An 89-unit apartment complex for people aged 55 and older will take the place of Brown’s Motel, near the outskirts of Ellicott City and just down Baltimore National Pike from Patapsco Valley State Park.
The motel, which has been around for roughly six decades, is now vacant and officially in the hands of its new owner, Reuwer Real Estate Advisors, LLC, as of Monday.
A sign staked in the ground outside the motel announces a Dec. 15 demolition date. But Don Reuwer, manager of the company that newly owns it, told Baltimore Fishbowl he did not know exactly when demolition would take place.
Having only settled on the property on Monday, Reuwer explained on Tuesday that several things had to happen before demolition, such as disconnecting water, electricity, telephone, cable, and the like. He felt confident, however, that construction on the apartments that will replace the motel would begin by March 1, 2025.
Plans were presented to the community per Howard County code in August 2022, the building design was approved by Howard County’s Design Advisory Panel (DAP) in February 2023, and building permits have been obtained. Since the community will not allow children to live there, school considerations are not an issue.
The building and parking will take up the bulk of the 2.6-acre property, and no commercial or medical facilities will be on the premises, according to Nick Haines, planner at DAP. Reuwer’s plans call for significant landscaping to screen the lot and building from view of U.S. Route 40 traffic, though drivers will still be able to see it given its scale.
“What they proposed to the DAP for landscaping, on-site landscaping, actually would be pretty substantial,” Haines said.
Reuwer said the motel had become a “blight on the community” and a place where “you wouldn’t put your worst enemy.”
“One of the things we presented at the community meeting was the police reports,” Reuwer said. “It’s a very upscale community. This thing’s been a blight on the community. We’ve had the police reports. It’s amazing the number of calls they have for human trafficking, drug use…yeah, it’s that bad.”
Reuwer dismissed questions about mitigation for wildlife and environment, since the property abuts a state park, as “not making any sense.” He acknowledged that the park surrounded it but said there are no woods on the site itself.
“Right now, you have a building and large parking area and has no stormwater management, because we built in the 1940s, right?” Reuwer said. “So when you build something new, you even have to bring up management, so there’ll be much less water leaving the site in the rain event when we’re finished than there is today.”
