for Madison Park North

After years of planning and meetings, MCB Real Estate has scheduled a groundbreaking ceremony for Madison Park North, the mixed-use development it plans to build with developer Mark Renbaum to replace a former public housing community along a three-block stretch of West North Avenue between Bolton Hill and Reservoir Hill.

The first phase includes 120 townhouses that will be priced at around $350,000, with Ryan Homes as the builder. Later phases will include rental apartments and commercial space. The groundbreaking ceremony is set for Aug. 25 at 9:30 a.m. at 738 W. North Ave.

UMB Research and technology project advances

Developers of an eight-story research and technology facility planned as part of the University of Maryland Baltimore’s “Bio-Park” cleared a key hurdle last week when Baltimore’s Planning Commission approved a request to subdivide land at 4 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. so the project can be built.

Bio-Park Fremont LLC, an affiliate of Wexford Science and Technology, is the developer that wants to construct a 330,977-square-foot building that will mark a new gateway to the UMB Research and Technology Campus. It’s the first phase of development for the site bounded roughly by West Baltimore Street; North Fremont Avenue; West Fayette Street and North Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

ZGF Architects is the architect and Mahan Rykiel Associates is the landscape architect. Addison Palmer of STV Inc. worked with city planner Matthew DeSantis and others on the subdivision. A former city firehouse at 760 West Baltimore Street will be renovated for a restaurant as an amenity for the research campus.

John Waters Restrooms get national recognition

John Waters’ movies make all kinds of cinema lists, including a recent ranking by FinanceRepublic.com of Pink Flamingos as The Most Controversial Movie of 1972. Now The John Waters Restrooms at the Baltimore Museum of Art have made a list, too.

In a poll conducted by the American Alliance of Museums of “Best Museum Bathrooms, According to Museum People,” the BMA’s “all gender” John Waters Restrooms placed Number 8 in the country. The alliance had asked members to nominate their favorite museum bathrooms and based its rankings on the responses it received. The restrooms were part of a larger renovation designed by Quinn Evans Architects and completed last fall.

“In exchange for donating his private art collection to the BMA, filmmaker and writer John Waters made the unusual request that the museum’s bathrooms be renamed in his honor,” the alliance noted in announcing the poll results on July 29.

“The museum used the opportunity to build its first-ever gender-neutral facilities, featuring four floor-to-ceiling stalls and a communal sink area. ‘Public restrooms make all people nervous,” Waters said at the unveiling. “They’re unpredictable. They’re also fueled by accidents, just like my favorite contemporary art.’”

Bolton Hill’s “dragon stairwell” house finds a buyer

The townhouse at 1421 Park Ave. in Bolton Hill was impressive when Robert and Penny Catzen lived there in the 1970s and 1980s. It got significant upgrades when Henry and Sarah Fenno Lord moved in, including a colorful mural of a fire-breathing dragon in the main staircase.

Now it has a new owner. Bradford Shellhammer introduced himself on Facebook this week as the purchaser of the “dragon stairwell” house, saying he closed on Monday.

According to his blog, bradfordshellhammer.com, Bolton Hill’s newest resident is an entrepreneur and designer who founded three companies: “Bezar, an online marketplace that was sold, Fab.com, which was ahead of its time and once valued at over $1B, and Queerty, the iconic gay news blog.”

In the biography section of his blog, Shellhammer says he is currently the Chief Product Officer of Reverb and that he “previously worked for eBay (Chief Curator, VP of Buyer Experience, GM of eBay NYC), Backcountry (Chief Design Officer), Blu Dot (Sales Manager) and Design Within Reach (Studio Proprietor).”

The move to Bolton Hill marks a return to Maryland for Shellhammer, who was born in 1976 to Peg Kendall of Pasadena, Maryland, and the late Richard Shellhammer of Baltimore, and attended high school in Anne Arundel County. He has a bachelor’s degree in communications and media studies from Goucher College, which named him a distinguished alumnus, and an associate degree in fashion design from Parsons School of Design/The New School.

Shellhammer describes himself as “a collector, product leader, Gemini, singer, designer and writer.” In 2013, according to The New York Times, he married investment banker Georgi Dimitrov Balinov at Manhattan’s Marriage Bureau, with a second ceremony at New York’s Russian Tea Room led by actress and comedian Sandra Bernhard, a Universal Life minister.

Fast Company named him to its list of the “100 Most Creative People in Business.” Forbes dubbed him the “King of Quirk,” and USA Today called him the “Eames of E-Commerce.” A noted art collector, he’s been interviewed by the late Marcus Fairs of Dezeen.com, and his past home design projects have been featured in WWD.com and The Telegraph of London.

Shellhammer wrote on Facebook that he plans to divide his time between upstate New York, New York City, and Baltimore, where his mother lives. In a recent blog post, he reminisced about living in Baltimore in the 1990s: “I often escaped to downtown Baltimore, reading copies of The Village Voice, obsessing over Michael Musto’s column, and imagining living with those people. I’d sit in Louie’s Bookstore Café on Charles, sometimes indulging myself with their infamous brownie sundae.”

Heidi Krauss of Krauss Real Property Brokerage was the listing agent for the Bolton Hill property, which sold for $825,000. Shellhammer apparently knows a good deal when he sees one: For buying in Bolton Hill, he qualifies for a free one-year membership in the Bolton Hill Community Association, as soon as he signs up.

