Launching The Service Center to Connect Residents, Nonprofits, and Community

How can we build one of Baltimore’s most civically engaged buildings?

After 15+ years working in the neighborhood of Remington, we saw an opportunity to create something unique: not just another mixed-use development, but a place that could become one of the city’s most civically engaged buildings – focused on bridging divides between residents, nonprofits, and community. When a key site on Howard St. became available for development – and with an early commitment from one of the fastest growing nonprofits in our community to join the project – The Service Center was born.

In 2023, we broke ground at 2507 N Howard Street in Remington on a 64-unit, six-story new construction project that we began calling The Service Center, a name we chose based both on its mission to be in service of community, as well as the site’s long history as part of Baltimore’s automobile industry, most recently as a Volkswagen service center. Two important nonprofits signed, catalyzing the project and giving it a true mission-driven soul. The first was Wide Angle Youth Media (WAYM), who had been in space at our Miller’s Court project since 2009 and had been steadily growing that entire time. They had the vision to create an 11,000-square-foot state-of-the-art media production facility and learning hub for Baltimore’s youth, further expanding their mission to provide media arts training to local students. Next, local nonprofit Collegebound signed on to establish a 14,000-square-foot headquarters where they could further grow their work to help low-income and first-generation Baltimore City public school students realize their dreams of a college education through advising and financial support.

The final piece of the puzzle is our Service Works program, a first-of-its-kind initiative that connects apartment residents in the project’s 64 units directly to hyper-local volunteering opportunities. For every hour residents volunteer with local nonprofits and community organizations, we make monthly contributions to those nonprofits. It’s our way of putting action behind our belief that new residents should show up as neighbors, not guests. We are hopeful that these apartments will quickly become home to people who share this vision of community engagement.

The $30 million project, completed in 2024, has already shown promising signs of success. The residential units were 75% pre-leased before opening (and were fully leased 6 months after opening), and WAYM and Collegebound have established vibrant home bases for their important work. We were also able to offer 20% of the units at discounted rents to those making 80% or less of Area Median Income (AMI).

To cap off the project, we commissioned a mural that stretches 80 feet high – an explosion of color by Saba Hamidi visible from a half mile away – a colorful testament to the creativity and connection we hope to foster here in Remington.