Baltimore21201.Com

Centerpoint to Get WOW Factor

The WOW is World Of Wings. Coming this spring to Baltimore's westside Centerpoint complex: WOW Cafe & Wingery. Based in Covington, LA the WOW chain offers up wings in dozens of flavors.

What's looking good to me are their Texas Toast Burgers. The Philly, for example, is 1/2 pound of beef on buttered Texas Toast dressed with Monerey Jack, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, peppers, mushrooms, and spicy mayo.

What really brings the WOW factor (and seperates this from your average hot wing and burger joint) is its full bar with some signature drinks that might just set you on fire even without the wings. Check out their Chamation: This 32-ounce cocktail is filled with Smirnoff Vodka, Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay Coconut Rum, pineapple juice, orange juice and grenadine. (I'll stick with Johnny Walker on the rocks with a twist, thanks.)

Finally. After months, NEW SPIRITS in downtown Baltimore. And at great prices, too.

After months of anticipation and waiting - on my part - Jim Amato's Urban Cellars is finally open next door to the Peanut Shoppe's new location and just a few steps away from 21201's new SuperFresh grocery store at 222 N Charles Street, Baltimore.

I've written before about the oddness of having to go to RiteAid for a bottle of wine or scotch when friends were coming over.

No longer do we, as residents of downtown Baltimore's City Center, have to buy our Band-Aids and Brandy and Benedryl in the same store. That change is a wonderful, wonderful thing!

Here's the very best news: Jacob and I were at Urban Cellars last week shopping for our Friday cocktail party and for our private New Year's Eve celebration. Jacob had been to Urban Cellars before. I hadn't. He asked me to check the shelf prices and I expected them to be high due to the store's location.

THEY WERE NOT!

Every bottle of wine (Urban Cellars has an International Collection), every six-pack of beer (Urban Cellars offers the finest and coldest and some of the most unusual), and every bottle of liquor (their selection blew my socks off) was priced equal to or less than what you'd pay at any Maryland liquor store. And, certainly less than you'd pay at the drug store.

Stay tuned. Amato tells me that Urban Cellars is planning some extradorinary tastings and events.

Belly of the Beast? Nope. Today, I Was in the Brain of the Beast!

If you enjoy Baltimore 21201... If you've lived in Baltimore for any period of time... If you love our city and its landmarks... and, if you've ever dreamed about being in a seemingly impossible place to visit... then you must have thought about being in the clock room of the Bromo Seltzer Tower. I was there today. It was a dream fulfilled. I was INSIDE the clocks.

I'm a fairly new member of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and while I attend their Forum Series, I didn't know how wonderful these tours could be. Adam Blumenthal, BAF's executive director, served as tour guide and was a wealth of information. (He also drives an old, cranky, brass-cage elevator like a veteran.)

Adam found me -- and my blog -- by way of looking for information on Baltimore's BG&E building conversion to luxury apartments. It seems that if you Google "BG&E Building" this blog hits the top of the charts. Odd, but true.


Adam began the tour on the ground floor by way of explaining the footprint of the building. As we arrived on the third floor, we saw drawings of the entire building -- inside and out -- including the Bromo Seltzer bottle that was on top decades ago. We learned about the wind sheer that probably caused the steel and glass advertising fixture to be removed.

Here's the deal: If you want an opportunity like the one I had today, join the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and every group like it.

And on some of these tours be prepared to climb some radical stairs. It's all worth it.

Citi Logo Soars Over Baltimore

What's this? Citi Financial signage being hoisted to the top of their building at Saratoga and Saint Paul on a Sunday afternoon? Yep, and as of now it's still tightly under wraps.

I see color under that wrap (the red on the arch) and from the placement of the logo it will surely be illuminated. And if it is, that's great news.

Way too few of Baltimore's tall buildings are lit properly at night. The crown of the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore Hotel is a prime example. It's magnificent topper and is completely dark. Radisson Hotels should be ashamed!

Lights of all kinds bring energy to a city. Where there is light at night, there's attraction -- and not just for moths.

The Citi logos are going up on all sides of the building. What a welcome addition to the Vertical Neighborhood.

Is 21201 Becoming Too Pricey?

Looking at the direct mail we've been receiving from the newest downtown apartment buildings and from some of the recent classic building conversions... I'M JUST WONDERING...

Is this the wave of the future?

Reviewing the prices of of Bozzuto's newest construction, the Zenith, where prices per square-foot seem rather New-Yorkish and where the apartments seem cramped on each floor, I hope this is not where we're headed.

I'm also hoping that Baltimore's westside Super-Block project will finally come about and level the playing field by increasing inventory.

At the moment many of the new City-Center apartments rent for what would be a starting mortgage payment. I'm hoping that all of this cools down until the proposed Baltimore/DC MagLev train makes Charm City a viable suburb of our Nation's Capitol. Then, it will all be fair game.

And, yes I know, I've been doing a whole lot of looking, reviewing and hoping.

