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A long-troubled apartment complex in Reservoir Hill that closed last year is under contract with a Baltimore-based real estate firm that plans to redevelop the property.
MCB Real Estate, which has a portfolio of shopping centers and some residential buildings, hopes to do a "major transformational project" with a mix of uses on the site of the former Madison Park North Apartments, said P. David Bramble, managing partner at the firm.
The company has started meeting with neighborhood groups and is doing environmental tests in preparation for demolition. Al Barry of AB Associates, a consultant who is working with the developer, said the firm hopes to start demolition by the end of the year, depending on the results of those tests.
The roughly 8-acre parcel sits at the border of Reservoir Hill and Bolton Hill, about half a mile east of the intersection of Pennsylvania and North avenues and not far from the Maryland Institute College of Art. The North Avenue property is home to a subsidized housing complex built in the 1970s, which came to be known as "Murder Mall" for its high number of drug sales, stabbings and shootings.
The city revoked the license of Tricap Management in 2010. The two sides reached a court settlement in 2014 and the last resident relocated last year. A lawsuit brought by tenants over the conditions has been settled.
Bramble, who lives nearby in Madison Park, said plans for the parcel remain in the very early stages. He described the property as a "marquee site with major implications for West Baltimore and the new innovation district."
"This is a super, super important project for the city and we want it to happen but it's going to require a lot of coordination and a lot of community involvement," he said.
MCB Real Estate also owns Eastpoint Mall and is redeveloping the PEMCO site in East Baltimore, where it continues to look for tenants.