Summer 2020 • ISSUE #13

FRESH FOCUS at FISHNET — MERCHANT SPOTLIGHT —

Each menu item at Fishnet excels in its own way. The Fish & Chips and Nutella Mousse are the ultimate PAGE 2 ______comfort foods, one fulfilling your FROM THE LEADERSHIP savory cravings and the other to PAGE 3 ______satisfy your sweet tooth. The Baja NEWS & UPDATES Fish Wraps, featuring grilled salmon • Cajou Creamery and on corn tortillas and topped with Cuples Tea House Moving house made citrus slaw, will trick to Howard Row you into thinking you are at the • Market Center Strategic beach or on a boat. Fishnet Revitalization Plan, Phase II, remembers the kids, too, with their Kicks Off in September Fish Stick Platter. • Introducing The Meadow, a New Park at 200 W.

Lexington Fishnet continues to reach and • Business News & Notes serve customers in new ways • Lexington Market Vendor throughout the pandemic. Virtual Application Process Opens cooking classes, including Cooking • Lexington Market Public with Kids: Homemade Biscuits, and History Project Invites You take-home meal kits allow to Share Your Memories customers to safely recreate the PAGE 5 ______Fishnet experience in their own MCMA COMMITTEE homes. UPDATES

In addition to dining in at Mt. PAGE 6 ______INFORMATION FOR Vernon Marketplace, Fishnet makes There is no microwave at Fishnet in Mount Vernon MEMBERS online ordering and curbside pick- Marketplace. Keyia and Ferhat Yalcin, owners of • Temporary Outdoor up a breeze! Fishnet, are firmly committed to only using the Dining Permits freshest ingredients for their admirably focused • Welcome New Board menu. No microwave required! Members • Thank You, Robert Max

• Resources for Businesses

Fishnet Restaurant PAGE 7 ______ABOUT THE DISTRICT Mount Vernon Marketplace, 520 Park Avenue WELCOME NEW BUSINESSES

—1— PAGE 8 ______DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY

FROM THE LEADERSHIP — OF THE MARKET CENTER MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION —

FROM MCMA PRESIDENT JUDSON H. KERR, III, AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KRISTEN MITCHELL

Despite the health and economic challenges we are facing together during the Coronavirus pandemic, Market Center continues to shine!

We’ve welcomed several new, unique businesses to Market Center since March. Mess in a Bottle, Free Ink Studio, and Lady Dee Cares, for example, have all opened their own storefronts (for a complete list of new businesses, see page 8). Cajou Creamery and Cuples Tea House, the winners of the Howard Row Small Business Storefront Competition, plan to open this fall at 411 and 409 N. Howard Street, respectively. Both Cuples and Cajou raised additional resources to support their expansions through crowdfunding, tapping into a heightened desire to support local and Black-owned businesses.

Many Market Center businesses are adapting to the new reality by changing their product mix or venturing further into online sales and programming to compensate for fewer in-person customers. Jody Davis Designs now sells beautiful and high-quality face masks, Bikram Yoga Works hosts on-line classes, and M.A.P. Technologies placed its inventory of games and accessories on a revamped website.

Despite a slowdown in the supply chain and additional health and safety rules, developers are currently building hundreds of apartments and hotel rooms and thousands of square feet of retail space in Market Center. Four Ten Lofts, Lexington Market, Prosper on Fayette, and Springhill Suites are all under construction. For a full list and map of development activity, visit our Development Activity page on the website.

We hope you’ll make it down to Market Center’s new park soon! The Meadow, located at 200 W. Lexington Street (next to the Catholic Relief Services building), is a temporary park enabling people to spend time (and money!) in Market Center/Bromo Arts without compromising their health. MCMA, the Bromo Arts and Entertainment District, and PI.KL Studio partnered together on this project. For more on this this story, see page 4.

We hope this positive news brightens your day. When we think of all the hardworking people in Market Center, it certainly brightens ours.

Volunteers Jenny Kessler Klump and Modinat Sanni paint the amphitheater- style seating at The Meadow, and picnic tables await diners.

