Lofty dreams for Railway building
JEN DEGREGORIO
Daily Record Business Writer
January 24, 2007 6:13 PM
After years of planning, developers have finally begun renovating Baltimore’s historic Railway Express building, a mixed-use project observers say will connect downtown with a burgeoning arts district just up the street. The 77,000-square-foot structure was built in 1929 as a mail depot for parcels arriving by train from Penn Station, which sits directly across Saint Paul Street from the former the U.S. Parcel Post Station. Baltimore City later bought the facility and used it as a warehouse until 2003 before selling it the next year to a team of developers called Railway Express LLC.
In a matter of days, the company will begin an $11 million conversion of the facility into 30 loft-style apartments with 32,000 square feet of commercial space. But some minor, interior construction has already begun, said Martin P. Azola, a partner in Railway Express LLC. “We’re off and running finally,” he said. “It’s a handsome structure, and when we’re done with it, it will very much complement the train station.”
Renovations of the concrete-and-brick revival-style building could be complete by mid-summer of this year. Commercial tenants have already signed onto the project, including Harrison Development LLC, Doracon LLC and Case[werks] LLC, a custom display case-maker relocating from North Charles Street. A coffee shop is also in the works. The project experienced a number of false starts over the years, said Azola, whose partners include Ronald Lipscomb, Edward Hord, Kenneth Banks, Michael Novak and Anthony Ambridge. At one point, the team had planned to use the structure for mainly commercial purposes but had to rethink the project when its major tenant, Carton Donofrio Partners, backed out of a deal.
“It was a real body blow at the time,” Azola said. “The Baltimore City commercial office market took a real nosedive around the same time.”
The company then briefly considered turning the structure into an academy for a program the Baltimore school system was contemplating but never realized. The team ultimately decided on a mixed-use project after witnessing new investments north of Penn Station. The city recently branded the area Station North Arts and Entertainment District, taking its name from an artists’ community that had flocked there to take advantage of cheap housing and abundant warehouse space.
“Three or four years ago this area was nothing but a big, vast wasteland,” Azola said. “But there are new things going on.”
Construction is nearly complete on 32 new townhouses on the 1700 block of North Calvert Street. The 1700 block of North Charles Street, meanwhile, has a thriving independent movie theater, The Charles, as well as the recently expanded eatery Sofi’s Crepes and the Everyman Theatre. The city has also chosen developers for an urban renewal project that would rehabilitate the abandoned Chesapeake Restaurant and adjacent property on North Charles Street.
“I do think it’s a real bridge between what’s happening in Mount Vernon and what’s happening on the proverbial ‘other side of the tracks,’” Stewart Watson, a sculptor who lives in Station North, said of the Railways Express building renovation. Azola expects the building to appeal to residents who want easy access to the train station. The proximity has already lured at least one commercial tenant.
“Our clientele comes from all over the Northeast corridor,” said Matt Malaquias, co-owner of Case[werks], which provides display furnishings for museums, universities and other users. “We like the fact that it’s in the Station North Arts District; we are a company that serves the museum and library communities, so for us it would be a good fit.”
One- and two-bedroom apartments will likely cost between $900 and $1,900 per month, Azola said. Wilson notes that most artists cannot afford such high prices, undercutting the city’s efforts to create a so-called “arts district.” “Speculators and developers, in my opinion, are both good and bad for the area,” Watson said.
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