Cheryl Casciani retires

Cheryl Casciani has retired as Director of Community Planning and Revitalization for the Baltimore City Department of Planning, effective this month.

Casciani’s nearly three-year stint with city government was the latest in a long career of community service in Baltimore. Before joining the planning department, she worked for the Baltimore Community Foundation, where she was Director of Neighborhood Sustainability.

From 1996 to 1999, Casciani was Executive Director of the Citizens Planning and Housing Association. She came to the CPHA after more than seven years with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, where she developed and managed the Children and Family Fellowship. A Mount Vernon resident, she’s also a past chair of Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners and a current trustee of Creative Alliance.

Baltimore Black Sox memorial planned

Parks & People is seeking a consultant to help establish a memorial to honor the Baltimore Black Sox baseball team on the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River in south Baltimore.

The memorial is being planned as part of the Reimagine Middle Branch initiative led by Parks & People, the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership, the city of Baltimore and others. For more information and to apply, email frank.lance@parksandpeople.org, with RFP Baltimore Black Sox in the subject line.

A historic church on Roland Avenue could soon come on the market for redevelopment, if Baltimore’s Planning Commission approves a request to subdivide it from surrounding property.

The Planning Commission has received an application to subdivide more than 7.5 acres in north Baltimore so its owner can sell a one-acre parcel that contains the former St. Mary’s Protestant Episcopal Church, a stone structure at 3900 Roland Ave.

The building most recently has been used as the St. Mary’s Community Center with a variety of occupants, including St. Mary’s Outreach Center; Action in Maturity; Baltimore Shakespeare Factory; magician and illusionist Michael Cantor; and the Baltimore Academy of Defense, featuring sessions on American swordsmanship and Chinese kung fu. Many of them have relocated during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the Outreach Center.

According to an application on file with the city, the property is owned by the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Maryland, also known as the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. Besides the church, the land includes St. Mary’s Cemetery and a smaller stone chapel that houses offices of the Episcopal Housing Corporation.

“This subdivision splits off the existing cemetery…which will be retained by the diocese, and will allow the church building to be sold,” the application states.

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church was built in the 1870s to replace an earlier structure that burned down in 1863. It has a steep slate roof and asymmetrical proportions similar to those of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer at 5603 N. Charles St.

According to a report by Baltimore Heritage, the congregation was formed in the 1850s under the leadership of Henry Mankin, who is credited with naming Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood after the English politician John Hampden.

The congregation’s first church was at Falls Road and 36th Street, where Roosevelt Park is now. According to Baltimore Heritage, St. Mary’s operated as a church until 1999 and became St. Mary’s Community Center in 2002. In addition to worshippers attending religious services, hundreds of people have been to performances of the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory and other events held there over the past two decades.

The land is bounded roughly by Roland Avenue on the east; 40th and 41st streets on the north; Hickory Avenue on the west; and 39th Street and the church building on the south.

At a zoning board hearing in April, diocese representative David Carroll said the organization will retain ownership of the smaller stone chapel and the cemetery, which is not active.

“The last plot that was sold in the cemetery was in 2002, and we will not be selling any additional plots,” Carroll said. “It will be closed and maintained…It will not be sold. The diocese has the perpetual responsibility for maintaining that cemetery.”

Carroll explained that the westernmost portion of the cemetery, near Hickory Avenue, doesn’t have as many headstones as the eastern part because it was used to bury people who died more than 100 years ago.

Although it looks as if there is room for more burials, he said, “those are unmarked graves for the victims of the 1917 and 1918 influenza epidemic that the diocese donated for indigent individuals to be buried there,” he said. “There are not additional plots that can be sold, even though it may appear that way.”

Given its commitment to maintain the cemetery, the diocese now wants to find a developer for the underused church, Carroll said. “We want to move forward to find some use, a developer, who will develop the church building as an asset to the community and to the city of Baltimore.”

According to the planning commission’s website, the application calls for the Roland Avenue property to be subdivided into three parcels: 3900 Roland Ave. (Lot 1A), a 1.06-acre parcel containing the church structure; 3902-3984 Roland Ave. (Lot 1B), a 6.2-acre parcel containing cemetery; and 3986 Roland Ave. (Lot 1C), a quarter-acre parcel containing the smaller stone structure.

The church is not protected from demolition by any sort of landmark designation. If the subdivision is approved, the parcel containing the church would be zoned R-6, a category that permits offices or residences. Part of its value is that it includes a parking lot and a sloping lawn in the rear that could be a site for new construction. Buildings in an R-6 zone can rise to about four stories – approximately the same height as the church is now.

Al Barry, a planning consultant who has been working with the diocese, said a buyer for the church property has not been identified. He said he believes the building has the potential to be converted to a work setting, similar to the way the former St. John’s Episcopal Church at 1700 South Road in Mount Washington has been converted to the headquarters of a marketing agency, Warschawski. It also could be sold for continued use as a church, meeting hall or performing space, but the acoustics probably would have to be upgraded, past tenants say.

The planning commission hasn’t set a date to consider the subdivision request. The commission is treating the application as a minor subdivision, which is put on the commission’s consent agenda without public testimony, as opposed to a major subdivision, which involves commissioners hearing public testimony before voting on an application.

