Residential Real Estate : Development News

A swath of 60 multi-family properties near East Baltimore's Patterson Park area are being rehabbed thanks to a $4.2 million gift from PNC Financial Services Group. The two- and three-story homes, which are about 90 percent complete, will eventually house Section 8 and low- to moderate-income families.

The properties will undergo minor renovations or major retrofitting depending on the condition of each property. CMS Skyline JV, a joint venture between Skyline Properties and CMS Companies has been contracted to perform the renovations. The $6 million project covers about 60,000 acres bordering the Patterson Park, Butchers Hill, and Inner Harbor areas. CMS Skyline JV predicts that the newly spruced up neighborhood will attract other investors, particularly because of the nearby Johns Hopkins East Baltimore development initiative that includes $4 billion in infrastructure development and a new hospital.

PNC Development Advisor Watchen Harris Bruce says PNC saw the project's potential "to revitalize the area and stabilize the neighborhood and quality of life for people."

Skyline Properties, which is comprised of development, construction and property management divisions, owns and manages 186 residential rental apartments and small commercial properties, primarily in East Baltimore. It became involved in the Patterson Park project about a year ago.

David Haas, a partner with CMS Skyline JV, says the area was ripe for rehabs because, given it's proximity to Johns Hopkins, "it should be one of the nicest neighborhoods and not one of the worst neighborhoods, The housing stock is really nice there and we think we can deliver very affordable high-quality rental units and hopefully some homeowner units when the market changes."

PNC was a natural partner for the project, he says, because "they believe in helping create better neighborhoods."

Source: Karen Burley, PNC Financial Services Group
Writer: Lucy Ament

Most folks who work from home worry only about having ample grommets and surge-protected power strips, so it's understandable if residential real estate developers forget that the work of self-employed artists is a little more, well, messy. Fortunately for the artists in Baltimore's Station North neighborhood, sisters Kim Rutherford and C.J. Finnical of Reisterstown-based East-West Properties haven't forgotten.

The sisters have rehabbed 11 of 13 row houses on the 1600 block of Latrobe Street (between Lanvale & Federal Streets, just east of Guilford) that they purchased specifically to market to working artists, whose needs they determined through a series of pre-renovation interviews. What Rutherford and Finnical produced were two-story, 850-square feet homes with open layouts, slop sinks, an abundances of electrical outlets, exposed pipes and brick, and unfinished sheet rock walls that artists could decorate as they chose. For a special artistic flourish, they painted the exteriors of the houses, each of which have one bedroom and one bath, in "wild" colors, including pinks, greens, reds and oranges.

Rutherford says the homes, nine of which are now occupied by tenants, can be rented, leased with an option to buy, or purchased for around $120,000. Half of the homes have a full basement and backyard parking, while the other half have a half-basement and a backyard patio in lieu of a parking space. Work on the remaining two homes will begin in the fall.

So far, the response from the community has been great.

"It's in a great location as far as the Maryland Institute College of Art is concerned," she says of the school on Mount Royal Avenue. "And kids ride their bikes and people walk around, and it's quite. Artists love it in that area, that's why we chose it."

The homes, which abut the Cork Factory, have already been occupied by MICA students, a MICA professor, and some artists who commute to D.C.

Source: Kim Rutherford, East-West Properties
Writer: Lucy Ament