More details on Hopkins building planned in Charles Village
Market-rate housing is proposed for a long-empty lot owned by Johns Hopkins University at St. Paul and 33rd streets
Above: A conceptual design of the building located a block east of Johns Hopkins’ Homewood campus on 33rd Street.
More information emerged today about how Johns Hopkins University plans to develop the vacant lot it owns at the southwest corner of St. Paul and 33rd streets, long an eyesore in Charles Village.
Beatty Development Group and Armada Hoffler, builders of Harbor Point who were selected by Hopkins to develop the site, want to erect a 12-story building that would be slightly higher than the adjacent Blackstone Apartments at Charles and 33rd streets.
The new building would feature 157 market-rate student apartments and 31,500 square feet of commercial space over a 162-space parking structure, according to a joint news release from Hopkins and the developers today.
The key word for the apartments is “market rate.”
The proposed dwellings would not be part of Hopkins’ student housing system but, then again, would be more moderately priced than the condos – with up to a $700,000 price tag – that Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse had envisioned for the site.
The failure of Struever to develop the property led to Hopkins buying the 1.1-acre lot for $12.5 million in 2009.
Pharmacy and Restaurant
The idea of a student union and other campus-oriented amenities was rejected by the university as it looked around for something that would strengthen and revitalize the Charles Village community.
Thus, a pharmacy has been proposed as a major tenant for the building’s commercial space, along with at least one restaurant. Earlier, the university floated the idea of hotel, which came under criticism as not improving the neighborhood’s housing stock.
Tentatively dubbed “3200 St. Paul,” the building has to win approvals from the city before construction can begin, starting with the Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel (UDARP), which will examine the plan next week.
Beatty and Armada Hoffler, whose Exelon Tower is now under construction at Harbor Point, said they hope to break ground on 3200 St. Paul by next spring.