The squat two-story garage haunts the corner of Nanticoke Street and Carey Street in West Baltimore. It?s been 10 years since the building last serviced a tractor-trailer garage, and it?s virtually indistinguishable from the other fading industrial buildings nearby.
The garage guards the eastern edge of the residential Pigtown neighborhood, called Washington Village on the brochures, and sits at the end of a block of well-kept row houses. It is the border between the homes and industry of West Baltimore, but in the hands of two developers, it may now be at the leading edge of a new wave in condo conversions.
“Whenever you reuse a building, there?s always something unique and different about it,” said Josh Mente, one of the project?s developers. “Town houses, everyone?s built them, they?re a dime a dozen. When you walk into this, it?s different.”
Mente, 33, and his partner, Jason McLean, 32, purchased the garage more than a year and a half ago and this fall will begin construction to convert it into seven condo units. They plan to build urban, loft-style spaces, taking advantage of the building?s high ceilings and industrial feel.
Three units will be two-bedroom condos, the others one-bedroom spaces, and each will include an indoor parking space, 20-foot ceilings in the living spaces and laundry space. McLean said the one-bedroom condos would sell for $179,000 and the two-bedroom units for $229,000 before construction, with each selling for an additional $10,000 once completed. Construction is expected to begin in late fall, take six to eight months and cost about $500,000.
The price alone would be enough to attract attention, but Deborah Barnett, a real estate agent with Results1Realty.com, said the indoor garages will make the property a hot seller.
“It?s very unusual to find anything with a garage under $300,000. We really liked their design ideas … the urban loft idea, all of those ideas which you don?t see a lot of in Baltimore,” she said. “One of the things I think is going to be really important for real estate developers is to differentiate themselves going forward.”
Mente said he and McLean had originally planned to knock down the old garage and build five condo units on the site. But a changing market and a little creativity gave him a better idea than cookie-cutter units with a fairly high price tag.
“That market is very saturated,” he said. “We came in at the end of that market; now we?re trying to start a new one.”
