The City of Baltimore has proposed a $1-billion plan to revitalize Charles North, the neighborhood north of Penn Station.
Within Charles North, the district just south of Charles Village, there are a number of arts venues frequented by students, such as the Charles Theatre and The Hexagon.
Charles North's redevelopment will introduce nearly 2,000 residential units, 4,700 parking spaces, 300,000 square feet of office space, half a million square feet in retail space and will revamp the landmark Penn Station.
According to Joseph McNeely, executive chair of the Central Baltimore Partnership (CBP), the majority of the funding for the various phases and projects of the redevelopment will come from private investors.
In the long-term the plan will also create an Asia Town and a Design Zone in the district.
Redeveloping the 100-acre area, bordered by Penn Station to the south, 21st Street to the north, Jones Falls Expressway to the west and Saint Paul Street to the east, will take at least two decades.
The project is broken up into three major phases, McNeely said. Some projects within the first phase might take up to five years to complete. Others, he said, could start seeing action within the first six months.
"We want to build on the momentum that's already there," McNeely said. The momentum building entails bringing more people into the area. In order to increase foot traffic the "negative reputation of North Avenue" must be reversed, according to documents released by the planners.
"Seed projects," which are small-scale, inexpensive initiatives, are intended to help Charles North and North Avenue be viewed in a positive light.
Certain seeds will be sown in the very early stages of the project. These include: developing the "Charles at North Avenue Fairs," which will be a series of street fairs held on North Avenue, reopening the Parkway Theatre and remodeling the former Bank of America Building into a "Chinese Landmark Restaurant."
While some seeds will be sown north of Penn Station, the nearly 100-year-old train station is still the main focus of the first phase because there are a number of "concerned stakeholders [in its redevelopment], including Amtrak," according to the documents released by the planners.
Penn Station, which is considered the "entrance to the heart of the city," according to the documents, will undergo a series of renovations that will make it more amenable to the passenger-public.
New amenities would include additional parking spaces, including a robotic garage for longer stays, the construction of a new concourse to include shops and a hotel and an additional "boutique" hotel in Penn Station itself.
In the current economic situation, there may be doubts as to the plan's viability. However, McNeely remains optimistic about the planners' ability to find investors. If anything, he said, "the economy is giving [the planners] breathing space." He thinks the current economic situation will help curb speculation on the projects.
According to Philip Loheed, principal for BTA+, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based architecture firm in charge of the Charles North Vision Plan, the economy does play a role in how much support the city will provide. Loheed added that the speed at which Charles North revitalizes relies on how the owners of the properties in the district respond to the proposed plan.
"The really good thing about Charles North is the players who are involved," Loheed said. These players are various property owners in the Charles North area. Their reported interest makes "land assembly" an "easily doable process," Loheed said.
Loheed stressed that after the first phase of development, the involvement of young people becomes key. The way to get young people interested in the plan is to include an environmental consciousness. This consciousness manifests itself in the plan's stress on creating sustainable buildings.
"Sustainability is important for maintaining the creative component of the neighborhood," Loheed said. Young people, according to Loheed, are more concerned with environmental causes and the sustainability makes Charles North more attractive to them.
The design plan stresses the construction of sustainable buildings and retrofitting old buildings to be as environmentally sustainable as possible.
City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake wishes to hear the community's opinions on the proposal in an upcoming public forum, according to Ryan O'Doherty, director of Policy Communications for the Council President.
According to O'Doherty, Rawlings-Blake thinks the plan is "a good starting point." He added that there does seem to be a "broad level of support in the community."
"It will be good for the community as long as they talk to it [the community]," senior Lakshmi Muthu said about the plan. "I suppose more business is not a bad thing, as long as they do it slowly," she said.
According to the City of Baltimore's press release, MICA, Goldseker and University of Baltimore are a few of the institutions responsible for raising the initial $150,000 to fund the design of the plan.
Members of the CBP, "a collaboration between institutions, community organizations, stakeholders and local governments, according to CBP's Web site," include Hopkins, MICA, University of Baltimore and the Goldseker Foundation. President William Brody sits on the Advisory Selection Committee for Goldseker.
