Southwest Partnership Commercial Development Committee Meeting
Tuesday June 28th 2016
1 N. Poppleton St
Present
Jonathan Bradley
Lauren Bradley
Leslie Swan
Jane Buccheri
Julie Ernst
Lou Packett
Dotie Page
Lord Baltimore Theater Update
The Lord Baltimore Theater on W Baltimore St is one of the buildings identified as key redevelopment opportunities for W Baltimore St. The sub-committee that is meeting to work on the project is currently in the process of signing an option with the owner. The owner is requesting a $750,000 purchase prices, and signing the option will allow the subcommittee to do the research necessary to determine the condition of the building and its value before making any offer. The proposal is for the sub-committee to have six months to do this research. Concerns include the costs of restoring the marquee, which would be necessary if historic tax credits are used for the renovation, as well as what possible uses would be good for the community and financially feasible. The sub-committee is looking at other theater renovations. Jane suggested looking outside of Baltimore/Maryland/
The Committee discussed the importance of having an open and transparent process, especially when selecting developers, and the need to make the process public. The federal government bidders’ conference process was suggested as a model.
The sub-committee will also move forward with looking at the other buildings, which include the Ford building on the 1400 block of W Baltimore St and the Salvation Army building. The next sub-committee meeting will be at 6pm on July 26th before the Committee meeting.
La Cite
Stacy announced that the developers of the La Cite project in Poppleton would be going before the Baltimore City Board of Estimates on Wed. the 29th. She plans to be in attendance, and invited the Committee members to join her. La City will be asking for another extension which they will need from the city as they missed a state application deadline. Lou is still in favor of providing an extension for phase 1a and then opening up the rest of the project to other developers, as the project and the neighborhood have been in limbo for ten years.
SoWeBo Merchants Association
Julie announced that the association was reforming, and asked that any lists of businesses in the area be shared.
