Car Barn Redevelopment Announced
The historic Car Barn will be getting a fresh lease on life, shown by new images released today by Cross Street Partners and Beatty Development Group. The two Baltimore-based firms have partnered to rehabilitate the existing historic buildings into a small-to-medium commercial space suitable for a variety of uses. Construction is expected to begin by Q2 2024 and will create approximately 43,000 SF of refurbished space when complete.
The classical revival style Baltimore Traction Company Car Barn was built in 1891 and is significant for its association with Baltimore’s transportation history, specifically the development of the city’s cable and electric streetcar systems. Within just a few years of the building’s construction, electric-powered trolleys overtook cable car systems as the dominant public transportation system, rendering the facility obsolete. The building was sold to the Baltimore Department of Sanitation in 1907 and served as a storage, maintenance, and repair facility for the city throughout most of the 20th century. For more than two decades, the building has been vacant.
The development team will preserve character-defining features of the Car Barn, including portions of the exterior façade, exposed brick walls, historic windows, and skylights. Updates to the building site, systems, and interior will ensure the space is safe and accessible for tenants and visitors. Initial leasing efforts are already underway, with the development team considering coworking, office, restaurant, gym, retail, and workforce training/development uses.
“The Car Barn represents an incredible opportunity to create a one-of-a-kind space in a neighborhood that has long suffered from disinvestment,” said Bill Struever, Principal, Managing Partner, and CEO, Cross Street Partners. “We’re excited to explore potential uses for the Car Barn that contribute something unique and valuable to this historic neighborhood.”
The Car Barn is being rehabilitated as part of larger redevelopment efforts occurring in the neighborhoods of Perkins, Somerset, and Oldtown (PSO). In 2018, the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC) was awarded a $30 million Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) grant to implement the PSO Transformation Plan, an ambitious effort to transform neighborhoods of extreme poverty into thriving, mixed-income communities. A major component of the PSO Transformation Plan is to improve access to amenities that enhance quality of life and bring jobs to these neighborhoods.
“We envision the Car Barn as a prototype for additional investment in East Baltimore,” said Michael Beatty, President, Beatty Development Group. “As the affordable housing components of the PSO Transformation Plan take shape, opportunities to move forward with projects like the Car Barn will continue to spring up. These complimentary projects create a positive cycle of outside investment and development that bring new programmatic, and service uses to the neighborhood, ultimately strengthening the entire area.”
Added Janet Abrams, President and CEO, Housing Authority of Baltimore City: “As the leading affordable housing provider in the City, the Housing Authority of Baltimore applauds this historic redevelopment as it supports the vision of the PSO Transformation, and we are happy to contribute to the success of this rehabilitation.”
