Rubble-strewn site of Woodberry demolition controversy goes up for sale

Four and a half years after developers razed two 1840s stone millworkers’ houses in Woodberry to make way for “micro” apartments, the rubble-strewn lot has been put up for sale.

A ‘For Sale’ sign has been posted on the chain link fence that surrounds the property at 3511-3523 Clipper Road, the site where the houses were razed in May of 2019 even though a development team had indicated it was working to retain them.

According to the website of the real estate broker, Patty Kallmyer & Company of Next Step Realty, the property at 3511 Clipper Road has been listed for sale for $2.2 million. 

The parcel is one of two that Kallmyer and Next Step Realty have listed for sale on Clipper Road in Woodberry. The property at 3535 Clipper Road, a metal-clad structure that once housed the Charles E. Bristor Company, is listed separately for $950,000.

The listings are a sign that the developer who razed the stone houses and later acquired the Bristor building isn’t moving ahead with plans to develop those properties.

According to the listing and city records, the property owner received approval from the city to build a structure containing 57 apartments at 3511 Clipper Road and conceptual approval for a four-story apartment building at 3535 Clipper Road. The listings state that the sale price includes building plans and environmental and engineering reports about the land.

“Well positioned in the historic neighborhood of Woodberry is this unique development opportunity,” the listing for 3511 Clipper Road states. “This shovel ready development site comes fully approved and permitted for a 57-unit apartment complex, ready for immediate construction. Sold separately in conjunction for cohesive development with 3535 Clipper Road.”

“3535 Clipper Road presents a unique opportunity to acquire a property well positioned in a neighborhood brimming with character and charm,” the second listing states. “Located minutes from the light rail, I-83 and I-695, any development here will allow for easy access to the entire city and beyond.”

Transit-oriented development 

The stone houses at 3511 and 3523 Clipper Road were constructed for workers at Clipper Mill, one of several large mills and factories located in the Jones Falls Valley.

In 2018, a team led by developer Chris Mfume sought approval to build apartments on the property, to take advantage of “Transit Oriented Development” zoning designed to encourage construction of multi-family housing near light rail stops, including the one at Woodberry.

Mfume’s team, with PI.KL Studio as the architect, had worked out a creative plan to save the shells of the stone houses and make them part of the base of the apartment project, to help retain a sense of the area’s history. The project, called Woodberry Station, would have been one of Baltimore’s first  “micro-apartment” developments, with studios starting at 350 to 450 square feet in size.

But on the morning of May 21, 2019, without any notice to Woodberry residents, contractors appeared on the site and tore down the houses within hours.

Community residents said they had been betrayed. Mfume and the architects with PI.KL said they didn’t know about the demolition and resigned from the project. Another local businessman, Larry Jennings, emerged as head of the group that controlled the property. He hired different architects to design an apartment project similar to the one Mfume was working on for 3511-3523 Clipper Road but without the stone structures at the base.

Historic district designated

The demolition, and the uproar about it, prompted Woodberry residents to petition the city to designate parts of their community, including the 3500 block of Clipper Road, a local historic district.

The designation protects other historic buildings in the area from sudden demolition because it requires property owners to obtain permission from the city’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) for any changes to building exteriors, up to and including demolition.

The plans for 3511 Clipper Road were approved by the city before Woodberry became a local historic district. The conceptual plans for 3535 Clipper Road were approved by the city after Woodberry became a local historic district and went through CHAP’s preliminary review process.

According to state land records, the owner of 3511 Clipper Road is Woodberry Station LLC, which has a post office box address in the 21209 zip code area of Baltimore, Maryland. The land has an assessed value of $323,400 as of July 1, 2023.

The owner of 3535 Clipper Road is 3535 Clipper LLC, which has the same post office box address as Woodberry Station. The property was last sold in 2020 for $326,000 and has a phased-in assessed value of $152,000 as of July 1, 2023 and a phased-in assessed value of $259,200 as of July 1, 2024.

Jennings is the senior managing director and co-founder of ValStone Properties, a private equity investment firm. ValStone at one point owned the commercial assets of Woodberry’s Clipper Mill community but sold them several years ago to a group that includes MCB Real Estate, which has its headquarters there. Jennings owned the Clipper Road parcels separately from ValStone’s holdings at Clipper Mill, and they weren’t part of the sale to MCB’s group.

The sale of the two properties came up on Tuesday during a meeting of the Woodberry Community Association. Residents asked whether a purchaser of the land can step in and construct the building that the city approved for 3511 Clipper Road.

City Council member James Torrence told the residents that he would need to check with the city’s zoning administrator and with representatives of the city’s housing and planning departments before he could say for sure how the development process works in a case such as this.

Torrence said he thought a purchaser would be able to carry out the plans already approved by the city, but if the purchaser wanted to make major changes or build a completely different project, they would have to start the permitting process from the beginning.