As Shirley Brown waits to move into her newly renovated apartment at the once-condemned Bay Ridge Gardens complex Annapolis, she looks forward to one thing more than any other: wall-to-wall carpeting.
"My great-grandchildren don't like to keep their shoes on, so I like to have something soft under their feet," said Ms. Brown, 56, who is an unpaid nanny for dozens of children in the apartment complex. Ms. Brown, who has lived at Bay Ridge Gardens for 22 years, has seen it go "from beautiful to rundown to beautiful again."
A $12 million overhaul for Bay Ridge is at the halfway point. This weekend, the managers and residents are proudly displaying the renovated apartments to friends, family and city officials.
In the days leading up to the open house, workers cleaned sidewalks, painted, added roof tiles and watered the new lawn around the complex.
About 100 families live in new units, with the rest residing in older apartments awaiting phase two of the renovations.
In Ms. Brown's three-bedroom apartment Friday, three toddlers watched a soap opera on the television, a little girl in a pink suit rolled by in a Tot Wheels II and a baby gurgled in a Kanga Rocka Roo on the kitchen table. Meanwhile, Ms. Brown looked to the future. "The kids are going to grow up well," she said.
This great-grandmother wasn't always so cheerful.
"Before, you could write your name on the window pane it was so cold inside," Ms. Brown said. "Now we're going to get those new thermal windows -- they look beautiful."
The 198-unit housing complex was closed in the spring of 1993 by Annapolis housing inspectors, who found more than 600 code violations.
Problems included rusting stairs and trash-filled stairwells, faulty plumbing and appliances, electrical hazards, outdated stoves and plumbing that didn't work. At night, the low-income housing development turned into an open-air drug market.
Then-owners CAM Construction Co. of Timonium and John S. Pica Sr. said they could not afford the major overhaul the city demanded.
So last December, Landex Corp., a Rhode Island company that specializes in rehabilitating apartment communities, and Bay Ridge Gardens Limited Partnership, an investment group, bought the complex.
Playgrounds planned
The managers installed new plumbing, heating units, sprinklers and electrical fixtures, as well as pink and gray kitchens with new appliances. Outside, green awnings with tan trim frame the doors, and new lights line the stairwells.
Also in the works: four basketball courts, two playgrounds, picnic tables and a community recreation center, which will have after-school sports and tutoring programs.
In the last year, more than the exterior of the buildings has changed. When the ownership changed hands, residents and managers reached an agreement allowing Bay Ridge dwellers to own part of the development, which means they play a greater role in drafting the rules, overseeing the property and shaping tenant policies. After 12 years, the residents can buy out the investors and own their apartments independently.
"People need to feel it's their property," said Adrian Harpool, the resident services coordinator. "And it will be."
Some residents cautious
Some residents are cautious about the new management, which Mr. Harpool said he expects after so many years of problems and broken promises.
"The residents have been through quite a lot," he said. "So they had some reservations about whether any of these changes would happen. Now, I know it's an overused word, but they seem to have a real sense of empowerment."
Although crime is still a problem in certain parts of the community, residents say drug dealing appears to be declining. Annapolis police have stepped up night patrols, and a neighborhood watch program is operating.
For Willie Wilkerson, who has worked as the maintenance man at the complex for nine years, the half-way mark in renovation signals a turning point for the families at Bay Ridge Gardens.
"I see tenants have a new start, and there's a new light because everything inside is new," he said. "The residents really got what they deserve."