The former Baltimore Traction Company Car Barn, an 1891 landmark in East Baltimore, will be preserved and renovated for potential commercial uses, under a plan announced on Tuesday by Cross Street Partners and Beatty Development Group.
The developers said they expect construction work to begin by the second quarter of 2024 to transform the Classical Revival-style car barn — actually a complex of interconnected buildings — into 43,000 square feet of refurbished space “suitable for a variety of uses.” They said potential uses could include offices; retail space; co-working space, a restaurant, gym and workforce training and development purposes, and that there is room for more than one tenant.
The buildings that make up the Car Barn footprint are united by their industrial character but defined by their different sizes, layouts and levels of ornamentation. Ceiling heights range from 12 to 40 feet. The property is zoned C-2, a category that permits a mix of commercial uses.
“The Car Barn represents an incredible opportunity to create a one-of-a-kind space in a neighborhood that has long suffered from disinvestment,” said Bill Struever, managing partner and CEO of Cross Street Partners, in a statement. “We’re excited to explore potential uses for the Car Barn that contribute something unique and valuable to this historic neighborhood.”
Located at 130 S. Central Ave. in Jonestown, the Car Barn complex is significant for its association with Baltimore’s transportation history, specifically the development of the city’s cable and electric streetcar systems. It was built as part of the city’s cable car system, but within just a few years of its construction, electric-powered trolleys overtook cable car systems as the dominant public transportation system, rendering the facility obsolete.
The Car Barn was sold to the Baltimore Department of Sanitation in 1907 and served as a storage, maintenance and repair facility for the city’s public works department throughout most of the 20th century. For the last two decades, it has been vacant.
The development team plans to preserve character-defining features of the Car Barn, including portions of the exterior façade, exposed brick walls, historic windows, and skylights. Updates to the site, mechanical systems and interior will ensure that the space is safe and accessible for tenants and visitors. Moseley Architects is the architect for the project. Initial leasing efforts are already underway, with Katherine Phillips of Cross Street Partners as the point of contact, kphillips@crossstreetpartners.com.
Currently owned by a subsidiary of the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, the Car Barn is being rehabilitated as part of larger redevelopment efforts occurring in the neighborhoods of Perkins, Somerset, and Oldtown (PSO).
In 2018, the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC) was awarded a $30 million Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) grant to implement the PSO Transformation Plan, an effort to transform neighborhoods of extreme poverty into thriving, mixed-income communities. A major component of the PSO Transformation Plan is to improve access to amenities that enhance quality of life and bring jobs to these neighborhoods.
“We envision the Car Barn as a prototype for additional investment in East Baltimore,” said Michael Beatty, President of the Beatty Development Group, in a statement. “As the affordable housing components of the PSO Transformation Plan take shape, opportunities to move forward with projects like the Car Barn will continue to spring up. These complimentary projects create a positive cycle of outside investment and development that bring new programmatic, and service uses to the neighborhood, ultimately strengthening the entire area.”
Janet Abrahams, president and CEO of the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, said her agency supports the initiative.
“As the leading affordable housing provider in the City, the Housing Authority of Baltimore applauds this historic redevelopment as it supports the vision of the PSO Transformation, and we are happy to contribute to the success of this rehabilitation.”
More information is available at www.carbarnbaltimore.com.
