Baltimore Peninsula Signs First Lease At New Building With Vegan Restaurant, Bar

Backers of the $5.5B Baltimore Peninsula project on Thursday celebrated landing a deal with Atlanta-based vegan burger chain Slutty Vegan as the first tenant at the mixed-use Rye Street Market building. 

Baltimore Peninsula’s developers, investors and restaurateur Aisha “Pinky” Cole announced plans to open a Slutty Vegan restaurant and a new enterprise, Bar Vegan. The businesses will occupy 7,100 SF on Rye Street Market’s ground floor in the fourth quarter of 2024. 

“This ain't no crab in a barrel story. There’s success in this barrel … and as long as I can continue to be the quintessential example of what Baltimore's success looks like, it's a win for everybody,” said Cole, a Baltimore native. “Because when I win, we all win.”

The Rye Street Market building is part of one of the first phases of development, which developers call Chapter 1B, totaling nearly 1.1M SF of office, residential and retail space. 

MaryAnne Gilmartin, CEO of lead developer MAG Partners, said the deal represents more than filling vacant space at the waterfront development. The deal shows the development team’s commitment to creating a community that uplifts Baltimore as a whole by investing in minority- and women-owned businesses, she said.      

“Pinky and we have a partnership in this building that is not about real estate. It is about real people delivering real impact and bringing real community,” Gilmartin said. “She is the embodiment of what Baltimore Peninsula is to the city of Baltimore.”

City Council President Nick Mosby praised the Baltimore Peninsula project’s emphasis on creating opportunities for people who live in the communities nearby and pursuing the development in a way that also improves disadvantaged surrounding neighborhoods.    

“The one thing we constantly push and push and push was this idea of equity, building out a place in Baltimore that had been forgotten for far too long, that was connected to a community that had been disproportionately disinvested in for far too long,” Mosby said.  

Under Armour founder Kevin Plank, whose Sagamore Ventures conceived the development and remains a partner in the project, spoke at the event about the importance of the new tenant. He compared signing a deal with Slutty Vegan to adding the first ingredient in stone soup from the folktale of the same name.  

“Pinky, you will be that first stone that drops into that pot and kettle. … We’ll start putting those other great ingredients [in]. We’ll watch those other companies, those other ambassadors, those other brands that come here to make and give lifeblood into this vision,” Plank said.

The event featured a performance by Morgan State University’s marching band and served as a homecoming for Cole, who grew up in northeast Baltimore. At times growing emotional, Cole described her unlikely journey from humble beginnings to now steering a brand valued at $100M.  

Her journey included graduating from Western High School and a stint at Baltimore City College that ended in handcuffs before earning a second chance, she said. As an adult, Cole said she also endured financial difficulties after a grease fire destroyed her first restaurant in New York’s Harlem neighborhood.    

“You are looking at somebody whose father spent 22 years in prison,” Cole said. “My mother worked multiple jobs and has been at the same company for 37 years. By society’s standards, I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not supposed to be standing here with you. They were supposed to write me off a long time ago, but that didn't happen.”

Baltimore Peninsula, formerly called Port Covington, has faced criticism and scrutiny since the original development team said it would seek incentives to build. 

Local activists fought to dissuade the city from granting the project up to $650M in tax increment financing. Those funds pay for infrastructure upgrades needed for the development. If all goes as planned, an increase in tax revenue created by the new development will pay off the debt.  

But activists argued granting the financing would create a higher demand for city services while the tax dollars that would pay for the services instead go to debt service. 

Critics of the project also raised concerns about adding a significant amount of new office space that competes for tenants with the struggling central business district. The relative lack of leasing activity at the waterfront development compounded those worries in recent years. 

However, since MAG Partners took over as the project’s lead developer in the spring of 2022, companies have shown more interest in taking space at the 235-acre Baltimore Peninsula. 

Examples of that activity include the Roost Apartment Hotel opening this summer, D.C.-based Clyde's Restaurant Group inking a long-term lease for a concept called Rye Street Tavern at an existing 12K SF restaurant building, and architecture and interior design firm Chambers signing the first office lease in the fall of 2022.