State of Maryland allocates $286,000 to help a new operator reopen Eddie’s grocery store in Mount Vernon but more funds are needed, community leader tells area residents

The state of Maryland has allocated $286,000 to help a new operator reopen Eddie’s grocery store in Mount Vernon but more funds are needed, area residents were told at a community meeting on Tuesday night.

Jack Danna, president of the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association (MVBA), said he hoped to announce the name of the operator and other details about the store’s reopening within the next two weeks.

Finding a grocery store has been a top priority for Danna and other MVBA leaders since Eddie’s of Mount Vernon closed abruptly on June 30, leaving residents without a full-service food market in their community. The closest grocery stores are Streets Market & Café at 222 N. Charles St.; the Safeway store at 2401 N. Charles St.; and a Save A Lot at 2008 Maryland Ave.

Danna said $250,000 has come from a state program called Project C.O.R.E., which was established to support community growth and eliminate blight, and another $36,000 has been awarded from a state program called Project Restore, intended to help activate vacant buildings with street-level retail activity, especially in historic commercial corridors. He said he has a meeting later this week with a state official who lives in Mount Vernon and is in a position to provide additional funds needed for the project.

If all goes well, he said, more details will be revealed soon in a newspaper article by a reporter that he’s working with to break the story:

“I think in a couple of weeks we’ll have a lot to celebrate, and you’ll certainly read about it in The Baltimore Sun,” he told MVBA members. “It will become a model for the state in terms of how you eliminate…what we call food deserts.”

Closed since June

Danna and Jubilee Baltimore president Charles Duff have been working with developer Dennis Richter, owner of the Eddie’s property at 7-11 W. Eager St., to find an operator to replace Dennis Zorn, who ran the grocery store from 2000 until last June.

Part of the Mount Vernon Historic District in Baltimore, the Eager Street building dates from the mid-1800s, started as a stable called Coffay’s Livery, and has housed a grocery store since 1939. Richter, who owns the property through an entity called 13 West Eager LLC, is listed on the MVBA website as an ex-officio director of the organization but did not attend the meeting on Tuesday.

The former grocery store had about 5,500 square feet of space and was run by Eddie’s of Eager Street Inc., headed by Zorn and his daughter Dawn. It was an independent business, not affiliated with the Eddie’s stores at 5113 Roland Ave. and 6213 N. Charles St.

Danna told the MVBA members on Tuesday that the current plan calls for the building owner and as-yet unnamed operator to renovate and equip the building for continued use as a grocery store, that it will continue to be called Eddie’s, and that its front façade will be restored to its 1930s appearance.

Danna said the MVBA board will be asked to approve “a couple thousand dollars” to fund a community engagement process that will give area residents a chance to say what they’d like to see the store provide and make sure it will be accessible to all. Asked about measures to prevent shoplifting, he said money will be budgeted from the start to station plain clothes security officers inside the store. “Security is a big issue,” he said.  

Danna said after the MVBA meeting that if sufficient funds can be secured in time, renovation of the Eager Street building could begin this spring and the store could possibly reopen this summer, depending on how quickly the city is able to process construction and occupancy permits. Asked how much is needed to open a grocery store at the Eager Street location, he said he would need to check with Richter.

‘Off the record’

Nine and a half minutes into his briefing about the grocery store on Tuesday, as more and more residents asked questions, Danna announced that his comments about the project were “all off the record,” but he continued to answer questions.

His statements at the gathering, which was billed as a public meeting held to replace a Jan. 16 meeting that was postponed due to inclement weather, were consistent with previous disclosures by Duff and Zorn about efforts to plan and open a grocery store in Mount Vernon, and his figures about previously-awarded state funds are public information.

In November, Duff told a gathering at the Engineers Club that Richter may have found an operator to reopen the store, but he didn’t name anyone. “I believe my friend Dennis Richter…is about to revive Eddies’s Market here in Mount Vernon, and the new operators will be immigrants,” Duff said at the event, a paid lecture about revitalizing cities, organized by Baltimore Heritage.

In December, Zorn asked the city’s liquor board at a public hearing for a “180-day hardship extension” that would keep the store’s rare “Class A” Beer, Wine and Liquor License active for six more months because a new operator likely would want to take advantage of it. The liquor board does not issue new Class A licenses for grocery stores, and without an extension Zorn’s license would have expired at the end of December. After hearing Zorn’s testimony, the three board members granted an extension that keeps the liquor license active, and potentially transferable to a new operator, until June 30, 2024. 

Last month, a poster on Facebook reported seeing workers on the roof of the Eddie’s building, fueling speculation that more renovation activity may begin soon. 

Apartment project not moving ahead   

Before Eddie’s closed last year, Richter had acquired all of the properties on the south side of the unit block of West Eager Street and unveiled plans to construct a 10-story, $30 million to $35 million apartment building in place of the structures there now.

In addition to the grocery store, the assemblage included the former Eager House restaurant at 13-15West Eager Street and the former Comprehensive Car Care Center property at 923 Cathedral Street, both vacant. Richter also acquired commercial space inside the Belvedere condominium building at Charles and Chase streets to relocate Eddie’s, but he never started work on the apartments.

Asked at the MVBA meeting about the status of the apartment project, Danna said construction of the residences wouldn’t be able to proceed anytime soon if another grocery store opened on the block because state officials would want to see the store stay in place for a certain minimal period and that would preclude demolition.

If “state capital dollars” are used to reopen the store, “the building can’t go anywhere for at least 10 years,” he said at one point. “Those buildings will not be demolished for the foreseeable future,” he said later.

After the meeting, Danna revised his statement to say state officials would want to see the Eddie’s building stay in place for at least five to seven years.

Asked about the status of the former Eager House and Comprehensive Car Care buildings, Danna said at the meeting that they’re not part of the footprint needed for the grocery store but he has confidence that Richter will find other uses for those properties. He expressed optimism that Richter might be able to find “the right food operator or restaurant operator” to reopen the Eager House building, which he described as being in an “almost turnkey” condition that could help keep costs down.  

“No designs yet, but there’s a lot of opportunity and Dennis has a creative mind” to come up with a project that will benefit the community, he said.

Because the block is part of a local historic district, Richter had sought and received preliminary approval from Baltimore’s preservation commission to raze the Eager Street structures to make way for his apartment project.  To proceed with any development that’s different from what the preservation panel already approved, Richter would need to return to the commissioners and obtain their approval.

For now, Danna said at the meeting, the main objective is to reopen Eddie’s and make sure Mount Vernon has a full-service grocery store again. “Our goal is to get this done and make it work,” he said.