Vacant homes next to $400M South Baltimore development poised for overhaul
(Melody Simmons)
A plan to redevelop nearly two dozen blighted townhomes in Westport is set to take shape in the coming months.
The renewals, fueled by a state grant awarded last week, will flank the $400 million One Westport development nearby. They’re the latest signal that the small community tucked off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway is poised for a reinvention after decades of decay.
“To say this is transformational is an understatement,” said Lisa Hodges-Hiken, the executive director of the Westport Community Economic Development Corporation and principal of Hodges Development. “If we are successful meeting the milestones, Westport will be vastly different in three years.”
Hodges-Hiken, who is a partner in the vacant housing redevelopment project, said the vacancy problem in Westport encompasses about a third of all housing in the neighborhood. Similar efforts to redevelop communities with a large stock of vacant homes are underway in Park Heights, Johnston Square and Upton.
An initial phase of the Westport project aims to redevelop 19 modest, two-story townhomes in the neighborhood. The effort got a boost this month from a $500,000 grant awarded to Westport and 15 other neighborhoods under the Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Initiative.
The Westport redevelopments will center on vacant homes located on Annapolis Road and Sidney Avenue, Hodges-Hiken said. The work will be overseen by the nonprofit Westport Community Economic Development Corp., the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership and Ray Jackson, principal of Stonewall Capital, the Baltimore County developer of One Westport.
When completed, the redeveloped townhomes will hit the market. A portion will be offered to low-income families with some incentives funded by a state casino grant revenue program, said Brad Rogers, executive director of the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership, a nonprofit dedicated to redevelopment in the area.
The townhomes will be gut rehabs and cost up to $250,000 per structure. The goal, according to Rogers, is to attract a new generation of homeowners to Westport’s streets.
“This is a new neighborhood that is being created,” he said. “And this is what the neighborhood has asked for and what we intend to deliver.”
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