A building that once housed the Korean-American Grocers & Licensed Beverage Association of Maryland, and has been known as the KAGRO Building, is being demolished to make way for a temporary Ynot Lot. Photo by Ed Gunts.
A building that once housed the Korean-American Grocers & Licensed Beverage Association of Maryland, and has been known as the KAGRO Building, is being demolished to make way for a temporary Ynot Lot. Photo by Ed Gunts.

To some, it was an architectural gem. To others, it was a graffiti-covered eyesore.

In a few days, it will be rubble, after a wrecking crew this week began tearing down the 1960s-era KAGRO building to make way for a temporary Ynot Lot in the Station North Arts District.

MCB Real Estate, the property owner, is working with the Central Baltimore Partnership to clear the site at 101 West North Avenue to make way for redevelopment. MCB’s long range plans call for a new building on the corner, but the scope of the project has not been disclosed. In the meantime, the owner is making the land available for use as the area’s temporary new Ynot Lot, to replace an outdoor events venue at the northwest corner of Charles Street and North Avenue.

The front of the graffiti-covered KAGRO Building in Station North, before a wrecking crew this week began tearing it down to make way for a temporary Ynot Lot. Photo by Ed Gunts.
The front of the graffiti-covered KAGRO Building in Station North, before a wrecking crew this week began tearing it down to make way for a temporary Ynot Lot. Photo by Ed Gunts.

The building that’s undergoing demolition opened in 1961 as a branch of Maryland National Bank, one of the first examples of Modern architecture on North Avenue. From 1995 to 2015, it housed the Korean-American Grocers & Licensed Beverage Association of Maryland and was known as the KAGRO Building. In 2015, it was the setting for “Bubble Over Green,” an art exhibit that showed the building’s potential for reuse as an art gallery. Since then, it has been vacant, boarded up and perennially covered with graffiti.

According to the Central Baltimore Partnership, a new outdoor events space is needed because the owner of the Charles Street lot decided not to renew its lease for that use. A crew led by Potts & Callahan has started tearing down the KAGRO building from the south, a side not visible from North Avenue. According to a notice that was posted on the building in January, demolition activity is expected to continue until the end of this month.

Ed Gunts is a local freelance writer and the former architecture critic for The Baltimore Sun.

4 replies on “Demolition begins on graffiti-covered KAGRO building in Station North to make way for new Ynot Lot outdoor events venue”

    1. Yes. CHAP has no teeth. And, occasionally, even less judgment. Look at how willing they were tear down everything in the historic Five and Dime district.

  3. I hate to see much of anthing demolished, esp when the errant property oweners will just walk away free from their burden and after killing Baltimore History.
    BUT in this situation, the KAGRO building was an ugly eyesore from the get-go. It probably took the place of a generic much older building, but one which was better able to blend with present landscape.
    Sadly the children with spray cans will keep scribbling with no parent to stop their vandalism.

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