CAMBRIDGE -- Nearly three weeks after a huge fire ripped through the heart of this Eastern Shore city's downtown business district, Gov. Martin O'Malley toured the stricken area yesterday, offering a state aid package of grants and low-interest loans worth $258,000.
Merchants and property owners who have seen business drop by 50 percent since the seven-alarm blaze destroyed the 100-year-old building that housed two antiques businesses at 444-448 Race St. got further good news.
Local developer Brett Summers said he has completed negotiations with the building's owner, Young Hwang, a Florida resident who owns numerous Cambridge properties, to buy the site - where only the facade of the building remains standing - for $240,000.
As part of an agreement between Summers and the city, the ornate brick front of the building must be stabilized and shored up no later than Thursday - allowing city officials to reopen a block that has been off-limits to traffic and pedestrians since Jan. 15, the day of the fire.
"I think all this shows that in the end, this is going to be looked at as a bump in the road for Cambridge and the downtown," said City Councilman Ken Knox. "It has been amazing how much it has drawn people together."
Summers, who has renovated four downtown buildings over the past few years, owns the former McCrory's store next to the destroyed building. The three-story structure sustained smoke and water damage.
State officials say Cambridge is eligible for a $200,000 Community Legacy grant to businesses that were destroyed or damaged by the fire. The city will use a $58,000 matching grant to establish a revolving loan program for merchants and property owners in the 50-block downtown district.
Cambridge Main Street, the nonprofit organization that has led a burgeoning downtown redevelopment and preservation effort, will receive $20,000 from the state economic development office to pay for a marketing campaign.
"We were very happy with that," said Jim Duffy, secretary of the Main Street program. "We want to reassure people that Cambridge is still here, alive and well. The whole package is going to be a help, especially for some of our new businesses that have had a tough time with the block being barricaded."
Mark Hubbard, who runs a custom blinds and framing business across the street and half a block away from the burned-out building, said he has felt the pinch.
"I've been here three years, so I think we can weather this," Hubbard said. "But I'd say my business is off by 50 percent since the fire."
O'Malley, traveling with an entourage of housing and economic development staff members, stopped long enough for a sandwich at the Canvasback Restaurant before plunging into a crowd of 100 or so business owners, local and state elected officials, and curious onlookers scattered along a three-block area.
The governor, dressed in a sports coat and jeans, dashed into half-a-dozen businesses along the way before a brief news conference at the old Nathan's Furniture store, owned and renovated by Victor MacSorley, a Talbot County builder.
"We're going to rebuild Cambridge and come out even stronger," O'Malley said. "We're going to do everything in our power to make it so. Cambridge has great bones in these downtown buildings. The city is poised for great things."
chris.guy@baltsun.com