Best Comeback Neighborhood in Baltimore (Columbia, Pikesville: 2009, apartments, lease)

[rexlperry]

I'm searching for a neighborhood in Baltimore that has recently revitalized or currently undergoing a renaissance? Where are the places homeowners are fixing up old houses and new local businesses thriving?

[mrboltonman]

I would have to say Canton

[carolott]

I'd have to say Lauraville. Wonderful neighborhood with an active association.

[jonjj]

Originally Posted by rexlperry

I'm searching for a neighborhood in Baltimore that has recently revitalized or currently undergoing a renaissance? Where are the places homeowners are fixing up old houses and new local businesses thriving?

#1 Patterson Park. Canton has already been there and done that. I think a good area for investment for the future would be Highlandtown.

[barante]

jonjj -- You may be right. Particularly the Canton side of Highlandtown. I haven't seen them, but a couple of years ago a bunch of new rowhouses were constructed on Fagley Street, next to Eichenkranz restaurant.

[Woodlands]

I can agree with Highlandtown being one, Westport would be another if the development along the Middle Branch/Light Rail Station occurs as planned. I also see Hampden/Woodbury continuing to prosper. There are still several old mills there that will likely be redeveloped, the Jones Falls Bike Trail will better connect it with downtown.

I picked this up on the City COuncil docket.. it is the rezoning of the old Life Like Model Train warehouse on Union Ave just off the JFX. According to the write up it may become a mixed use residential commercial facility.. which added to the mill village flair already in progress.

http://legistar.baltimorecitycouncil...2009113247.pdf

[barante]

Woodlands -- An excellent post.
I have three generally overlooked Baltimore County neighborhoods to add to the list, all with an easy access to the Beltway as well as the Metro: Lochearn, Villa Nova and Ralston (between Sudbrook Park and Pikesville).
Plus an old stand-by from the city: an area bounded by Northern Parkway, Reisterstown Road, Ford's Lane and Park Heights Avenue. A great variety of houses at excellent prices. Consult CHAI Baltimore (google).

[Woodlands]

[SIZE=3]Seawall converting historic buildings into teacher apartments
[/SIZE]ROBBIE WHELAN
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer
July 14, 2009 7:49 PM

With their second project teed up and ready for rehab work to begin next year, Baltimore’s Seawall Development Corp., led by father-son team Donald and Thibault Manekin, is beginning to carve out a niche for itself. The company is leading the way in the redevelopment of historic city buildings as office space for nonprofits and housing for teachers, a market that the elder Manekin calls “the people and organizations underpinning the success of the city.”

At a City Council meeting Monday night, a bill was introduced, at Seawall’s request, to approve a zoning change for Union Mill, at 1500 Union Ave. in Hampden, an 86,000-square-foot mill building that has been vacant for two years. The developers want to convert the mill into 54 apartments, along with 30,000 square feet of office space and 6,000 square feet for a possible retail use.

The project is modeled on Miller’s Court, a similar redevelopment project that Seawall completed last year. There, the Manekins converted the historic Census Building at the corner of Howard and 26th streets in Baltimore into a $19 million mixed-use apartment and office building, using a mixture of debt equity and $13 million in public money.

Miller’s Court now houses a regional office of Teach For America, and is 100 percent leased by young teachers participating in the program, who pay below-market rent and have access to photocopying facilities, a health club and other amenities tailored to the lifestyle of a young teacher, Thibault Manekin said.

“We were looking to try to replicate the same kind of success we had in that project,” said Donald Manekin, standing with his son and a third Seawall partner, Evan H. Morville, outside of Union Mill on Tuesday afternoon.

Plans for Union Mill fit perfectly with Seawall’s development model: Its 600- and 900-square-foot apartment units will be rented at reduced rates for teachers, and the developer is seeking nonprofits to fill the office space. The Manekins are also chasing $3 million each in state and federal historic building tax credits, as well as about $6 million in federal New Market Tax Credits. About $8 million in financing will come from more traditional, private sources.

The Manekins see their model as equal parts private-sector investment and charity. Seawall incorporated in 2007, after Thibault returned to the Baltimore area from five years in South Africa, where he founded a nonprofit that ran sports programs for youths. His father had spent 25 years as a partner with Manekin LLC, the Columbia-based developer, before selling his interest in the family business in 2000.

“We’ve really learned so much from him,” Thibault said. “He’s been forever involved in development and forever involved in philanthropy, and the idea to marry the two together is a big reason why he wakes up every morning.”

One complication that Union Mill might face is a scarcity of state historic tax credits. The Maryland General Assembly failed to renew the state’s historic tax credit program in this year’s legislative session, leaving just a little more than $7 million for the next year, with no guarantee that the credit will exist after that.

“From Day One we’ve been looking at it as, ‘We’ll use state historic tax credits, and what is Plan B?’” Morville said.

Morville said “Plan B” would include “more creative” sources of gap funding for the project, but was not more specific.

Union Mill, built in 1866, was the fourth in a series of industrial buildings built along the Jones Falls by Mt. Vernon Mills Inc. At more than three acres and with 36-inch-thick walls, the building is the largest all-stone mill in the state, Morville said, and at one point, it produced 80 percent of the country’s supply of cotton duck, a heavy, denim-like fabric used to make tents and clothes.

More recently, the building was occupied by Life-Like Products Inc., a manufacturer of model trains and other toys. The current owner is Kramer Hobbies Long Island Inc., which shares an entrance with an adjacent Pepsi products distribution facility, near an overpass of the Jones Falls Expressway.

Alfred W. Barry III, principal of AB Associates, which is acting as a consultant on the Union Mill project, said Seawall has a signed contract with Kramer, but has not yet closed on the sale.

[jonjj]

The old Highlandtown Middle School building in Patterson Park is also slated for redevelopement.

New life for old Highlandtown Middle School in Baltimore | Daily Record, The (Baltimore) | Find Articles at BNET

Question: Does anyone know the name of the old warehouse that was restored up on Howard near 25th? I walked by it the other day and the work they did was outstanding.

[Bluefly]

I must say - I just moved to Baltimore and have been pretty impressed. Its reputation being as it is, it is nothing like the industrial cities that often draw comparison.

Many very interesting redevelopments that have a lot of character, a lot of green space, quirky neighborhoods. I Know there's a lot of tough areas, but there's a lot of good neighborhoods with a lot of amenities.