Revitalization

Written by Erica Stewart

NTCIC staff and friends listen to what is possible at the Dayspring Block building project in a rough part of East Baltimore.

As someone whose job involves a significant amount of writing, my work gets infinitely easier when I trade the confines of my desk (and the bounds my imagination) for the actual streets and buildings where historic preservation meets the road. So I jumped at the chance to join a tour of historic rehabilitation projects in Baltimore, a city where the National Trust's Community Revitalization department and its for-profit subsidiary, NTCIC, have a long and rich history of involvement. It was a stimulating day spent among preservationists and development professionals, full of photo ops and personal stories from the field that are pure manna for a desk jockey like me.

The afternoon tour took us past some of the city's toniest streets as well as sidewalk scenes straight out of HBO's crime drama, The Wire. I had the chance to witness a diverse range of project types -- from a world-class performing arts space, to services for the city's neediest -- stages of completion, and socio-economic context.

A former Masonic Temple is now the stunning Tremont Grand conference and event space.

The first stop on the tour was lunch at the Tremont Grand (an amazing adaptive reuse story) and the main course was a discussion of tax credits, specifically the Maryland state historic tax credit. The message that stayed with me much longer than the chocolate torte served for dessert was that the Maryland credit has done more than any other economic development tool to revive large chunks of Baltimore city.

The credit, which is available for both owner-occupied residences and for commercial buildings, made the economics work for homeowners rehabbing homes in neighborhoods that offered proximity to parks and public transportation but that had been mothballed for oh, a few decades. The tax incentive helped homebuyers update existing homes in a historically-sensitive fashion, serving to retain the city's older housing stock and ensuring its role in the city's rebirth. The commercial use of the credit, meanwhile, helped developers finance the reuse of the city's great industrial, office, and mixed-use buildings, bringing a wave of jobs and neighborhood-serving businesses to residents. These amenities, housed in evocative historic buildings, helped attract additional residents to the city, creating a powerful positive feedback loop that helped reverse Baltimore's population decline for the first time in a decade.

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National Trust for Historic Preservation

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded non-profit organization, works to save America's historic places.

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Written by Erica Stewart

Rep. Elijah Cummings, Mayor Sharon Dixon, John Leith-Tetrault of NTCIC, and others celebrating the ribbon-cutting.

A crowd of 50 supporters, partners and residents gathered recently to help welcome the reinvented Professional Arts Building back to Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood. Once a thriving hub for the dental and medical trades, the eight-story, 1927 building on Reed Street was vacant and poorly maintained for several years. Thanks to the shared vision of Somerset Development and joint venture partner, NAGE Housing, Inc., the historic office building now houses 96 modern, light-filled rental units—all of which are affordable to individuals earning between 80 and 120% of Area Median Income.

In a ceremony officiated by Congressman Elijah Cummings and Mayor Sheila Dixon, the building’s transformation was unveiled. Though the use of the building is a departure from its past, ties to the building’s previous life are visible throughout. The project utilized state and federal historic tax credits, ensuring that its character-defining features would remain. Thus, the ceramic wall tiles that surrounded the dentist chairs remain, original office doors have been retained, and a lobby marquee still shows the names and floor locations of the professionals who last occupied the property.

The exterior of the Professional Arts Building.

The potential impact of the Professional Arts Building on the neighborhood is exciting. The Mount Vernon neighborhood is a great place to call home—rich in historic commercial buildings, brick rowhouses and shady streets, but its entertainment and shopping options—amenities that city-dwellers have come to expect—are limited. What the neighborhood does have is ideal access to public transportation and proximity to arts institutions. The Professional Arts Building sits just a block and a half from Baltimore’s light rail, subway, train, and bus lines. It is also convenient to the Walters Art Museum, Maryland Institute College of Art, University of Baltimore and Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. It is hoped that the Professional Arts Building, as Mount Vernon’s first high-rise historic multifamily apartment project, will spur the development of additional projects that will attract a critical mass of residents needed to sustain the retail and commercial establishments the neighborhood is currently lacking.

The National Trust Community Investment Corporation (NTCIC) —the for-profit subsidiary of the National Trust—is doing its part to help make that vision a reality. NTCIC partnered with Citibank to make a $4.5 million equity investment in the project to help catalyze the neighborhood’s revitalization. NTCIC is the federal historic tax credit syndicator, a transaction that transfers the federal historic tax credits to Citibank to defray its tax liability in exchange for essential cash resources to the project during its development. NTCIC’s involvement in the Professional Arts Building represents its sixth closed or committed equity investment in Baltimore, totaling $52 million.

Though no longer a medical building where generations of Baltimoreans had their teeth cleaned and their pulse checked, the Professional Arts Building—in its new role as multifamily residential building—is as essential as ever to the health of the neighborhood and City of Baltimore. And best of all? No Novocain needed.

Erica Stewart is the outreach coordinator for the Community Revitalization department at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

National Trust for Historic Preservation

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded non-profit organization, works to save America's historic places.

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