Major development plans for Baltimore City?s Station North entertainment district will be announced by the end of the month, officials said Tuesday.
With several new business opening along North Avenue ? including the North Avenue Market on Tuesday ? Joseph McNeely, head of the Central Baltimore Partnership, said an extensive master plan that would coordinate development in the city?s up-and-coming arts district would be unveiled at the end of May.
“This will serve as a major plan for the area, with significant recommendations for new development,” said McNeely at the North Avenue Market?s opening ceremony. “There are many property owners in the area who are ready to go and just need a sense of how it will all work together.”
The plan will encompass 10 blocksstretching north from Penn Station to 22nd Street, and west from St. Paul Street to Falls Road, McNeely said.
Unlike a city master plan, which requires City Council approval, McNeely said his plan would serve as a guideline to manage growth in an area that city officials hope will become a major entertainment hub.
McNeely also said the master plan would include a “significant” project funded in part by the city, but he declined to elaborate.
The North Avenue Market, a mixed-use project that includes gallery space, retails stalls and office space, was lauded by Mayor Sheila Dixon on Tuesday as a major turning point.
“I know how North Avenue used to be,” she said. “I know how significant this is for the city.”
Developer Carolyn Frenkil said the market already has leasing commitments from a glass-blowing firm and several nonprofits.
“North Avenue is now a destination, not a drive-by,” she said.
A few doors down from the North Avenue Market, a new bar ? the Wind-Up Space ? is slated to open in June. The 3,000-square-foot business, just west of Charles Street, also will have gallery space and screen independent films.