Potential landmark on Roland Avenue

Although the former St. Mary’s church isn’t protected by landmark designation, a building one block south soon may be.

Eric Holcomb, executive director of Baltimore’s preservation commission, said the panel will consider a request next month to add the former funeral home at 3818 Roland Ave. to its Potential Landmark List, a roster of buildings that could become permanent city landmarks.

The building was constructed before 1900 and has also housed an insurance company and the local headquarters of the Junior League of Baltimore. A new owner has proposed to convert the upper floors to apartments and modify the exterior to accommodate a business on the first level.

Some residents have expressed concerns to council member Odette Ramos and others about the extent to which the owner wants to alter the structure. That led to a request to add the building to the city’s potential landmark list, which would give the preservation commission authority to review and approve any proposed changes to the exterior, and give concerned neighbors a chance to testify at a public hearing before any final decisions are made.

A new role for Somerset

Somerset Development Company is becoming involved in the management of Saint Mary’s Roland View Towers, the two 1960s-era apartment buildings at 3838 and 3939 Roland Ave. that together contain several hundred apartments for residents aged 55 and over.

The non-profit board that manages the two residential buildings this month notified tenants that it has made a “transformational decision to enter into a strategic partnership with Somerset” to manage the two buildings in a way that won’t compromise “our original mission of providing quality, affordable housing for seniors.”

Somerset is “a privately owned business focused on the development and preservation of affording housing in the Baltimore-Washington corridor,” the St. Mary’s trustees said in their notice to tenants. Its management has “extensive experience in the planning, development and construction of dedicated facilities supported by complex tax credit financing.”

Founded in 2000, Somerset’s portfolio includes the 266-unit Linden Park Apartments for seniors at 301 McMechen St. in Bolton Hill (formerly known as the Memorial Apartments), and The Jordan, a 62-unit market-rate apartment building next to it. Founding principals Nancy Hooff and James Campbell were instrumental in the recent conversion of a former union hall at 1505 Eutaw Place to Baltimore Unity Hall, a $9.95 million center for arts, education and job training – and possible prototype for reusing the St. Mary’s Community Center.

New restaurants for Lauraville and McHenry Row

Baltimore’s liquor board today tentatively approved a Class “B” Beer, Wine and Liquor restaurant license for Papi’s Tacos Lauraville at 4801 Harford Road. This will be the fifth location for Papi’s, which also has operations in Hampden, Fells Point, Towson and Ocean City. Applicants were Charles Gjerde, Carrie Podles and John Burke. Gjerde, who also operates Twisted Sisters restaurant in Hampden and Alexander’s Tavern in Fells Point, said the Lauraville location will seat around 110 and represent an investment of $750,000.

The liquor board also approved a Class “B” license for a restaurant called Fat Patties at 1724 Whetstone Way, part of the McHenry Row development off Fort Avenue in Locust Point. Applicant Kevin Curley, the owner of RegionAle and The Wurst Bar in Federal Hill, described it as a “high end version of Shake Shack,” with Smash burgers, beers, fries and milkshakes, in the space formerly occupied by World of Beer.

Also approved today:

A Class “B” restaurant liquor license for Souvlaki, an existing restaurant that is expanding into a corner space at 1101 W. 36th St. in Hampden and didn’t previously have a liquor license;

The transfer of a Class “D” license from 1400 Key Highway for Ekiben, an existing Asian Fusion restaurant at 1622 Eastern Ave. that also didn’t previously have a liquor license; and

The transfer of a Class “A” liquor license from 3000 Windsor Ave. to 101 N. Schroeder St. to permit sales of beer and wine at a small grocery store called Market Fresh Gourmet. The market will be part of La Cité Development’s 32-acre, $800 million mixed use project known as CenterWest in Poppleton.

Restaurant proposed for City House Charles in Mount Vernon

Baltimore’s liquor board also disclosed this week that it has received an application to transfer a Class “B” license to an operator who wants to open a restaurant at 1001 N. Charles St., where Grand Central nightclub closed in September 2020.

The restaurant would be on the first level and basement of City House Charles, the eight-story, 37,000-square-foot office and retail project that Landmark Partners is building at 1001-1003 N. Charles St.

After Grand Central closed, license holders Jon Pannoni and John Porter retained its liquor license, and attorney Stephan Fogleman Jr. told the liquor board they intended to transfer it to a new restaurant that would open as part of City House Charles. Fogleman later asked the liquor board for an extension that kept the license alive while construction was underway.

According to documents on file with the liquor board, the Grand Central license would be transferred to an applicant named George Etheridge Sarkes. A name for the proposed restaurant was not given. Schamu, Machowski + Patterson Architects drew up the floor plans filed with the application, which show a full-service restaurant that would seat about 80 people.

The application from Sarkes is the second time in the past year that a food service business has emerged for City House Charles. Last December, Nem Popov and Brody Tennant, operators of the Roggenart bakery and café businesses in Columbia and Ellicott City, said they plan to open a 2,000-square-foot café as part of City House Charles. It will be a return to Baltimore for Roggenart, which started in 2017 at 5722 Falls Road in Mount Washington.

