Real Estate Insider: Towson Row's two hotels mark grand opening; MCB to unveil another apartment project
A group of about 150 toasted the opening of two hotels at Towson Row this month as the huge development in Baltimore County nears its completion.
The dual properties — a Hampton Inn and Home2 Suites — have a total of 224 rooms and aim to jumpstart the hospitality market after the closure of a nearby Marriott tower for conversion into dorm rooms for Towson University before the pandemic hit.
The two hotels at 21 W. Susquehanna Ave. are owned by Shamin Hotels and Hilton and they share dining and lobby space as part of a new hybrid hotel design that allows two flags to co-exist in the same four walls.
The $350 million Towson Row project has been in the works for five years and is anchored by Whole Foods and two large apartment towers. The development is adjacent to Towson University and near Goucher College. The county office complex is also a couple of blocks away.
The five-acre Towson Row today is built out, says Brian Gibbons CEO of Greenberg Gibbons, developer of the ambitious mixed-use project that kicked off in 2018.
“The opening of Hampton Inn and Home2 Suites at Towson Row provides numerous benefits to both the local community and the broader region,” said Eric Walter, president of Greenberg Gibbons, on Monday. “It provides a place for visitors to stay, relax and explore Towson.”
Greenberg Gibbons also owns The Shops at Kenilworth about five miles away from Towson Row and several other high-profile developments in Greater Baltimore including Foundry Row in Owings Mills and Hunt Valley Towne Centre.
MCB Real Estate to open new apartment complex at Yard 56
MCB Real Estate is set to officially open its Lofts at Yard 56 in East Baltimore on Tuesday.
The large local developer, whose other local projects include Harborplace downtown and the recently renamed Madison Park North development in West Baltimore, has been developing Yard 56 for nearly eight years at the former Pemco industrial site on Eastern Avenue.
The $80 million Yard 56 is anchored by a retail strip anchored by Streets Market and LA Fitness with several national chains and an office building nearby. A community health center run by the nonprofit Baltimore Medical System will also open this year at the site with 54 patient care rooms and the goal of providing health care to 20,000 more patients than the system’s current patient load of 60,000 patients a year.
The Lofts at Yard 56 are one-, two- and three-bedroom luxury units. Leasing at the complex has already started, and MCB officials said on Monday details of the project would be made public later this week. Stay tuned.
Baltimore luxury residential realty group expands to Delaware beaches
Baltimore’s Monument Sotheby’s International Realty has expanded its reach to the Delaware shore.
The active luxury residential realty group owned and run by Charlie Hatter and Shawn Evans, recently merged with Ocean Atlantic Sotheby’s International Realty based in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The new firm will be called Monument Sotheby’s International Realty – Coastal Division.
The move was made because many of Hatter and Evans’s clients from Baltimore are searching for second homes on the shore, Hatter said on Monday. So the growth was a natural next step.
“And there are a lot of new communities being built inland,” Hatter said, of the market in Delaware. “The values have gone up in the residential market there.”
The firm’s growth has added more Realtors to Hatter and Evans’ business, which today has about 400 brokers in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Hatter said the next step for the firm based in the city could be to expand its presence in the Philadelphia area.
Monument Sotheby’s International Realty also markets and sells luxury condos in Baltimore at the Liberty Harbor East, the Four Seasons Residences in Harbor East and the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Federal Hill.
Baltimore real estate tidbits:
- Baltimore officials recently sold a former school building to Associated Catholic Charities Inc. for $1.2 million, state property records show. The deal recently closed for the sale of the former Alexander Hamilton Elementary School that was built in 1982 and closed in June 2021. The building was declared surplus by the city school board and put up for sale this year. It sits on about four acres at 800 Poplar Grove St. near the Winchester community in West Baltimore.
- Towson officials said last week they were anticipating more feet on the street as potential jurors will be returning to the Baltimore County Circuit Court building on Oct. 26. Jurors had been gathering at a remote location of York Road for years as work to renovate the aged jury room in the courthouse was in planning and underway. Then Covid-19 hit and derailed the project — until now. The return of those called for jury duty to downtown Towson will bring more business to local eateries in the area after a long, dry spell, says Nancy Hafford, executive director of the Towson Chamber of Commerce.
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