Developer Plans $35M Mixed-Use Project for Mount Vernon
Thursday, February 23, 2006
By Barbra Murray

(To read more on the multifamily market, click here.)

BALTIMORE-A team of developers plans a mixed-use project in historic Mount Vernon. It will center on local transportation hubs, including Penn Station and other venues available in the city's central business district.

Canyon Johnson Urban Funds' Canyon Johnson Urban Fund II, a joint venture between Beverly Hills, CA-based Canyon Capital Realty Advisors and Johnson Development Corp., has joined forces with locally based Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse to develop the project, which will cost an estimated $34.6 million to realize. Funding for the project--construction financing, as well as a permanent loan--is being supplied by Citibank Community Development.

Currently operating without an official name, the project will sit at 1209 N. Charles St., just blocks from the Jones Falls Expressway. The site, a former parking lot purchased from Aegon USA Inc. in 2004, will ultimately become home to 88 residential condominiums, 15,000 sf of ground-level retail space and a parking facility to accommodate 140 vehicles. Architectural responsibilities are being handled by Design Collective Inc., while SBER will take on a second role as general contractor. Construction activity will also include the renovation of two adjacent historic structures belonging to SBER.

"Baltimore and this submarket epitomize the type of densely populated, ethnically diverse communities in which our fund invests," Bobby Turner, CJUF managing partner, says. "The Mount Vernon neighborhood has a built-in population base which is drawn to it by its proximity to Penn Station and the cultural institutions in the area."

The Mount Vernon undertaking marks the second venture between CJUF and SBER; the two partnered last year on the $90-million Village Commons mixed-use project in Baltimore's Charles Village neighborhood. "The City of Baltimore is making a comeback," says Earvin Johnson, the celebrated former NBA star who is also a CJUF partner and the head of Johnson Development. "The city--from Mayor Martin O'Malley on down--has made it very clear that it is committed to neighborhood revitalization." Work on Mount Vernon is on target to begin next week and is scheduled for completion about 18 months later.