It is unclear whether Roggenart’s café has any connection to the restaurant proposed by Sarkes. Plans for City House Charles have always included two food establishments at street level, a formal restaurant on the corner and a more casual café. A hearing date for Sarkes’ liquor license application has not been set.

One year after selling the former Greyhound bus station for redevelopment, the Maryland Center for History and Culture is parting with another parcel on Howard Street.

This time it’s two brick buildings in the 600 block of North Howard Street that started out as commercial properties and most recently have been used as storage by the non-profit history center, previously known as the Maryland Historical Society.

Baltimore’s Planning Commission is scheduled this week to consider an application to subdivide the Howard Street property from the rest of the Maryland Center for History and Culture campus so it can be redeveloped as nine apartments.

The proposal, on the commission’s consent agenda, marks the second time in two years that the Maryland Center for History and Culture has moved to downsize its campus, after selling the former Greyhound bus station at 601 N. Howard Street to Baltimore SquashWise in May 2021.

The request for a “minor subdivision” comes less than a year after the Walters Art Museum sold apartment buildings at 606, 608 and 610 Cathedral Street to a private developer, Chasen Companies, for continued residential use.

The brick buildings occupy the east side of Howard Street from the former bus station to Monument Street, steps from a light rail stop. Because the buildings have been used for storage and have no openings on Howard Street, they add little life to the corridor, creating something of a dead zone between Antique Row to the north and Market Center to the south. The proposed development will bring more activity to the area while the sale adds buildings to the city’s tax roll.

The Maryland Center for History and Culture occupies most of the city block bounded by Monument, Howard and Centre streets and Park Avenue. The subdivision is needed so it can transfer the Howard Street property to a new owner.

The developer is Alan Garada and the architects are Ward Bucher and Joseph Wojciechowski of Encore Sustainable Architects. A sale price has not been disclosed.

The commission meeting starts on Thursday, July 21, at 1 p. m. at 417 E. Fayette St. Because the property is in a historic district, any changes to the building’s exterior would need approval from Baltimore’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation.

On the planning commission’s agenda, the land to be subdivided was listed as 201 W. Monument St., which is the location of the Enoch Pratt House, former home of wealthy merchant and philanthropist Enoch Pratt and also part of the history campus.

Pratt is associated with several local institutions, including the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore, Sheppard Pratt Hospital and the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

According to Baltimore Heritage, a preservation advocacy group, Pratt began building a three-story mansion at 201 W. Monument St. for himself and his wife in 1844, the same year the Maryland Historical Society was founded. In 1868, working with noted architect Edmund Lind, he added a marble portico and a fourth floor with a Mansard-style roof.

Enoch Pratt died in 1896, and his wife remained in the house until her death in 1911. The Maryland Historical Society acquired the property in 1919.

Mark Letzer, president and CEO of the Maryland Center for History and Culture, said his organization has no plans to sell the Enoch Pratt House.

More subdivisions

The Howard Street parcel is one of four in the city that owners want to subdivide for redevelopment.

The planning commission is also scheduled on Thursday to consider requests to subdivide properties in the 1900 block of South Hanover Street (for 270 apartments and a 396-space garage); the 900 block of South Elwood Street (for construction of nine single-family homes and conversion of a former church rectory to six apartments); and the 1500 block of East Pratt Street (for part of the Perkins Homes Phase II development, containing 67 apartments and 34 parking spaces.)

MCB Real Estate investing $50 million on Harford Road

MCB Real Estate’s apartment project in the 4500 block of Harford Road will represent an investment of $50 million, representative Amy Bonitz said in a recent virtual information session with members of the Lauraville Improvement Association.

Plans unveiled last month call for a four-story, 147-unit apartment building housing about 400 to 450 people and targeted for completion in 2025. A second phase involves the redevelopment of a historic structure on the site called the Markley Building. Historic preservationist Dale Green is researching the history of the Markley Building to help determine the best use for it, Bonitz said.

Peggy Daidakis stepping down as executive director of the Baltimore Convention Center

Peggy Daidakis will step down as executive director of the Baltimore Convention Center on Sept. 1, ending 49 years with Baltimore City government.

Daidakis joined the staff of former Mayor William Donald Schaefer in 1973 and served in his administration for four years. In 1978, Schaefer assigned Daidakis to be part of the team opening the convention center in 1979, with Eugene Beckerle as the first director. In 1986, former Mayor Clarence “Du” Burns named her executive director, making her the first female director of a national convention center in the United States.

During her tenure, Daidakis has helped the convention center expand so it is now three times its original size, making it the largest meetings and exhibition venue in Maryland. She oversees a full-time staff of more than 150. In 2013, she was inducted into the Convention Industry Council’s Hall of Leaders, one of the highest honors in the hospitality industry.

Deputy Mayor Ted Carter will work with the city’s Department of Human Resources to identify her successor.

Red Emma’s almost ready to open

The wait for a new Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse is almost over.

Operators of the store at 3128 Greenmount Ave. in Waverly have started to schedule book launches and other gatherings on site, in preparation for its grand opening.

On July 20 at 7 p.m., they’re having a book launch with Dr. Zackary Berger, author of “Health for Everyone: A Guide to Politically and Socially Progressive Healthcare.” On Sept. 22, they’ll welcome Psyche A. Williams-Forson, speaking about her book “Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America.”

