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Baltimore Development Corp. chooses Station North Development

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Sep 13, 2005 by Jen DeGregorio

The abandoned Chesapeake Restaurant on North Charles Street - the thorn in the side of Baltimore's transitional Station North Arts and Entertainment District - will soon be redeveloped by landlords on the same street.

The Baltimore Development Corp. yesterday chose Station North Development Partners LLC - a group that includes Charles Theatre and Everyman Theatre property owners Alan and Michael Shecter - to transform the restaurant and adjacent properties on East Lanvale Street to a mixed-use project dubbed Chesapeake Square at Penn Station.

Combined with surrounding lots, alleys and abandoned townhouses, the former restaurant had become a blighting influence on the 1700 block of North Charles Street, which is an otherwise thriving commercial center.

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But that is expected to change with Station North's transformation of the 20,000-square-foot restaurant, which sat unused since the mid-1980s, to five artists' lofts and 3,500 square feet of ground-level retail.

The planned $40 million project also includes a 13-story, 91- unit residential building - likely condominiums - with 15,000 square feet of office space as well as 11 townhouses atop a 190-space parking garage.

The condominiums and townhouses will likely begin selling at more than $300 per square foot, said Chris Regan, a principal of Tower Hill Development & Consulting LLC, which joins the Shecters, The Miller Group of Miami and Bethesda-based developer Stephen A. Masciola on the development team.

The team would also construct a building at the corner of North Charles and Lafayette streets, which would house an ice cream shop, a gallery, artist studios and office space for the Shuler School of Fine Arts.

We think it's the best smart-growth location in the city, Regan said. There's a lot of dramatically underutilized space in the neighborhood, and all of it is sitting next to some of the best transit opportunities in the city.

Though currently underutilized, the blocks north of Baltimore's Pennsylvania Station are considered an important bridge between midtown and the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus.

The Chesapeake Restaurant is one of the area's marquee properties that, once developed, might push investment further north on Charles Street and along North Avenue.

Adding to the area's strength is the University of Baltimore's plan to begin construction in the next 18 months on apartment, retail, office and parking space on now-vacant lots along North Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue.

I do think that there is a residential market there that is as yet untapped, said Paul Dombrowski, the BDC's director of planning and design. It would draw a mixture of people who are oriented toward the arts and people who are commuting to Washington.

The BDC chose Station North's plan from among three proposals by other business owners on the block.

The Everyman Theatre operators had proposed to expand into the Chesapeake Restaurant with a 250-seat performing arts center, including classroom and apartment space. The theater group also wanted to renovate row houses on East Lanvale Street for one- bedroom and studio apartments.

Charles Theatre operator James Cusack proposed a project which included five ground-level retail spaces and 18 two-bedroom apartments on the upper floors of the former restaurant.

But Station North's plan won out because it was a truly mixed- use development, significant enough to make a real change in the whole Charles North area, Dombrowski said.

We hope that as we look for tenants for the retail space that we're going to find art or design-based tenants that want to be in the neighborhood, Regan said.

We think that this will be a real catalyst for growth to continue north of [Interstate] 83 and to continue the growth that's been properly heading up Charles Street.

Baltimore Development Corp. chooses Station North Development

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Sep 13, 2005 by Jen DeGregorio

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