Baltimore selects developer for Upton project

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Baltimore selected Upton Renaissance LLC’s bid to redevelop the 800 blocks of Edmondson and Harlem avenues in west Baltimore, a project expected to cost roughly $10 million.

City and state officials, including ex officio Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young and Maryland Department of Housing Secretary Kenneth Holt, announced the selection of Upton Renaissance LLC’s bid on Tuesday. The company intends to build 38 new homes, subsidized with city and state funds, in the Upton neighborhood.

“This is about bringing a community-driven development team, and (minority business enterprise) and (women business enterprise), to our neighborhood,” Councilman Eric Costello said.

Upton Renaissance LLCs bid was selected as one of six responses for the Upton properties. Responses were evaluated on a variety of criteria, which included community benefit, developer capacity and concept.

The program for Tuesday’s ceremony listed Dean S. Harrison, president of Harrison Development LLC, as a principal at Upton Renaissance. That firm, according to the city, is a partnership between Tower Hill Harrison Development, Parris Development and Stanton View Development.

Both Upton Renaissance LLC and Parris Development are listed as “not in good standing” with Maryland because their annual report for 2019 has not been filed. A spokeswoman for the state’s comptroller’s office could not provide any additional information regarding the firms’ status with the state.

Harrison was a member of the development partnership Presidential Partners-New East Baltimore Partnership LLC when the state Department of Assessments and Taxation revoked its charter  on Oct. 1, 2010. The partnership was barred by the state from doing business in Maryland because of outstanding taxes.

Ronald H. Lipscomb, Owen M. Tonkins III, Brian D. Morris and Harrison owed more than $809,000 in state and federal taxes at the time the charter was rescinded.

Harrison and his wife, Vernice, according to a lien filed April 2010 and reported by The Daily Record in March 2011, owed $136,082.61 in state taxes. A spokeswoman for comptroller’s office said there was no indication the debt had not been addressed.

After the ceremony Harrison declined to talk to reporters.

Harrison Development LLC also was in litigation involving the city and the receivership of a home at 2319 Callow Ave. A photo of the property from Sept. 2014 shows the doors and windows of the rowhome and those next to it covered with boards.

State property records show Harrison Development LLC bought the property from the city for $7,100 in September 2006, and sold it for $1 to Maryland Redstone LLC, which in turn sold it to 7 Series Investments LLC for $190,000.

The Upton project calls for transforming 28 vacant buildings on Harlem Avenue and 10 homes on Edmondson Avenue. Upton Renaissance LLC and the city have entered into an exclusive negotiation period to finalize an agreement to redevelop the properties.

Urban Renaissance LLC’s bid, according to Baltimore’s Department of Housing and Community Development, put total development costs for the project at $8 million.

The city and Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development are contributing an overall investment of $9.7 million, which includes $1 million to preserve some of the historic facades.

Public funds for the project include money from Project C.O.R.E., or Creating Opportunities for Renewal and Enterprise, a partnership between Baltimore and the state of Maryland launched in the aftermath of the 2015 riots to address blight.

Holt said state subsidies will also help reduce the cost of buying a home once they’re complete. As an example, he said, if a home would sell for $250,000 the state subsidies allow the home owner to purchase a property with a mortgage for $190,000.

The Upton properties were part of a group of request for proposals the city issued in July 2018. At the time the city sought developers for property totaling 20 acres of land and 38 townhomes in Upton, Coldstream Homestead Montebello and Park Heights. The next group of those properties is expected to be awarded to developers in early May.

Mayor Catherine Pugh and Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development Commissioner Michael Braverman, when the requests were issued last summer, hailed them as part of a new strategy to attract investment to downtrodden city neighborhoods.

“This is a new day,” Braverman said at the time.