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Mobtown Ballroom & Café has become the anchor tenant at North Avenue Market following its relocation from Pigtown. The building was sold March 1 to North Avenue Market Development LLC, a joint-venture partnership, for $3.25 million. (Photo by Byron Mitchell)
Baltimore’s North Avenue Market sold to consortium for $3.25M
Listen to this articleNorth Avenue Market Development LLC, a joint-venture partnership between the Central Baltimore Future Fund (CBFF), Central Baltimore Partnership and Twenty-Two Lanes Development LLC, Monday announced it acquired North Avenue Market on March 1 for $3.25 million.
The 57,000-square-foot center includes a 40,000-square-foot basement and houses new anchor tenant Mobtown Ballroom & Café following its relocation from Pigtown. Other tenants include The Club Car Baltimore, a queer performance venue and cocktail bar; Baltimore Youth Arts, a nonprofit youth arts education organization; and Currency Studio, a clothing and lifestyle goods designer and retailer. The building sale includes the transfer of a liquor license from longtime owners Mike Shecter and Carolyn Frenkil.
Layered funding for the purchase included Maryland capital funds appropriated by the General Assembly, which was supported by Sen. Cory McCray, D-Baltimore city and former Del. Maggie McIntosh, money from nonprofit revitalization lender the Neighborhood Impact Investment Fund (NIIF) and capital grants from Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and Johns Hopkins University to support the activation of vacant property.
The building’s renovation is estimated to cost $30 million and the new owners have received $4.78 million in Maryland Revitalization Historic Tax Credits in 2023, the largest award last year and one of the largest in recent history.
Built by private developers on the site of Confederate Gen. Bradley T. Johnson’s former residence, North Avenue Market was billed as “Baltimore’s largest enclosed sanitary market” when it opened in 1928. Thronged by nearly 50,000 visitors on its opening day, the market’s 12 retail shops and 22-lane bowling alley were soon joined by more than 200 grocery vendors.
Despite this early success, North Avenue Market was hit hard by both the Great Depression and the end of World War II, both of which led to declines in its customer base. After being struck by a six-alarm fire in August 1968, much of the market’s core was left vacant and abandoned.
