The plans for development continue in East Baltimore, with Johns Hopkins Hospital playing a major role.
A local developer on Thursday introduced a proposal for a mixed-use community near the campus of Johns Hopkins Hospital in East Baltimore to the city’s Urban Design and Architectural Review Panel.
The reported $110 million project would include 444 new apartments and a mix of 30,000 square feet of retail space, with the hope of attracting a 20,000-square-foot upscale grocer, planners associated with the development said.
“I live four blocks from this site, so it was important to me that we got it right,” said David Holmes of Fells Point-based Capital Development, owner of the property bounded by Baltimore, Washington, Orleans and Wolfe streets.
“Each side has a different elevation and different facade,” Holmes said. “It’s sensitive to what’s across the street.”
The first phase of the proposal calls for stacked town houses along Wolfe Street, residences with courtyards along Washington Street, a mix of residential units along Baltimore Street and ground-level retail with residential units above along Fayette Street.
The original plan also includes a pedestrian walkway between the two blocks where Fairmount Avenue meets Wolfe Street and continues after Washington Street.
Just north of the proposed development’s site, Johns Hopkins is redeveloping its 80-acre campus with five major construction projects, and East Baltimore Development Inc. is building homes, offices and retail space on 88 acres north of Johns Hopkins. Both projects will add thousands of employees and residents to East Baltimore.
“We really look at this community as the generator,” said Jeff Davis, president of JDavis Architects, the project designer. “I think the retail is sorely needed from everything we’ve seen in the area.”
Texas-based JLB Partners has teamed with Capital Development on the project. The developers hope to begin construction on the community by the second quarter of 2009, said Gary Plichta, of JLB.
“This property is so important to the surrounding neighborhoods — Butchers Hill, Washington Hill and Johns Hopkins,” Plichta said.
A second phase of development would include additional housing and retail in the block on the north side of Fayette Street.