The Greenmount Avenue store replaces the former Red Emma’s location at 1225 Cathedral St. According to the Red Emma’s website, it will officially open in late summer.

“We can’t wait to open for food, coffee and books,” said an announcement sent out Tuesday related to this week’s book launch. “It will be happening really soon.”

Jimmy Rouse at The Village of Cross Keys

In the 1960s, developer James Rouse created the mixed-use community known as The Village of Cross Keys off the 5100 block of Falls Road in Baltimore as a prototype for the much larger “new town” of Columbia, Maryland that he launched later in the decade.

This month one of Rouse’s sons, artist Jimmy Rouse, is coming to Cross Keys with a solo exhibition of his paintings, prints and woodcuts. The show opens July 25 and runs until Oct. 21 in the gallery space at Monument Sotheby’s International Realty office, 42 Village Square at Cross Keys, 5100 Falls Road. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A reception with the artist will be held on Thursday, Aug. 18, from 4 to 6 p. m.

Riverstone at Owings Mills sells for $92.9 million

Riverstone at Owings Mills, a 324-unit apartment community at 4700 Riverstone Drive in Baltimore County, has been sold for $92.9 million to Carter Funds. The seller was Continental Realty, which bought it in 2016 for $61.6 million.

Zoom meeting on property tax reduction proposal

On Wednesday, July 20, at 6 p.m., Jubilee Baltimore will hold a Zoom Forum regarding a proposal to reduce property taxes in Baltimore City. The forum is intended to give people a way to learn about the grassroots referendum petition effort to amend the Baltimore City Charter this November.

Charles Duff, president of Jubilee Baltimore, will be the moderator. Speakers will be Andre Davis, a representative of Renew Baltimore, speaking in favor of the proposal, and John Kern of the Stop Oppressive Seizures (SOS) Fund, who will speak in opposition. Panelists’ questions and a general Q&A period will follow. Here is a link to the meeting, which is expected to last an hour.

Fourteen months after buying the former Greyhound bus station on Howard Street, Baltimore Squashwise has begun construction and is unveiling its renovation plans.

Squashwise is holding three briefing sessions this week to share details about its plans to convert the 1941 bus terminal at 601 N. Howard St. to the Squashwise Center for Youth Partnership.

The renovated building will be the permanent home for Squashwise’s programs and a community center. Plans call for six squash courts, a multipurpose fitness space, classrooms and a rec room. It will be a place that “bridges communities through a shared love of squash and sport, and it will expand the reach of squash beyond its traditional settings,” according to Squashwise’s website.

The first two briefing sessions are virtual: Wednesday, July 13, from 6 to 7 p.m., and Thursday, July 14, from noon to 1 p.m. An in-person open house will be held on Saturday, July 16, starting at 9:30 a.m. Registration for the virtual meetings is at https://linktr.ee/squashwise.

Squashwise “partners with Baltimore City student-athletes to play, learn and grow in all aspects of their lives, using the racquet sport of squash as an opportunity generator,” its website states. Its program offers a combination of “tutoring, squash coaching and competition, fitness and college and career readiness” with 80% of its students going on to college.

The Howard Street building served as Greyhound’s Baltimore bus station from 1941 to 1987. It later became part of the Maryland Center for History and Culture campus. Squashwise acquired it in May 2021.

The renovated facility will replace Squashwise’s longtime home at Meadow Mill Athletic Club, where it was based since 2008 and which closed last July. The organization is currently operating from interim facilities at 2801 Sisson St. in Remington.

Last spring, Squashwise’s leaders gave hardhat tours that showed much of the bus station interior has been cleared out to make way for squash courts and other spaces. PI.KL Studio is the project architect. The target completion date is late 2023.

401 E. Pratt Street (AKA The World Trade Center) gets new brokers, more than $1 million in upgrades

The Maryland Port Administration has selected MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services, LLC, and Harrington Commercial Real Estate Services to complete leasing of 401 E. Pratt Street, also known as the World Trade Center Baltimore.

Built in 1977, known as the world’s tallest pentagon, the 31-story office tower is about 71% occupied, with about 87,000 square feet of space available.

The real estate brokers are touting the availability of “turn-key suites,” starting at 500 square feet of space, that offer immediate move-in and shorter leasing terms. They also say more than $1 million has been spent recently to update the on-site conference facilities, fitness center and food amenity known as The Marketplace. Office spaces up to 11,000 square feet of space are currently available, with small office footprints ranging between 500 and 1,500 square feet of space.

“As employees begin their steady migration back to the traditional workplace, 401 E. Pratt Street offers compelling advantages for companies seeking to right-size [their] space requirements, take advantage of move-in ready suites with shorter terms and have access to hotels, business amenities and restaurants within walking distance,” said real estate executive Terri Harrington, in a statement.

“Recent improvements to 401 E. Pratt Street have returned the asset to its best-in-class status and it remains an iconic landmark in the Baltimore City marketplace,” she said. “The turn-key suites are especially suitable for companies which have recently won contracts and need to ramp up quickly, as well as for out-of-town entities looking to establish a physical presence in Baltimore.”

Rash Field meeting to explore ideas for Phase 2

The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore is hosting a public meeting and ice cream social to discuss ideas for the next phase of Rash Field Park, the public space on the south shore of the Inner Harbor.

