The long-dormant Odorite building has a new owner.
Astoria Charm Property Management Inc. on Tuesday completed its acquisition of the former Odorite building at 1111 Maryland Ave., a prominent property that went up for auction in December. The sale price was $1 million.
“We plan on moving our property management business’s office into the building and renting out the rest of the space to other businesses/tenants,” property manager Isaac Blas said in an email message.
The Odorite building has been empty since mid-2023, when former owner Owen Lewis sold his business to Viking Chemical Co. in Westport and the Odorite operation became part of Viking’s business there.
The Maryland Avenue property is a “flex showroom building” that contains 22,798 square feet of space on nearly four-tenths of an acre, with a loading dock and drive-in bays and large display windows at street level. It’s zoned for commercial use.
On behalf of the owner, A.J. Billig Auctioneers scheduled an auction for the property, with online bidding starting last Dec. 8 and in-person bidding scheduled to start on Dec. 10. The advertised opening bid was $500,000.
Billig worked on the auction with MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services. On Dec. 10, after people had gathered inside the building, auctioneer Charles Billig said the live-bidding part of the sale would not take place because the seller was negotiating with a potential buyer and needed more time to finalize a contract. The property went under contract later that day. Billig and MacKenzie’s Mike Ruocco and Patrick J. Smith represented the seller in the transaction. The buyer was unrepresented.
Billig said in an email message afterwards that five parties registered for the online bidding or pre-registered for the on-site auction. Of the five, he said, “none besides the contract purchaser seemed fully prepared that day, which is why we chose to negotiate the deal directly instead…While we would have preferred an active auction with many parties bidding, I think the outcome is healthy…The buyer will have an opportunity to take advantage of an attractive location bounded by [the University of Baltimore], MICA, major cultural attractions and Penn Station. Our hope is that they are able to utilize the site in an attractive and beneficial way for the Midtown-Belvedere community.”
Astoria (astoria-charm.com) has been based at 1714 St. Paul St., several blocks from Maryland Avenue. It serves real estate investors by managing single-family homes, multi-family properties and homeowners and condominium associations in Baltimore City, Baltimore County and surrounding areas.
The Odorite building is one of several properties that have been in flux in the block bounded by Maryland Avenue and Chase, Charles and Biddle streets.
Crosby Jenkins Associates, an interior design firm at 24 W. Chase St., disclosed plans last June to move later this year to 6239 Falls Road in Bare Hills, where the Princeton Sports store used to be. A midblock building at 12 W. Chase St., owned by Native American Lifelines, will become a cultural center for Urban American Indian and Alaskan Native communities, with spaces for a dental suite, mental health counseling, a business center and a large teaching kitchen. The Maryland Historical Trust last year awarded $600,000 in state revitalization tax credits to help finance that $3 million project.
One block to the south, the owner of the recently-renovated Eddie’s of Mt. Vernon grocery store property at 7-11 W. Eager St. is seeking a new operator to run the business after a previously-announced operator bowed out.
Astoria’s acquisition represents a vote of confidence in the block on behalf of the buyer.
“We hope the area can come back to life,” Blas said in his message.
