Developer readies teacher housing, apartments in $100M project - Baltimore Business Journal
"Every time we reach out to a new school, the principal says 'Sign me up,'" said an official working on the project. The $100 million project by community developer ReBUILD Metro in Baltimore's Johnston Square neighborhood is part of a larger phase of development that includes five three-bed, three-bath homes being rehabbed specifically for teachers. The first five homes are set to be ready for move-in ready by July, with the next 10 expected to be online by September. The project will cost roughly $8 million, including $3 million from city and federal grant funding plus $5 million via a low interest loan. The homes will rent to three tenants each for $650 to $800 per room, utilities included, furniture, washers and dryers, and parking options. Additional development is planned for the area in 2024 and 2025. ReBUED Metro is also working with Washington, D.C.-based Somerset Development Co. on Greenmount Park Apartments, a 109-unit multifamily complex that will include affordable and market-rate units, and a new branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.
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Rehabilitated rowhomes are just the start of a new phase of development for the East Baltimore neighborhood.
Tenants will move into a handful of rehabbed rowhomes in Baltimore's Johnston Square neighborhood this summer as part of a $100 million wave of development.
The five three-bed, three-bath homes starting at 430 E. Biddle St., across the block from St. Frances Academy on East Chase Street, are the first of 15 rowhomes undergoing rehabilitation specifically to house teachers. The units, once completed, will stretch to 630 E. Biddle St. and make up Teachers Square, one piece of community developer ReBUILD Metro’s current $100 million phase that will also bring a multifamily apartment complex, a makerspace, a park and dozens of other rehabbed homes to the neighborhood in 2024 and 2025.
"We approach redevelopment as a market. Any one project is part of a much larger set of investments," ReBUILD Metro President Sean Closkey told the Baltimore Business Journal in an interview.
The teacher homes are being rehabbed by Baltimore’s Edgemont Builders and cost roughly $8 million. That includes $3 million from city and federal grant funding plus $5 million via a low interest loan, which allows the homes to be leased at affordable rates. The homes will rent to three tenants each for $650 to $800 per room, utilities included, and will come with furniture, washers and dryers and parking options.
The first five will be move-in ready by July, and the next 10 will be online by September, Closkey said. ReBUILD hosted an open house on June 8 but had received interest earlier as word of the housing spread.
"Every time we reach out to a new school, the principal says 'Sign me up,'" said Arjun Hosakere, ReBUILD’s associate real estate development director.
The strong demand from educators alone shows that there is demand for housing of all types in Johnston Square, which Closkey noted is "the geographic center of the city." That’s why there’s more on the way.
ReBUILD is working with Washington, D.C.-based Somerset Development Co. on Greenmount Park Apartments, a 109-unit multifamily complex that will include affordable and market-rate units. The ground floor of the complex at 1100 Greenmount Ave. will host a new branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.
The project will cost roughly $47 million, made up of a $26 million bond loan from the U.S. Federal Housing Administration, $13 million in low-income housing tax credits and the remainder in grants, said ReBUILD Director of Real Estate Development Michael Bainum. The project will kick off in the next couple of weeks and is expected to be ready for tenants by the end of summer 2025.
Regina Hammond, the leader of the Rebuild Johnston Square Neighborhood Organization, said the additions to the community are almost too many to keep track of.
"The crazy thing is, the more we do, the more we realize we still need," Hammond said.
Along with the multifamily complex, there will be a 3.5-acre park and a football field between East Biddle and East Chase streets, roughly 40 more rehabbed homes planned for single-family homeownership and a 48,000-square-foot, $20 million makerspace planned with MCB Real Estate.
Hammond says next on the list, based on her monthly meetings with the Johnston Square community, is a grocery store. As the new and renovated housing units fill up with residents old and new, she believes more amenities and businesses will move to the area.
When ReBUILD kicked off the Johnston Square project, Closkey said his organization believed it would be a $160 million project. Now, the total is projected at $250 million over its lifespan. The developer has been a partner in the 60-unit Greenmount & Chase apartment development at 700 E. Chase St. and planned the renewal of hundreds of vacant homes. The City Arts and City Arts 2 housing complexes nearby have added to the options. Developer Ernst Valery also has plans for a 21-unit project on Greenmount Avenue.
Hammond thinks the wide range of options will help residents who have lived in Johnston Square for decades, herself included, stay put.
"You won’t recognize the new place, but you’ll recognize the people because they’ll still be here," she said. "We’ve invested in them."