The Challenge
In 1999, Broadway Homes was an obsolete, distressed and crime-ridden public housing complex isolated from its surrounding community, yet merely steps away from the world-famous Johns Hopkins Medical Institute and Baltimore’s thriving Inner Harbor.
The Plan
Using a “citizen’s participatory process” that included public housing residents, Citizens for Washington Hill, Johns Hopkins, city/state officials, etc., the Landex design team, led by Urban Design Associates, created a “new urbanist” master plan and design principles for redevelopment of Broadway Homes in a mixed-income, mixed-tenured and mixed-financed housing community.
Financing
- HOPE VI
- $8,100,000
- Tax Exempt Bond Financing
- $10,500,000
- MD PRHP
- $7,140,000
- FHLB-AHP
- $500,000
- HOME
- $2,100,000
- Equity
- $6,000,000
- Private Loan
- $3,000,000
- Suntrust LC
- $2,400,000
- FHLB LC
- $2,400,000
- Construction Loan
- $3,000,000
Results
The seven acre site was transformed by creating neighborhood scale, pedestrian friendly streets and a mix of residential buildings ranging from a six story annex to the historic wing of the hospital, 58 townhouses and a small apartment building. The annex incorporates the historic architectural features and character of the old Church Hospital building and the townhouses enhance the unique topographical features of the site and mirror the architectural character of Baltimore’s traditional neighborhoods and the adjacent 100 year old houses.
Of the 166 residences, 84 were reserved for low income households, 48 for market rate renters and 34 for sale. The rental community combines market rate renters that pay $2,000 per month living side by side with public housing residents that pay 30% of their income for rent. Thus, there is no visible distinction between the economic levels of the residents and the property does not stand out as a “renovated project”; rather it fits seamlessly into the larger historic Baltimore neighborhood and is a tribute to the mixed-income, mixed finance, mixed-tenured concept that is necessary to the preservation of urban areas.