Editor’s note: A previous version of this article reported that the redevelopment project would cost $10.6 million. The total budget for the project is $14.5 million. The article has been updated.
One of Baltimore’s most anticipated and unusual redevelopment projects is moving ahead this spring, with construction scheduled to start on a $14.5 million transformation of the former Greyhound bus station at Howard and Centre streets to a new headquarters for Baltimore SquashWise.
The non-profit organization, which offers youth programs that mix tutoring and athletics, acquired the historic bus station in May 2021 with plans to convert it to its permanent home. After years of design and fundraising, leaders announced this week that the adaptive reuse project will get underway next month.
“We invite our community to join us for a Groundbreaking Ceremony on Thursday, April 25th to celebrate the official start to construction on our future home at the historic Greyhound terminal,” the organization announced this week. “Once completed, the SquashWise Center will house six squash courts, three classrooms, fitness space and meeting areas. Together, we will build a new kind of community in Baltimore.”
Founded in 2007, SquashWise offers a combination of tutoring, squash coaching and competition, fitness and college and career readiness for Baltimore City students, with 80 percent of its students going on to college. For years it operated out of the Meadow Mill Athletic Club in Woodberry. After Meadow Mill closed in 2021, it moved to temporary quarters on Sisson Street while its leaders made plans and raised funds for a permanent home.
Part of the Mount Vernon historic district, the Streamline Moderne-style building at 601 North Howard Street was Baltimore’s Greyhound bus station from 1941 to 1987, one of more than 60 stations around the country designed by William Strudwick Arrasmith.
SquashWise acquired it from the Maryland Center for History and Culture, which owns the rest of the block. Last November, the Maryland Historical Trust awarded $2.125 million in historic revitalization tax credits as part of the funding package for the $14.5 million project.
PI.KL Studio is the architect for SquashWise’s renovation, which will double the size of its youth development program and enable it to expand its services to more middle and high school students. The rebuilt facility will also serve as a hub for community gatherings and events. SquashWise is aiming to complete construction in time to open SquashWise Center in the summer of 2025.
