Plans to develop vacant lot in Charles Village delayed again

The future site of the Olmsted - the gaping, undeveloped lot on 33rd and St. Paul Streets - will remain vacant at least through the summer, as plans to begin construction in August have been suspended indefinitely.

Due in part to the national housing slump, which has affected Charles Village as a whole, the delay is yet another in a series of setbacks that have slowed the project for a year and half.

"We need to have something happen, it needs to be positive, and it needs to be soon," said Dana Moore, president of the Charles Village Civic Association (CVCA).

At a meeting of the CVCA Wednesday night, Tim Pula, senior development director at Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse (SBER), the contractors responsible for the Olmsted, presented new plans for the building while informing the residents of the delay.

"The building couldn't be financed today because of the economy," said Pula, who took over the Olmsted project in July of last year. "Our plan, when changing from condos to apartment units, was to put shovels in the ground in August. Now, we're not going to make August."

Motivated in part by poor sales of condominiums in the Village Lofts (another SBER project), the Olmsted was redesigned from a condominium complex into an apartment complex.

The new design will offer the originally intended groundfloor retail space as well as office space.

"When the condo market started to fall apart last year, it didn't get better a month or two down the line. It got worse. That's when we decided not to proceed with a condo project," Pula said.

Moore said the majority of Charles Village is pleased with the Olmsted's new design.

"We all accept now that condos are not a good market and that there's a need for good affordable housing in Charles Village," she said. "We're so far from where we started, but we're slow-walking towards something more desirable."

John Spurrier, CVCA vice president and a Baltimore realtor with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, echoed Moore, noting Hopkins's significance in the redesign.

"A good percentage of Charles Village is transient. There are a lot of students and faculty, so there will always be a demand for rental housing. Plus, Baltimore is not particularly a condo town," he said.

The new Olmsted will be slightly taller than the original design and include 202 apartments as well as a public garage with 530 parking spaces.

In the preliminary plans, it is 24 feet taller than Charles Commons on the Charles Street side, though it steps away from Lovegrove Street so as not to overshadow the smaller Charles Street buildings, which had been a concern of the CVCA.

As for the goundfloor retail space, SBER hopes to see a bistro-style restaurant on the corner of St. Paul Street and 33rd Street and a wine bar on the St. Paul fa??ade.

However, a major concern for the CVCA remains whether these businesses will compete with other locally owned businesses on St. Paul Street.

"We are keeping that in mind and we would like to see something that is locally owned in there," Pula said. "My retail people tell me there is a really strong interest in retail in Charles Village. I think that's a real testament to this community and this market that people want to come here and own retail here."

Pula assured the CVCA that the smaller, boutique-style grocers interested in Olmsted retail space would not compete with Eddie's Market.

"The reality is there will be a mix of retailers. It cannot be based entirely on local retail. That doesn't work financially," he said.

In response to this, Moore said, "Fine, but don't compete with our homegrown retail."

Jean Fullhouse, a realtor for Baltimore city and Baltimore county from the Maryland Association of Realtors, believes that a combination of local, regional and national businesses ultimately helps the local businesses.

"People gravitate toward local business. They want to support local businesses, and that's what makes Charles Village successful," Fullhouse said. "Also, certain new businesses that are part of a national chain, such as Barnes and Noble, are phenomenal ingredients and strong additions to the community."

The proposed retail space in the Olmsted would be similar to the existing retail space in the ground floor of the Village Lofts.

"There's been a need for a strip like this," Signatures manager Lisa Belman said.

Although Belman considers increased retail space as beneficial to business owners and the community, she noted that it has not spared local businesses from the recent economic slowdown.

"Most of these businesses are relatively new, so we have been getting more customers, but it is a little slower than anticipated," she said.

Fullhouse and Moore agree that the Hopkins community plays an undeniable role in the shaping not only of Charles Village businesses but of housing as well.

"Without the University, Charles Village would not be what it is. The academic community is a core part of the village," Fullhouse said. "Charles Village is an eclectic community composed of different types of buyers. Many university people, professors and grad students, and working people in the city who just like the village feel really makes it an interesting community."

Although Hopkins students and faculty have enormous influence on the community, it is important that the rest of Charles Village not be overlooked, according to Moore.

Moore hopes the final Olmsted will not cater uniquely to students, but will be practical to other members of the community as well.

"I think it's great the students are here as consumers of whatever is offered on St. Paul Street, but 100 percent student housing is not a good change. We want the community to be for everybody, a mix. Charles Village is a ratatouille of people and things," she said.

A post office and a hardware store are two examples of what Moore would like to see in the Olmsted's retail space.

At the end of his presentation, Pula apologized on behalf of SBER for the unsightliness of the vacant lot.

"As I've gotten my feet wet and gotten up to speed on this, we have realized the site has not been maintained as well as it should be," he said. SBER will mow the lawn, repair the fence and clean up the site on a consistent basis until they are ready to break ground.

"It's an ugly hole. People start wondering, will that hole ever change? What can be done to change it? That hole represents the economy; it represents the stagnant housing market," Moore said. "It's exciting that there are still plans, we're just tired of the whole thing. Tim Pula's presentation was good, but now we'd like to see this happen."

"We're not upset, we're not angry. I think we should all plant herbs in the lot and have our summer gardens," she said.

Currently, the Village Lofts are just under 50 percent sold. Over the last two months, they averaged three sales a month, which was an increase, according to Pula.

"This may simply be the spring Baltimore housing market," he said.

- Additional reporting by Phyllis Zhu