Developer Larry Jennings won a final public battle to convert Woodberry’s Tractor Building to apartments when Baltimore’s Planning Commission twice voted 8 to 0 on Thursday to approve the development plans.
The Planning Commission was the last of several city boards the developer needed to satisfy in order to obtain building permits for the conversion, estimated to cost $32 million to $35 million.
Developer Larry Jennings’ plan to convert Woodberry’s underutilized Tractor Building into 99 apartments cleared a key hurdle yesterday, when Baltimore’s preservation commission voted 6 to 2 to give the project concept approval.
The action by Baltimore’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) brings Jennings and Valstone Partners one step closer to obtaining building permits for a redevelopment project that will result in an investment of $32 million to $35 million in Woodberry and help preserve much of the last large mill building at Clipper Mill that hasn’t been recycled for contemporary uses.
As if living in a pandemic wasn’t enough, bricks dropped from the sky in Woodberry yesterday, as part the historic Clipper Mill Tractor Building fell onto cars in the street below.
An emergency crew worked through much of Friday to remove loose bricks and demolish parts of seven rooftop light monitors in an effort to stabilize the cavernous industrial building, which dates to 1916 and is the last major structure at Clipper Mill that hasn’t been renovated for contemporary uses.
Baltimore’s newest designated historic district could soon be the old mill town of Woodberry, depending on the outcome of two upcoming hearings before the city’s preservation commission.
Savor delicious food, sip on fine spirits and bid on great auction items – all to benefit a great cause as The League for People with Disabilities, one of Maryland’s oldest non-profit organizations, is once again hosting one of the most talked about events of the year. #OMGFOOD, an evening of Food, Fun and Fabulousness will be held on Thursday, October 3, 2019 at La Cuchara Restaurant in historic Woodberry beginning at 6 pm. The evening will feature some of Baltimore’s stand-out local celebrity chefs including Ben Lefenfeld from La Cuchara, Jerry Trice from Gunther & Co, Julian Marucci from Tagliata/The Elk Room/Italian Disco and Steve Chu from Ekiben. These culinary phenomes will delight the taste buds with heavy appetizers, along with cocktails and fabulous dessert creations. There will also be a silent auction, live music, a mentalist, raffles and more. For ticket information visit https://www.leagueforpeople.org/omgfood.
Woodberry residents on Thursday evening got their first look at some revised, if familiar-looking plans for a new apartment building where two 1840s stone mill houses were demolished in May against the community’s wishes.
The property owners behind a controversial project in Woodberry have wasted no time assembling a new team to design a development where two historic stone millworkers’ houses were torn down in May.
After losing two historic stone houses in a surprise demolition last month, residents of Baltimore’s Woodberry community have asked the city to designate their neighborhood a local historic district so that remaining older structures would be better protected from “reckless” demolition.
The developer behind a once-planned 55-unit apartment building in Woodberry has dropped out of the project after contractors razed two historic stone mill homes intended to be incorporated into the building–apparently unbeknownst to the builder.
“I have notified the owners of the property that I have decided to remove myself and CLD Partners from the Woodberry Project partnership effective immediately,” said Christopher Mfume, managing partner of CLD Partners, in a statement sent out around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
A city design and review panel this year gave the thumbs up for a 55-unit apartment building on Clipper Road that would, at the community’s pleading, embed two preserved 1840s stone mill homes within its design in a good-faith nod to the community’s history.
But to neighbors’ and city preservationists’ dismay, this morning those two homes were reduced to twin piles of rubble.