The meeting will be held at the park, 300 Key Highway, on July 27 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. To register: rashfield.org.

Lidl opens at Northwood Commons

The German grocer Lidl opened its first Baltimore City-based grocery store Wednesday at 1500 Havenwood Road. It’s the latest addition to Northwood Commons, the retail center that MCB Real Estate and MLR Partners are developing near the Morgan State University campus.

Moody Nolan selected to design $250 million Morgan State science center

Moody Nolan Inc., one of the nation’s largest African American design firms, has been chosen to design a new science complex for Morgan State University. Maryland’s Board of Public Works this month approved a $20.1 million contract that calls for the firm to design the $250 million, 246,435-square-foot project, which is expected to open in 2027. Core Studio Design, headed by Betsy Boykin, is the landscape architect.

For the second time this year, a newspaper headquarters appears likely to be sold in Baltimore.

The former home of The Catholic Review newspaper, 876 to 880 Park Avenue, is vacant and under contract to an undisclosed buyer. The three-story building, which was constructed around 1909 as Griffin’s Garage and later housed the Park Sign Company, has 22,608 square feet of space and was renovated in 2001-2002 for the newspaper and its parent organization, the Cathedral Foundation. The asking price in the current sale was $1.85 million.

“The buyer of the Catholic Review building is a real estate investor and has a 90 day study period and then will settle in 30 days. That should be around October 1,” wrote Sean Caine, vice chancellor and executive director of communications for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, in an email.

The offices of The Catholic Review were “moved back to Catholic Center at 320 Cathedral Street to improve operational efficiency and to promote greater collaboration between the Review’s staff and the Central Services offices,” Caine said.

The news comes one month after the Baltimore Sun headquarters on Calvert Street was sold to Atapco Properties, which continues to lease it to the publisher.

Other properties for which the Archdiocese of Baltimore is seeking buyers include the Saint Ambrose School in Central Park Heights, the former school at the St. Rita Catholic Church in Dundalk and the school at Our Lady of Fatima in Southeast Baltimore, according to the archdiocese’s website.

Jordan Faye Contemporary Gallery will Close in July

Jordan Faye Contemporary, a well-known gallery on the west side of downtown, will close its doors next month.

“It is with joy and some sadness that we announce that after over ten years of serving emerging artists, collectors and the Baltimore community at large, Jordan Faye Contemporary is closing its doors at 218 W. Saratoga Street, effective July 28, 2017,” owner Jordan Faye Block wrote in a Facebook post.

Block did not say why the gallery is closing, but she made an observation about the nonprofit organization where it is located, Maryland Art Place.

“We lovingly built out and restored the top floor of the MAP building where we’d hoped to find a true home and alliance,” she wrote. “We no longer feel that MAP’s management aligns with a growing arts district and the maintenance of a broad, viable arts community.”

Before it closes, Jordan Faye Contemporary will have a liquidation sale of furnishings and fixtures on Saturday, July 8, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the gallery.

“We love what we do,” Block wrote. “We believe in art and we believe in Baltimore. Jordan will continue her arts consultancy and online gallery presence. She is exploring options for a new venture within the city.”

Decision Expected this Week on Sale of Rite Aid Chain to Walgreens

The Federal Trade Commission is scheduled to meet on Thursday to determine whether to approve a proposed $9.7 billion sale of Rite Aid to Walgreens.

The sale would create America’s biggest drug store chain, and also would likely cause a shakeup in local retailing, especially where Rite Aid and Walgreens stores sit close to each other.

In downtown Baltimore, Rite Aid has a location in the 100 block of E. Baltimore Street, less than two blocks from the Walgreens at Fayette and St. Paul streets. In Baltimore County, Rite Aid and Walgreens both have stores near the intersection of York Road and Walker Avenue. That pattern is repeated around the region.

‘Chef Boyardee’ Mansion up for Auction

Penderyn, the Eastern Shore estate also known as the Chef Boyardee mansion, is going up for auction this week. The property will be sold at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, July 28, in an online sale conducted by Concierge Auctions.

The Georgian-style mansion was built in 1989 at a cost of $18 million for Mario Boiardi, the son and sole heir of Italian spaghetti maker Chef Hector Boyardee. It has 22,500 square feet of space on 24 acres overlooking the Wye River in Queenstown. More information is available here.

Plantbar Coming to Harbor Point

Harbor Point’s newest tenant is Plantbar, a juice bar and raw foods café. Beatty Development Group announced that Plantbar will lease space inside the Exelon Building at 1308 Point Street and is expected to open this fall. Harbor Point will be the second location for Plantbar, adding to its original one at Belvedere Square Market.

Clock Tower Place Sells for $10.3 Million

Clock Tower Place, a 46,838-square-foot office and retail center on Forest Drive in Annapolis, has been sold for $10.3 million, or about $220 per square foot, according to KLNB, the real estate brokerage that represented the seller.

Thomas Dolby’s ‘Time Capsule’ Trailer Sells for $12,600

Thomas Dolby’s “Time Capsule” trailer, which he used on his 2012 Time Capsule Tour, sold on Ebay this month for $12,600.

The musician and Johns Hopkins University faculty member offered the customized trailer to the highest bidder because it “outstayed its welcome” in its current location in California. He said he would donate the proceeds of the sale to charity.

