"The Avenue" On The Move
Lead by Pennsylvania Avenue Redevelopment Collaborative (PARC), the renaissance of Historic Pennsylvania Avenue is well on its way. PARC has members of all the Historic communities surrounding "The Avenue" at the table, Druid Heights, Sandtown Winchester, Penn North, Upton, the merchants and the faithbased community. Lead by its President James Hamlin and Executive Director George Gilliam the commitment of the City to invest in the Historic Community, has put it on a fast past to recovery after over 30 years of neglect.
As part of the Upton community Master Plan PARC was able to develop a strategic plan that includes long and short term develoment goals for the historic business district Pennsylvania Avenue. as a result a host of initiatives have been approved, funded and on schedule. The Penn North Master Plan has been approved ant it is a key component of the revitalization. Both plans can be found on Baltimore City Department of Planning's website.
"The Avenue's" Strategic Plan call for a long list of projects such as new facades of the exiting busineses which is in the second phase. Nearly $1.5 Million has been invested to fund a streetscape project from Gold to Mosher Streets.The project consist of new sidewalks, tree pits, benches and pedestrian lighting. It is directed by the Dapartment of Transportation.
Billie Holiday park will be going through renevation and upgrading in 2008. Legends Park is an outdorr entertainment area located on Laurens street between Pennsylvania Avenue and Fremont. We have a new office building planned for the 2200 block of The Avenue that will sonsist of retail, office space and banquet hall. There are plans to have a cultural center that will showcase the Arabber (venders that sell produce using horse drawn carts) history of our community. Baltimore is the only City in the country that still has this industry.
This is just a few of the initiative that will make our business district thrive again and become a great place to shop and do business.
This is the architech"s design of Legends Park which is a Recreation & Parks initiative. The site is located on Laurens Street between Pennsylvania & Fulton Avenues. The design allows the park to acommadate concerts and out door movies.
When the Billie Holiday Park is completed her stature will be on a pedestal with lighting, benches and her music will be egraved on the sidewalk and on the background wall.
Phase one of our facade program has been completed and makes a great post card picture of our business district.
"The Avenue" Business Center is in the Upton Master Plan and consist of retail /office space and banquet hall. The planned location will be 2229 Pennsylvania Avenue between Baker & Gold Streets.
There are plans to rehab our famous Sphinx Club a place where politicians, community leaders and sports figures such as Baltimore Colt football players would enjoy an evening of entertainment. This was one of the places where political and social issues were dicussed and major community decisions made.
A RFP has been awarded to The Bell Group and Doracon to develop a combination residential / commercial project in the 2600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, the Penn North section of "The Avenue".
We have a new club on "The Avenue" called Chopper's Tavern, located in the 1500 block of "The Avenue", which is open on weekends.
Our "Historic Communities"
On The Move
Our communities have received historic status and while we have some of the most unique achitecture we have new develoments on the horizon.
Architecture unique to Historic West Baltimore
Historic Marble Hill where Baltimore's prominent lived during the Civil Rights era.
While rehab of our unique brownstones and marble stepped architetured homes are in progress, diverse new development inhance the Historic community's landscape.
New homes in Historic Bolton Hill
Garage townhomes in Historic Druid Heights