This Week's Baltimore Deal Sheet
McCormack Baron Salazar has closed financing for the construction of Phase 1 at the former Perkins Homes site in East Baltimore and plans to commence Phase 2 shortly.
The company plans to build 103 housing units in a four-story building and townhomes across the site. Demolition firms have already torn down the northern and westernmost sections of the Perkins Homes sites.
The redevelopment is part of the ongoing overhaul of the Perkins, Somerset and Oldtown neighborhoods, primarily consisting of dilapidated New Deal-era public housing. Developers leveraged a $30M federal grant administered by the Baltimore Housing Authority to secure an additional $540M in public and private dollars to fund the work.
“This new mixed-income, mixed-use community will provide a range of housing choices and opportunities for legacy Perkins residents,” McCormack Baron Salazar CEO Vince Bennett said in a statement. “With a housing mix that includes public, workforce, and market-rate rental opportunities, current and new residents will experience an economically-integrated community of high-quality housing and excellent amenities woven into the PSO community.”
Through redevelopment of those sites, combined with infrastructure improvements along Central Avenue, McCormack Baron Salazar aims to create a stronger connection between the thriving Harbor East development and the Johns Hopkins Hospital campus.
It has projected the overall cost will exceed $1B.
As demolition work on the former public housing sites continues and infrastructure work nears completion, infill properties nearby are attracting new investments.
Focus Development recently paid nearly $3M for the former Baltimore campus of Stratford University along Central Avenue. Plans for the campus center on multifamily development.
FINANCING
An affiliate of Columbia, Maryland-based Enterprise Community Partners launched a Renter Wealth Creation Fund. The fund aims to raise $250M from investors that will provide cash back to renters who pay monthly rent on time, while investors receive a 4% return, and renters get 80% of the profit when an asset is sold or refinanced. Additionally, backers expect the fund to preserve $1B worth of affordable housing.
LEASES
Univest Bank and Trust Co., Univest Financial Corp.’s retail division, signed a lease with Valley Gateway LLC for 6,250 SF at 10801 Tony Drive in Lutherville-Timonium. The site is the first of two locations the Pennsylvania-based Univest, which holds $6.7B in assets, plans in the greater Baltimore metro area.
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Real estate developer and investor Greenberg Gibbons will relocate its headquarters to Baltimore’s Canton neighborhood. The firm said this week it plans to move to a new 13K SF office space at the 40Ten building in the spring. Additionally, the company will consolidate its offices in Annapolis and Owings Mills at the new building owned by 28 Walker Development.
“Baltimore City was our original home when the company was founded in 1968,” Greenberg Gibbons CEO Brian Gibbons said in a statement. “It’s exciting to move our headquarters back to the city and we are fully committed to making a positive impact as part of the Baltimore community.”
ZONING
Carroll County’s commissioners plan to hold a hearing in November on whether to allow the installation of ground-mounted solar panels in areas designated as an “Employment Campus,” according to the Carroll County Times. There are only two properties in the largely exurban county listed with that zoning.
PERSONNEL
Commercial real estate and development firm St. John Properties promoted Daniel Severn to regional vice president of its Virginia and Central Maryland Division. Severn, who previously served as an assistant vice president, will oversee the firm’s day-to-day real estate development in that region.
THIS AND THAT
BayFirst Financial Corp. filed notice with Maryland’s Department of Labor that it intends to close three offices and lay off 20 workers. The move follows the Florida-based financial institution announcing in September it intended to close its residential mortgage business, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.
