MCB Real Estate has found an operator to take over the former Hooters restaurant location at Harborplace, which turns 45 today.
Terry Coffman, who owned Supano’s Prime Steakhouse Seafood & Pasta at 110 Water St. for more than a decade, is planning to open a restaurant in the space that Hooters occupied until last June on the first level of Harborplace’s Light Street pavilion at 301 Light St.
According to Jonathan Sandoval, vice president of MCB Harborplace, Coffman is aiming to open his restaurant in August and plans to seek approval to transfer the still-active liquor license previously granted to Hooters. He said Coffman has a “bar and grill concept” in mind and MCB, the owner of Harborplace, is excited because Coffman is an established restaurateur with a following in Baltimore.
“Having a name like Supano’s is good because it’s known,” he said.
The Harborplace pavilions cost $25 million to build and opened at Pratt and Light streets on July 2, 1980, to a crowd of more than 100,000. MCB announced plans in 2023 to raze the pavilions to make way for a $500 million mixed-use development containing residences, offices, shops, restaurants and green space. While it finalizes its plans, the company is offering vacant space in the pavilions to short-term tenants who agree to move out when MCB is ready to start construction.
Sandoval said Coffman would have an 18-month lease and is actively working to open later this summer. The space, on the west side of the Light Street pavilion, has been vacant since Hooters closed abruptly last year. MCB is the secured creditor for the Class ‘B’ Beer, Wine and Liquor license previously approved for Hooters. At present, the individual licensee is Adam Genn, vice president of MCB Harborplace.
On Feb. 13, Baltimore’s liquor board voted 3 to 0 to give MCB 180 days to transfer the liquor license, which kept it active into August. If the board hadn’t granted the 180-day extension, the license would have expired. The panel hasn’t disclosed a date for a hearing involving the Hooters license transfer. According to a notice sent out this week by the liquor board, the restaurant will be called Supano’s Steakhouse and Sports Bar, and the operator is seeking permission to provide outdoor table service.
A successor to Velleggia’s
Supano’s was a successor of sorts to Velleggia’s, a popular Little Italy restaurant that was founded in 1937. Coffman bought Velleggia’s in 2005, closed its Little Italy location in 2008 and opened Velleggia’s on Water Street that year. He renamed the Water Street restaurant Supano’s in 2010 and kept its décor, including a Frank Sinatra-themed bar.
Supano’s featured Italian-style pasta dishes, steaks, seafood, salads, global wines by the bottle and glass, cocktails and local and imported beer. It closed more than a year ago.
In 2017, Baltimore Sun restaurant critic Suzanne Loudermilk gave it 3.5 stars out of a possible 5.
“If you were a fan of Velleggia’s — and we were — you’ll enjoy the restaurant’s hearty, filling fare,” she wrote. The headline was: “Supano’s may be one of Baltimore’s best-kept secrets.”
Another Hooters spot to be filled
Before moving to the first level of the Light Street pavilion, Hooters occupied a prime spot on the south end of the second level, and MCB is in talks about filling that too.
Stacy Handler, CEO and founder of Bloom Arts Strategy, said at a recent meeting of Mayor Brandon Scott’s Arts & Culture Advisory Committee that her organization is in talks with MCB to lease the former Hooters space on the second level of the Light Street pavilion.
Bloom Arts Strategy is a community-focused organization that provides fundraising, project management, strategy and event planning support to arts organizations and artists. It worked with MCB and Midtown Baltimore in 2024 to activate the former Barnes & Noble retail space at The Fitzgerald apartment building at 1201 W. Mount Royal Ave. The result was The Fitzgerald Activation, a creative hub that provided artists and makers with space to rehearse, perform and otherwise connect with the community.
Handler said the original plan called for The Fitzgerald Activation to be in place for a year but MCB, which owns the Fitzgerald, ended up being able to offer it for only four months. She said that led to talks about Bloom Arts Strategy opening a similar sort of creative hub as a short-term tenant at Harborplace.
Genn confirmed that MCB is in talks with Handler about activating the second Hooters space but said it’s not as far along as Coffman’s project. He said MCB principals think a space run by Bloom Arts Strategy would be a good fit with another arts-oriented tenant on the second level of the Light Street pavilion, the 12,000-square-foot Creatively Black Baltimore exhibition gallery that replaced the former Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! museum.
Creatively Black Baltimore opened in late September of 2024 and was originally supposed to close last December, but it has been so successful that it has been allowed to stay open until MCB is ready to raze the Light Street pavilion to make way for its replacement project.
Waiting to Oxtail opens July 4
Another new tenant on the first level of the Light Street pavilion is Waiting to Oxtail, a dining spot featuring “oxtail dishes and Caribbean-inspired comfort food,” according to its website. The menu includes oxtail rasta pasta, oxtail tacos and oxtail patties. A grand opening is scheduled for July 4.
Waiting to Oxtail replaces Oleum, a vegan restaurant that opened last August at Harborplace and only had a one-year lease. Oleum moved to the former Bondhouse Kitchen space at 701 S. Bond St. in Fells Point. MCB officials say part of the goal of Harborplace’s short-term lease program is to provide incubator space for start-ups that can grow and move into more permanent brick-and-mortar locations elsewhere in the city, and that’s exactly what Oleum did.
