The East Baltimore Revitalization Initiative gained a new partner Monday with $15 million to be donated by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation to the massive east side redevelopment project.
The foundation’s five-year investment will be geared toward senior housing and programs, prekindergarten programs, and work-force development. The entire $1.8 billion project, overseen by East Baltimore Development Inc., looks to transform 88 acres north of the Johns Hopkins medical campus.
The foundation donates more than $110 million to charitable organizations each year, nearly a quarter of that amount to Baltimore-area groups, said Donn Weinberg, member of the foundation’s Board of Trustees and nephew of founder Harry Weinberg.
But Weinberg said the EBDI investment is the first time the foundation has earmarked funds for a particular geographic area.
The foundation was one of the early supporters of the project, conceived in 2002 to redevelop a large swath of East Baltimore, creating job training, educational opportunities, and 2,200 mixed-income homes. The project is expected to generate approximately 8,000 jobs.
Weinberg said the organization provided a $750,000 grant early into the project, but that Monday’s announcement was its first major contribution. He said the organization would also lend some of its own staff to the project, particularly to plan senior programs, one of its areas of expertise.
“If the Weinberg Foundation is going to engage in what Harry Weinberg wanted it to engage in – which is helping people – we had to get involved, we had to make an investment,” said Shale Stiller, the foundation’s president.
Local politicians including Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin and Reps. Elijah Cummings and John Sarbanes were present for the official announcement of the grant Monday.
All four lauded the investment, and Mikulski said the ultimate goal of the project was to build a community, not just buildings.
“If this was going to be a real estate project, go get a Realtor, you don’t need a senator,” she said. “What you need a senator for, what you need everyone for, is building a community.”
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