In a case that Baltimore prosecutors say should stand as a warning to negligent property owners citywide, a district court judge ordered yesterday the demolition of a corner grocery store in Park Heights that drug dealers used as a base of operations.

It is the first time the city has exercised its "nuisance abatement" powers to demolish a building connected to crime, said Assistant State's Attorney Ann Refolo, who handled the case. And it will not be the last, housing officials have vowed.

Ulysses Holmes, 64, who leased the building and ran the sparsely stocked Springhill Market until it was ordered closed last week, was ordered to clear the premises for the wrecking ball within 10 days. Holmes and building owner Allen Becker have 30 days to file an appeal.

"I'm not even sure it's worth the trouble," Holmes said after yesterday's hearing, saying that he was being used as a "sacrificial lamb" to quell neighborhood complaints about the drug trade outside his store at 2900 Springhill Ave.

"They think what they did was right," Holmes said. "But it won't solve the drug problem."

Becker, who leased the building to Holmes under a lease-purchase agreement and owns several other rundown properties nearby, declined to comment.

The decision by District Judge Timothy J. Doory met with applause from residents in the courtroom. The demolition order comes amid mounting concern among city and state officials over new evidence that drug dealers and other felons have been using Baltimore real estate as fronts for criminal enterprises.

Two bills are expected to be introduced in the House of Delegates this week that would make it easier for the city to seize 40,000 abandoned houses and properties purchased with the profits from crime.

Prosecutors have been ordered by Housing Commissioner Daniel P. Henson III to employ the city's little-used nuisance law against owners who fail to maintain and police their holdings. Without the power to confiscate the properties outright, however, the city will not have the authority to put the resulting vacant lots to a new use.

It is a trade-off that residents are willing to make in this crime-weary enclave, which was targeted last year to receive more than $140,000 in anti-crime and urban renewal grants under a 1997 initiative called HotSpots.

The program has designated six hard-hit areas in the city for stepped up enforcement of criminal and housing laws.

During a hearing last week on the Springhill Market, Northwestern District police officers testified that the grocery is one of the worst drug dens in their territory and was undermining the HotSpots effort.

The neighborhood's mostly elderly residents refused to testify in the case for fear of retaliation by drug dealers and would only attend the hearing after receiving assurances of a police escort.

One woman said that loitering in front of the store is so bad that her friends won't come to visit her.

Contrary to Holmes' assertions that the store is not a drug trafficking center, police told Judge Doory that they recovered drugs, weapons and paraphernalia in the store three times last year and that dope peddlers routinely used it as a haven from police on patrol.

Officer Herbert Lindemyer said yesterday that the Springhill Market case should be a guide for other neighborhoods facing similar problems -- and it should be a warning to others.

"This sends a message to the drug dealers in the area and to the property owners that allow this drug habitat," Lindemyer said.

Henry Thompson, a HotSpots community organizer in Park Heights, agreed.

"This restores the community's faith in the system," he said.

Sun staff writer Jim Haner contributed to this article.

Pub Date: 3/02/99