Free Screening of ‘Hampden on Film: Memories’ on Thursday

The Greater Hampden Heritage Alliance is presenting a free screening this Thursday of “Hampden on Film: Memories,” a 16-millimeter film containing interviews of people who worked in Hampden’s mills in the early 20th century and images of what Hampden looked like in the early 1980s.

The film will be shown at Whitehall Mill, 3300 Clipper Mill Road, starting with a reception at 6:30 p.m. leading into the screening at 7 p.m. The Heritage Alliance is accepting donations.

Even though it just opened, Sandlot Baltimore is already looking to expand, upgrade and increase its staff.

Corey Polyoka, part of the management team with Spike and Amy Gjerde, said last week that plans are in the works to add 10,000 square feet of sand to the 30,000-square-foot dining and entertainment venue at Harbor Point. The additional space, he said, will give the area a more finished look along the shoreline.

Polyoka said plans are underway to provide restrooms with plumbing, something patrons desire. At present, the Sandlot is served by port-a-potties.

Managers are also planning to hire another 10 to 15 employees in coming weeks to supplement the 30 who were in place for the opening.

Polyoka disclosed the expansion plans one day after its official opening, which was the kind of debut restaurateurs live for, but rarely experience.

Hundreds visited the waterfront hangout on opening day last Thursday, enough for it to reach capacity. Many more came throughout the weekend.

“The space blows people away,” Polyoka said. “People love it.”

Located at 1000 Wills Street, the Sandlot is a mostly outdoor dining and entertainment venue that includes volleyball and bocce courts, a children’s play area, hammocks, shipping containers converted to a bar and kitchen, an ice cream stand made from an Airstream trailer and panoramic views of Baltimore’s harbor. Of the 30,000 square feet of space in the project, about 920 square feet is covered. The menu from the kitchen includes sandwiches, nachos and other light fare.

Polyoka said the food service area’s capacity is 340, but that there is no exact limit for the grounds, which are privately operated but meant to feel like a park.

The unusual nature of the enterprise has led to some unusual methods to its installation and operation.

First, the sand: More than 75 dump truck loads of sand were brought onto the property, and the sand is six to eight inches deep. Most of it has a yellowish hue and is “virgin sand” that came from a quarry in Kent County. There’s also some white sand used to delineate a seating area, and some dark crushed gravel used for pathways.

Shoes-free zone: The Sandlot is a shoes-free zone for those who want to go barefoot. Patrons who leave theirs on are likely to leave with sandy, yellow footwear.

Outdoor furniture: The Sandlot has plenty of seating. Some of it consists of picnic tables and benches that can stay out overnight. Other furniture has cushions that are stored every night in one of the storage containers, so it lasts longer and won’t get stolen. It takes about an hour to put away the furniture.

Alcohol restrictions: Entrance to the Sandlot is free and open to everyone, including children. To control who can buy alcoholic beverages, management checks IDs and issues wristbands to those who are of age. Signs are posted around the perimeter of the property to show where drinks can and cannot be consumed. A security team enforces the rules.

Parking: Parking is available on the surface lot between the Exelon Tower and the Sandlot. Covered parking is available under the Exelon Tower.

Volleyball courts: There are six courts. Three are for team play. Three are unprogrammed.

Closing time: Hours of operation are Monday to Friday, 4 to 11 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Closing time is treated as it is in most establishments, with last call warnings and food and beverage service stopping at a certain point. The Sandlot is planned to be a seasonal attraction, open during the warmer months and most likely closing in the winter.

Beatty Harvey Coco was the architect. Luke Steckel of Studios on Sisson was the contractor. Mahan Rykiel Associates served as the landscape architect. The shipping containers came from the Port of Baltimore.

Polyoka said one design inspiration for the Sandlot was “the islands,” meaning the Caribbean. Another was Constitution Yards, a 30,000-square-foot seasonal beer garden along the Christiana Riverwalk in Wilmington, Del., which was a fallow urban space that was reactivated, similar to how Harbor Point was a former chromium plant. He said he also wanted to create activities for children, because he has his own and wanted to create a place for them.

Polyoka said he knows management needs to make service more efficient for a large volume of patrons, and managers are taking steps to do just that.

Will there be a Sandlot Philadelphia or Sandlot Washington? Polyoka said he’s focusing on Baltimore.

Is it likely to calm down over the summer? Don’t count on it.

City Council Scheduled to Take Final Vote on The Overlook

The Baltimore City Council is scheduled to take a final vote today on zoning legislation that would permit construction of The Overlook at Roland Park, a $40 million, 148-unit apartment building planned for 1190 W. Northern Parkway. About 50 protestors gathered at Northern Parkway and Falls Road today to express their opposition to the project.

The council voted 14-to-0 on “second reader” last week to approve the Overlook, with Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke abstaining. The “third reader” vote, happening today, is generally consistent with the second.

Last week, the Mount Washington community association board voted to oppose the project after hearing a discussion about it at its annual meeting. The Roland Park Civic League voted to oppose the project one week before.

However, both votes came after a City Council committee had already taken a key vote on the development and received signs of support from the Roland Park North Association, the Poplar Hill Association, the Planning Commission and other city agencies.

City Council Resolution on Baltimore Clayworks

The council is also expected to vote on a resolution introduced by Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer concerning the sale of Baltimore Clayworks’ properties in Mount Washington.

