At a vacant rowhouse in the shadow of Pimlico Race Course, the front porch has warped and sagged. Inside, cracks travel across plaster walls, and the kitchen -- with faded linoleum, rusty appliances and defective plumbing -- begs for a face lift.
It will get one -- and much more.
A plan to remake the West Belvedere Avenue home inside and out, from basement to roof, is but one element of the most extensive reconstruction and building in Pimlico and Park Heights since urban crime, middle-class flight and even the racetrack began chipping away at neighborhood stability. Already, amid boarded-up houses, corner beauty salons and a strip of liquor stores and appliance shops, signs of rebirth have begun slowly transforming an urban landscape marked by decades of decay.
With the help of grants targeting neighborhoods near the track, The Development Corp., a nonprofit group, has purchased 13 vacant rowhouses on West Belvedere Avenue, renovated seven and sold two to first-time buyers.
By buying and rehabilitating dozens more homes in the next few years -- up to 80 in four blocks between Park Heights Avenue and Reisterstown Road -- the group hopes to reverse the trend of deteriorating and abandoned investment properties and rebuild the area as a stronghold for homeowners.
"Our mission is to increase the rate of homeownership in Pimlico and Park Heights and re-create Park Heights as a community of choice," said Marianna Donisi-McCann, executive director of TDC. Now, she says, fewer than 40 percent of residents in a two-mile radius of the track own their homes.
In 1989, the group built Park Heights' first new homes in 20 years and this spring will start building 15 more -- modular townhouses at West Belvedere Avenue and Pimlico Road.
Longtime residents committed to improving their neighborhood say they're hopeful such projects will help turn things around.
"They're making good, solid homes livable. As a homebuyer, you wouldn't have to do any renovations," said Michael Rose, 29, who grew up in Park Heights, watching it change from a racially mixed neighborhood of occupied homes and small, family-owned businesses to one of more and more vacant homes.
Still, he and his wife, Odessa, 28, never considered leaving. Three years ago, they bought a rowhouse on Hayward Avenue for $44,000.
"We liked the area. It's self-contained community, you have everything right here, schools, shopping and transportation," said Mr. Rose, who works for the state Department of Human Resources.
Besides the general migration from the city that has hurt other urban neighborhoods, Pimlico and Park Heights have suffered from traffic and noise from increased racing over the years, Ms. Donisi-McCann said.
"People who couldn't sell either rented or abandoned [homes], and the tenant-occupied housing deteriorated," she said.
And as housing codes became more stringent and property values declined, repair costs began to exceed some of the homes' values, leaving landlords little choice but to board and abandon homes.
But subsidies for housing rehabilitation and new construction have been made available through the Pimlico Racetrack Impact Fund-- money from the track collected by the state and distributed by the city Department of Housing and Community Development.
The subsidies allow groups such as The Development Corp. to (( spend $75,000 to purchase and renovate a home, then turn around and sell it for $48,000, the going rate in the neighborhood.
Since incorporating in 1988 as a subsidiary of the Northwest Baltimore Corp. -- which represents dozens of neighborhood associations -- TDC built a six-unit modular townhouse project on Hayward Avenue in 1989, then renovated four vacant houses and sold them to first-time buyers over the next couple of years. The group began operating separately last year, changing its name to The Development Corp.
Last June, renovations were completed on the first seven homes on West Belvedere. They stand out among weathered and boarded homes, with repointed brick facades, sturdy porches and new roofs. They have smooth, freshly painted walls, carpeting, remodeled kitchens and baths and new plumbing, heating and electrical systems. Renovations on the next six will begin early next month. So far, two have sold.
The greatest challenge, says Ernest D. Matthews, TDC's housing services director, will be finding buyers, getting renters in a position to buy, linking them with special, first-time buyer financing and breaking through the fear, confusion or misinformation that keeps many would-be buyers paying rent. It never occurs to many people that they can own a home, especially if their parents or grandparents never did, Mr. Matthews said.
He has helped many buy a home through one-on-one counseling and through TDC's Home Buyers' Club, which meets twice a month on Saturdays, offering instruction on everything from TTC choosing a real estate agent to settling on a loan, helping buyers save money and improve credit. Most buyers he has worked with in three years -- many of whom attend for an entire year -- have purchased homes.
Buyers of newly renovated and built homes in Pimlico and Park Heights will likely come from those neighborhoods, he says, buyers like Nannie and Thurman McDougald.
The couple, a day-care provider and construction worker, rented a two-story brick rowhouse on Pall Mall Street for 25 years, raising four children there.
They never had considered buying a home before the landlord decided to sell and offered it to them, Mrs. McDougald said.
In August, they bought the house, solidifying roots in a community that had become their home. "When people own their homes, they have a vested interest in the community, in crime and safety issues," Mr. Matthews said.
MORE INFORMATION
To learn more about the renovation project, call The Development Corp. at
542-6610.