Off-campus housing help coming for Morgan St. students

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Institutional investment management firm MCB Real Estate Monday announced the start of construction of the Flats at the Markley, a five-story, multifamily apartment building in the Beverly Hills neighborhood of northeast Baltimore designed to help meet the off-campus housing needs of fast-growing Morgan State University.

The new complex will offer state-of-the-art amenities including in-unit washer and dryers, study rooms, game rooms, on-site parking, an outdoor courtyard and sustainable landscaping.

The 146-unit project will transform the largest vacant and blighted section of Harford Road, home to unique retailers and restaurants and which serves Morgan students and the surrounding neighborhoods and is a focus of Baltimore’s middle neighborhoods strategy of targeted support.

Demolition of the vacant printing facility on the site began last week and is supported through a partnership between MCB and the nonprofit Hamilton-Lauraville Main Street (HLMS). With Morgan’s support, HLMS received funding for the project from the Seed Community Development Anchor Institution Fund from the State of Maryland’s Department of Housing & Community Development.

Amy Bonitz, vice president of community development, is leading the project on behalf of MCB with assistance from Reni Lawal a development associate at MCB. Sam Polakoff, who developed the SOHA Union and other projects nearby, is also a partner in the project.

MCB Managing Partner P. David Bramble, who leads the firm that helped bring the troubled Northwood Shopping Center back to life, said MCB is committed to the continued growth of Morgan, Maryland’s flagship historically Black colleges and universities university and the continued revitalization of the neighborhood.

Morgan President Dr. David Wilson said the project will give the university the same kind of investment in off-campus housing that is being made at institutions such as the University of Maryland, College Park and Towson University.

The Baltimore-based MCB Real Estate has a diverse portfolio of operating assets totaling approximately 14 million square feet of industrial, office, retail, mixed-use and multi-family properties with almost 4 million square feet in its development pipeline.