The resolution was drafted “for the purpose of requesting that the Governor of Maryland, and the Members of the Board of Public Works of Maryland, reject the proposed sale of two buildings owned by Baltimore Clayworks at 5706 and 5707 Smith Avenue in the Mt. Washington community of Baltimore City, to ensure that they remain a vital part of the larger Baltimore Clayworks community and an asset for the Citizens of Baltimore City.”

To address a financial shortfall, the Clayworks board has negotiated a contract to sell its Smith Avenue buildings to nonprofit Itineris for $3.7 million. The transaction is expected to come before the Board of Public Works in July.

Jim Smith joins Maryland Stadium Authority

Jim Smith, chief of strategic alliances to Mayor Catherine Pugh, is the newest member of the Maryland Stadium Authority as the mayor’s representative. He replaced former Chief of Staff Tisha Edwards, who left the Pugh administration to take another job.

Historic Wooden Houses Receive Recognition

Two historic wooden houses at 612 and 614 S. Wolfe Street in Fells Point were scheduled to receive long overdue recognition today, when Baltimore’s preservation commission installs a plaque spelling out their significance.

The plaque calls the structures Caulker’s Houses and notes that occupants before the Civil War included “free African Americans employed as caulkers in adjacent shipyards.” Research indicates the houses were built around 1797, the same year Baltimore was officially incorporated as a municipality, and occupied prior to 1801.

“These remaining houses …are rarities in the Mid-Atlantic region and believed to be the sole survivors of their kind in Baltimore,” the plaque states. “Now owned by the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fell’s Point, the houses — through their rehabilitation — provide a unique educational opportunity to expand the knowledge of the multi-layered history of Fell’s Point. “

The preservation society has formed a group to focus on restoring the houses and finding an appropriate use for them.

“The dedication of the plaque is an effort to bring the houses to the attention of a wider audience,” said board member David Gleason. “There is a Friends group now involved and hopefully this help in their efforts to secure interest in finding solutions for the restoration/reconstruction of the houses.”

Baltimore Heritage Awards Announced

Open Works, the maker space at 1400 Greenmount Avenue, received the Historic Baltimore Neighborhoods Award last week from Baltimore Heritage, a citywide preservation organization, during its 2017 Preservation Awards ceremony at Lexington Market. Baltimore Arts Realty Corp. was the developer; Cho Benn Holback, a Quinn Evans Company, was the architect, and Southway Builders was the builder.

Other awards included:

Heritage Preservation Awards

• Baltimore Brick by Brick, a blog about bricks by Max Pollack.
• Baltimore Immigration Memorial and Museum Inc. in Locust Point, presented to its board.
• G. Krug and Son Ironworks Museum, presented to its directors.
• The Herring Run Archaeology Project, presented to Jason Shellenhamer and Lisa Kraus.

Do It Yourself Award, also known as the “Sweat Equity” Award

• The Schiller/Mooney residence at 110 S. Chapel Street. Kurt Schiller and Janet Mooney are the owners, and Adam Tawney was the architect.

Restoration and Rehabilitation Awards

• 1523 Bolton Street — Patricia and Qayum Karzai, owners; Unique Resources, contractor; David H. Gleason Associates, architect.
• 1403 Eutaw Place — Lauren Cartoux, owner.
• 151 N. Lakewood Avenue, Patterson Park Development, developer; Kathleen Lechleiter, architect.
• 1000 Block of McDonough Place — Eager Park West LLC, developer; Mary Ellen Hayward and O’Connell and Associates, consultants.
• 708 Park Avenue — Vassiliki Aloneftis, owner; East End Design Group, designer.
• Pine Street Police Station — University of Maryland, Baltimore, owner; Read & Company Architects, architect; J. Vinton Schafer, contractor.
• 666 Washington Boulevard — William and Elizabeth Mount, owners; O’Connell and Associates, designer.

Adaptive Reuse and Compatible Design Awards

• 1618, 1626, 1628 Bank Street — ATI, Inc., Poverni Sheikh Group, Permira Construction.
• 1300 N. Calvert Street — Van Allen Homes, Zeskinds Hardware and Millwork.
• 106-110 N. Eutaw Street — 106-110 Eutaw St. LLC, Charles Balfoure Architect.
• Lion Brothers Building, 875 Hollins Street — Cross Street Partners, developer; Cho Benn Holback, a Quinn Evans Company, architect; Betty Bird & Associates, historic preservation consultant.
• Sage Center,1209 N. Rose Street — Episcopal Housing Corporation, owner; Marks, Thomas Architects, architect; Southway Builders, builder.

New Tenant for Erdman Shopping Center

BB&T Bank leased 2,000 square feet at Erdman Shopping Center in Baltimore City from the Erdland Company. Larry Hoffman, Scott Yurow and Geoffrey Mackler with H&R Retail represented the landlord.

The Kibitz Room Coming to Hooks Village in Pikesville

Neil Parish, founder and owner of The Kibitz Room in Margate, N.J., and a native Baltimorean, is opening a “higher level delicatessen space”called The Kitbitz Room in the former Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Company space at Hooks Village, 25 Hooks Lane in Pikesville. The new operation is expected to open in late summer in the mixed-use project owned and managed by David S. Brown Enterprises.