Caves Valley Partners and The Baltimore Station Team Up on Veteran Housing at Stadium Square

In June, Caves Valley Partners (CVP), the developers of the $250 million mixed-use Stadium Square development in South Baltimore, announced a four- to five-story apartment building on the 1100 block of Leadenhall St. that includes 6,000 sq. ft. of ground floor retail. With hopes of making the apartments affordable housing, CVP is finalizing a partnership with The Baltimore Station (TBS) to provide affordable units for veterans.

Started 26 years ago, TBS is “an innovative therapeutic residential treatment program supporting veterans and others who are transitioning through the cycle of poverty, addiction and homelessness to self-sufficiency.” It has a facility at 140 W. West in South Baltimore, adjacent to Stadium Square, as well as a facility in Sandtown Winchester.

“The Baltimore Station has been a community member in South Baltimore for 26 years and has a long-running history serving the homeless population. We are thrilled to be part of the exciting Stadium Square redevelopment happening in our community to ensure that we don’t forget those that are most needy,” TBS Executive Director John Friedel told SouthBMore.com.

Stadium Square will cover three consecutive blocks of South Baltimore in Sharp-Leadenhall and the South Baltimore Neighborhood located between Cross St. on the north, Race St. on the east, Leadenhall St. on the west, and both sides of Ostend St. to the south. The new veteran housing building will share the northern most block of the development with an apartment building by the Hanover Co., which will include 299 market-rate apartments, 14,000 sq. ft. of retail, and 450-500 parking spaces.

CVP’s new apartment building will repurpose five existing historic rowhomes and two vacant lots at the corner of Cross and Leadenhall. The facades of the five rowhomes will be kept and behind them a new four- to five-story, 30-50-unit apartment building with 6,000 sq. ft. of retail space will be constructed. The units will include studios and one-bedroom apartments.

“We were trying to figure out what to do there and we originally considered an office building, but we knew it made sense to have retail at that corner to continue the flow from Cross St. into Solo Gibbs Park,” said Arsh Mirmiran of CVP. “The community wanted retail there as well.  After some discussion and guidance from the community stakeholders, as well as from the Housing Authority, we settled on veterans apartments as a great option to place over the retail space at the base.”

“As veterans graduate from TBS, this can be the next place they live, while still getting services in the neighborhood,” said Mirmiran. “Once they are completely back on their feet they can move on to other options in the housing market.”

Mirmiran noted that veterans outside of the TBS program would also be eligible for the units.

With the retail spaces facing Solo Gibbs Park, Mirmiran told SouthBMore.com the space would be ideal for a restaurant and/or coffee shop.

CVP is currently working with partners on figuring out the financing of the project to keep the apartments affordable and a final budget has not yet been determined. CVP is hoping to break ground in about a year with delivery expected around mid to late 2017.

Demolition has already taken place to make room for Hanover’s project and construction is expected to start any day. A six-story 72,000 sq. ft. office building on the 100 block of W. Ostend St. will also begin construction in the next month or so. The building will be the future home of United Way of Central Maryland, which is purchasing an office condo comprising the first three floors of the building, for roughly half the total square footage. CVP also recently acquired an adjacent 1.3 acre lot, where CVP is in the planning stages for another office building, with retail at its base.

Phase III of Stadium Square on the 1200 blocks of Race and Leadenhall St. will have the largest retail component of the project, along with more apartments and offices. Demolition of several buildings has taken place to clear the area for development and CVP has decided to preserve the Durapak/VacPac building as an adaptive reuse office building.

About the Author: Kevin Lynch

Founder and Publisher of SouthBmore.com, longtime resident of South Baltimore, and a graduate of Towson University. Diehard Ravens and O's fan, father of three, amateur pizza chef, skateboarder, and "bar food" foodie. Email me at Kevin@InceptMM.com and follow me on Twitter at @SoBoKevin.