Artifact Coffee of Hampden, one of the restaurants in Spike Gjerde’s Foodshed family, is in talks to open a second location in Charles Village.
Artifact Coffee is one of three merchants recently identified in a retail leasing plan for Nine East 33, the 157-unit, 575-bed student housing development that Armada Hoffler Properties and Beatty Development are building at St. Paul and 33rd streets.
“Join these retailers,” states the online leasing information for the project from MSC Retail, which is handling commercial leasing for the project and highlights Artifact Coffee and two others in its Property Details section.
Artifact Coffee opened several years ago in Union Mill at 1500 Union Avenue as an offshoot of Gjerde’s popular Woodberry Kitchen restaurant at Clipper Mill.
If it comes to Charles Village, it would be part of a trend in which locally operated food businesses are competing with national chains such as Starbuck’s and Chipotle Mexican Grill, which also have Charles Village locations.
In Charles Village, Artifact Coffee would occupy a 1,574-square-foot street level space on E. 33rd Street, near the main entrance to the Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus and across the street from Barnes and Noble’s Charles Village branch, according to MSC’s material.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the Saint Paul Street building was held in March 2015, and completion is expected by late August 2016.
According to a leasing plan on the MSC website, other tenants in the Charles Village development include honeygrow, an operation that serves locally-sourced salads, smoothies, stir-fries and fruit-honey desserts and Peko Peko Ramen, a restaurant. Honeygrow is leasing 2,531 square feet on the St. Paul Street side and Peko Peko Ramen is leasing 1,591 square feet on the 33rd Street side.
The largest tenant identified so far is CVS Pharmacy, which will occupy 10,500 square feet on the building’s south side.
Increased retail activity in Charles Village was the subject of discussion during a recent meeting of the Charles Village Civic Association.
Collin Morstein, a marketing representative for Foodshed, did not respond to questions about the status of Artifact Coffee’s negotiations or when it might open.
Matthew Stein, a leasing agent for MSC, referred questions to Alex Rosen, a representative for Armada Hoffler, which he described as the builder and developer. Rosen did not respond to questions about the prospective tenants.
Other coffee and juice spots in or near Charles Village include Carma’s Café, Grind House Juice Bar, and Eddie’s. Donna’s, one of the first locally-owned coffee bars in Charles Village, recently closed after 18 years at St. Paul and 31st streets.