Southern Management's 39 West Lex - New Website & Hot Floorplans Now Online

I've been watching the progress at the old BG&E building on the corners of Fayette, Liberty and Lexington Streets for many months with some sense of awe. The grand dame of a structure has been receiving some tender loving care at the hands of some amazingly skilled workers by way of it's conversion from an office building, built in 1916, to new apartment homes known as 39 West Lex.

David Hillman and his Southern Management Co., under the supervision of the National Park Service, are restoring the 22-story, neoclassical building to the standards of the National Register of Historic Places. (Jacob and I belong to the National Trust for Histoic Preservation. Trust me, such a project is not easy and, for a project of this size, is blazingly expensive.)

Today I had my first look at the online floorplans. I'd feared that, to maximize income, there would be many, many small apartments per floor as is the case in quite a few historic conversions. Oh, that's not the case here. The building has a true penthouse level with 2-bedroom + den units, on two floors, topping out at a startling 1799 square feet. The entire project has a maximum of 10 units per floor.

And, no creaky spiral staircases here. At 39 West Lex you get the real deal.

By way of total disclosure, we live in a Southern Management property, the Park Charles, and have no plans of moving anytime soon. What Hillman's company has done to improve the unban landscape of downtown Baltimore requires some serious loyalty. Besides, young Mr. Oliver loves the view.

People in Glass Houses... Shouldn't Walk Around Naked

I've lived in high-rises for the greater part of my life.

My first apartment in New York City was on 75th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue on the 17th floor of a beautiful pre-war building. Some years later, my second apartment in NYC was on Central Park West... that apartment was one floor lower, but what a view of the park it had!

I've lived in high-rises in Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, and on and on.

Living on the 26th floor of the Park Charles in Baltimore's City Center, I look out the windows and see birds flying by -- and on special mornings, at special times of the year, I see Monarch butterflies. Some days at dusk I see bats taking out the local bugs. I also see blimps flying over Camden Yards. And lately, I see them over the Inner Harbor with real estate banners in tow.

Now and then I see a bi-plane fly by. Daily I see helicopters fly in and out of the heliport on University of Maryland Medical Center. The sunrises are vibrant and amazing here. As are the sunsets.

You'd think I'd be used to all of the theatre outside the windows by now.

Unknown faces looking IN the windows twice-a-year shouldn't surprise me. However, no matter how well in advance I'm warned about the arrival of the window washers, I'm always taken off-guard. And, I laugh at myself.

I guess I'm good until next Spring.

   

Downtown Baltimore to Have a Bit of Monaco - The Hotel

The Baltimore Sun reported this morning that one of City Center's finest old buildings has been sold. The real estate closing was yesterday for the $20-million-dollar sale of the 1906 headquarters of B&O Railroad located on the corner of Charles and Baltimore Streets.

The historic building will reopen in 2009 with the top floors becoming a Monaco Hotel managed and operated by Kimpton. Washington DC has a fine Monaco by Kimpton. So does Chicago and San Francisco. There's a Monaco in Salt Lake City and Seattle.

It seems that it's Baltimore's turn to have a brand new (in a century-old, classic space) boutique hotel.

ARCWheeler, the Philadelphia-based developer, has marked the middle floors as office and the ground floors for retail and restaurant use. I'm liking this concept.

Kimpton's Monaco-branded hotels are smart, sassy, and requested by high profile performing artists visiting cities where Monaco Hotels are located.

ARCWheeler's website speaks highly of their purchase:

"This 225,000 SF, $55-million mixed-use development will reside in the regal Beaux-Arts style B&O Building in Baltimore which was designed by noted architect James Gamble Rogers."

They go on to say:

"The B&O building will represent the first of ARCWheeler's "10" boutique hotel brand, which will include hotel, office and retail space, and be located in buildings of grandeur in prime locations. This historic 13-story building, built in 1906 as the headquarters for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, includes marble floors and staircases, cobalt-blue stained glass windows and high vaulted ceilings."

It's also promised that the developer will return the huge marble lobby, with dual staircases, to it's origional 1906 glory.

The Saratoga Condominiums. Hot, New Baltimore Homes.

Coming soon to Baltimore 21201 from Phoenix Developers: The Saratoga Condos. The 19 unique floor plans are being constructed in a building that has history going back to 1847. It was reconstructed in 1873 after a fire and named St. Alphonsus Hall. It was run as a Catholic School by the Archdiocese of Baltimore. It was used as an educational facility until 2002.

The floor plans are amazingly wonderful, imaginative, and no two are the same. There are 2-level one bedrooms, 2-bedroom duplexes and loft-like units with overlooks. Some of the amenities include onsite parking, a fitness center, sauna, a theatre & media room, and many homes have private balconies or patios. All together, that makes for an impressive package for an inner-city condo project.

What a great addition to downtown and the near-westside. To The Saratoga Condos, WELCOME HOME.

Personally, I'm kind of fond of Unit 17...