Demolition work is underway at the former site of the Hendler Creamery, after developer Kevin Johnson failed to move ahead with a $75 million plan to repurpose part of the building as apartments.
Located at 1100 E. Baltimore St., the 1892 structure was home to the Hendler Ice Cream Company and a contributing building to Baltimore’s Jonestown Historic District.
Johnson, head of the Commercial Group in Hanover, had proposed to save two of the structure’s exterior walls and construct a “building within a building” called The Hendler, containing 296 apartments, a garage and street-level commercial space.
Baltimore’s Commission for Historical and Architecture Preservation (CHAP) approved the plan in 2017, paving the way for Johnson’s Hendler Creamery Development LLC team to start construction. Panelists praised Johnson for taking a preservation-oriented approach to development.
Designed by Jackson Gott and others, the Baltimore Street building was constructed to power the city’s then-fledgling cable car system and turned into a theater in 1903. In 1912, the Hendler Ice Cream Company converted it to the country’s first fully-automated ice cream factory. Hendler remained in business until the 1970s.
But after clearing part of the site and razing down part of the Hendler structure, Johnson’s crew halted work and abandoned the site in 2018, leaving a rubble-strewn lot with the building’s front façade propped up by steel bracing.
In 2023, with no development activity after six years, the preservation panel was told that Johnson wanted to sell the partially-demolished building and land and needed CHAP’s approval in order for the sale to go through.
The buyer is Helping Up Mission, a non-profit with headquarters at 1029 E. Baltimore Street, directly across from the propped-up façade. According to its website, Helping Up Mission is a Christian-based non-profit that “provides hope to people experiencing homelessness, poverty or addition by meeting their physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs,” and it operates programs from several properties in Jonestown.
CHAP was told that Helping Up Mission wanted to raze the rest of the Hendler building to make way for a community green space, and that its contract to buy the property was contingent on the city’s issuance of a demolition permit.
Since the property is in a city historic district, CHAP’s consent was required for the city permit to be issued. On June 13 2023, the preservation panel voted 8 to 1 to allow demolition of the remainder of the Hendler structure. Actual demolition work began earlier this summer. As of this week, state land records indicate the property is still owned by Johnson’s group, Hendler Creamery Development LLC.
