In a crumbling building on West Lexington Street where rain has punched a hole through the roof, Boris Kalikhman stepped gingerly around missing floorboards and planned his comeback.
Ever since urban renewal forced the jeweler out seven years ago from a different spot on the so-called "superblock" - really a collection of blighted blocks around the Lexington Street pedestrian mall - he has been plotting a return. He wanted back in on Baltimore's west side even as renewal plans stalled and left the area worse off. But now, projects big and small are on the verge of happening. And Kalikhman's NY 47th St. Jewelry Ltd. is ramping up to be among the first.
The merchant, who has run a shop on East Baltimore Street since leaving the west side, hopes to open his second location at 108 W. Lexington by August. He plans to preserve the four-story historic structure. And though his efforts may pale in comparison to mega-developers' plans for hundreds of new apartments and scores of shops, he believes his investment, too, will play a role in restoring a more-than-century-old shopping district.
"Here, people come to shop," said Kalikhman, who immigrated to the United States from Ukraine 17 years ago. "I know the market on West Lexington Street. I see in this area big potential."
Kalikhman said his original Lexington Street shop - a block west of his new site - was profitable in the 1990s when the city began condemning and buying up derelict properties to offer for redevelopment. Even then, he said, he had a loyal following from the city and beyond. The demand can only grow, he believes, spurred by the west-side rebirth that's bringing more residents to the area and a 757-room convention hotel.
Those people will expect shops and services nearby, he said.
"Not everyone can go to Arundel Mills mall," Kalikhman said.
Kalikhman bought 108 W. Lexington from the city for $250,000 and expects to spend $1 million to restore the peeling facade and transform a gutted old shell into a gleaming shop, where customers are pampered and the jewelry is high-end. His office will be upstairs.
Originally a retail shop dating to the mid-19th century, the building had been acquired by Baltimore Development Corp. under the west-side urban renewal plan. But the BDC never included the building, or others on the north side of the 100 block of W. Lexington St., in parcels offered to developers.
Much of the superblock is to be redeveloped by two teams. Lexington Square Partners plans to build 400 to 500 market-rate apartments, 200,000 square feet of shops and parking in an area bounded by Howard, West Lexington, Liberty and West Fayette streets. The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, in partnership with Baltimore-based Cordish Co., plans at least 70,000 square feet of offices, apartments, shops and restaurants on the north side of Lexington between Howard and Park Avenue.
Yet another development team has proposed 152 apartments, shops, some offices and a parking garage in a block of parking lots and vacant buildings bounded by Park Avenue and Clay, Liberty and Lexington streets.
The only tangible progress has been redevelopment of the former Stewart's Department Store into offices for Catholic Relief Services by property owner Weinberg Foundation. That project forced Kalikhman out of his former shop at 224 W. Lexington. It was torn down and replaced with a glass-enclosed atrium that serves as the entrance to the CRS offices.
Soon after he established his Baltimore Street shop, Kalikhman began talks with the BDC about returning to the west side and became determined to purchase 108 W. Lexington, recalled his attorney, John C. Murphy, who has represented Kalikhman and many displaced west-side merchants.
"That was his goal, and it took a long time to achieve, but he finally achieved it," Murphy said.
The work under way at 108 W. Lexington is the first physical redevelopment the superblock has seen outside of the Stewart's conversion, said M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the BDC.
Kalikhman "has the ability to renovate it and make a beautiful building out of it," Brodie said. "We're excited that there's a physical beginning."
Several shop owners near Kalikhman's building plan to spruce up their facades. Property owner Carmel Realty plans to move its Valu-Plus shop, in the 200 block of W. Lexington St., to a former Kresge's store it owns in the 100 block of West Lexington.
For now, with the projects mostly in the planning stage, vacant, boarded buildings outnumber occupied ones. Only a handful of shops remains. But inside the future NY 47th St., workers are undoing years of neglect, ripping out asbestos, removing items containing lead and tossing all the junk down a yellow chute into a trash bin. Kalikhman stops by every morning, before heading to the East Baltimore Street shop he runs with his wife, Svetlana, and their daughter.
renovation, made more affordable by historic tax credits, will restore the exterior from the second floor up and redesign a modern storefront, said his architect, Richard Wagner, a principal with David H. Gleason Associates. He hopes to use some of the original doors and window trim inside.
Wagner believes that the store was originally a clothing shop, one clue being that the elevator shaft at the rear of the store matches the size of clothing elevators used at the time. "Whoever built it, that was their statement that I'm a quality merchant," Wagner said.
lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com