—2— NEWS & UPDATES — IN THE MARKET CENTER —

CAJOU CREAMERY AND CUPLES and Dwight Campbell have deep MARKET CENTER STRATEGIC TEA HOUSE WIN SMALL Caribbean roots. As a result of REVITALIZATION PLAN, PHASE II, BUSINESS STOREFRONT picking ingredients for meals in KICKS OFF THIS FALL COMPETITION AND WILL MOVE the backyards of their childhood ------TO HOWARD ROW homes, they are passionate about The Market Center CDC will begin ------real, whole food. Motivated by Phase II of the Strategic This fall, visitors to the 400 block their lactose-intolerant children Revitalization Plan this fall. We of Howard Street in Market to create a dairy-free ice cream, want to hear from as many Center are in for a treat. Cajou they offer seven refreshing people as possible: residents, Creamery and Cuples Tea House flavors inspired by their global business and property owners, will each open their first brick- travels. They also plan to add artists, employees, customers, and-mortar storefronts at more vegan products to their regular visitors, students, transit Howard Row. The businesses menu this fall. riders, and tourists. were selected through the Howard Row Small Business Cuples Tea House has 40+ tea The goal of this phase is to make Storefront Competition in early blends on its menu of premium sure we are all in agreement on 2020, sponsored by Poverni loose-leaf teas, hosts tea tastings important topics within the plan. Sheikh Group and managed by and education classes, and sells These include: tea accessories. Owners Lynnette MCMA and Charles Street Development. and Eric Dodson’s vision marries a 1. Housing: Programs, policies, tea bar for customers to enjoy and incentives to retain MCMA is thrilled to welcome their delicious drinks along with a affordable housing or specific these businesses to Market retail shop selling tea and types of housing, such as housing Center and to have met other accessories at the 409 N. Howard for seniors or families Baltimore entrepreneurs. storefront. They plan to combine culture, music, art, and tea 2. Economy: Workforce Cajou Creamery, known for its education in a socially connected development needs, programs, creamy and delicious plant-based atmosphere, with tea as the link policies, and incentives to ice cream, made exclusively from that makes it all possible. They encourage entrepreneurship, handcrafted almond and cashew want to inspire healthier community wealth building, and milks, will open a retail shop and communities by educating people building stabilization and reuse production facility at 411 N. about the many benefits of Howard. Owners Nicole Foster drinking tea, a beverage rich with 3. Transportation: On-street antioxidants and the power to parking restrictions, bike lanes, boost mental clarity. bus routes and stops, “complete streets” and “slow streets,” potential for a multimodal transit center, other public transit needs

4. Environment & Quality of Life: Programs/policies related to public safety

5. Community Engagement: Structure for ongoing community engagement

For information, or to sign up for Sunflowers on Howard Street, courtesy of Harris-Kupfer project updates and opportunities Architects; Market Center stakeholders discuss “Greening to participate, visit the Strategic the district” at the March Market Center Mingle. Plan page on our website.

—3—

INTRODUCING THE MEADOW, A BUSINESS NEWS & NOTES Your Business for Public Markets NEW PARK AT 200 W. ------(instructed by Kim Bryden and LEXINGTON STREET  Lexington Market is now Kathleen Overman, Cureate). ------open Monday-Saturday, 8 MCMA & Bromo Arts worked a.m. to 5 p.m. The new Lexington Market will with PI.KL Studio to create The  M.A.P. Technologies (229 open in early 2022. Meadow, a temporary park at Park) is renovating the 200 W. Lexington Street with interior of their building LEXINGTON MARKET PUBLIC shaded outdoor seating. The  Arrow Parking (210 W. HISTORY PROJECT INVITES YOU Meadow also offers small scale Baltimore), Artstar Custom TO SHARE YOUR MEMORIES vending opportunities for PaintWorks (321 W. ------businesses located in Market Madison), Etta’s Beauty Thanks to a grant from the Center and Bromo Arts. Salon (207 W. Saratoga), and Maryland Historical Society Presentable Cutz, 117 W. Pathways program, the Market Visual cues such as flags, ground Saratoga) all have fresh Center Community Development stencils, and lighting connect The façade paint. Corporation, Baltimore Heritage, Meadow to other parts of the  Treasures Day Care has a Lexington Market, and Seawall district and are intended to lure new name: Choo Choo Train will soon start the Lexington park visitors to businesses and Childcare Center (210 W. Market Public History Project. arts organizations, and vice versa. Saratoga). This project will showcase the If you sell food, you can direct LEXINGTON MARKET VENDOR history of Baltimore’s premiere your customers to enjoy their APPLICATION PROCESS OPENS public market by asking people to meal at The Meadow. If you own ------share stories and personal a daycare, you can accompany Interested in becoming a vendor remembrances of the Market, the children to The Meadow to in the new Lexington Market? capturing these recollections, and give them a place to play. Stay Seawall, the Baltimore-based celebrating them through tuned for information on how to community developer that is programming, educational apply to vend at The Meadow! spearheading the Lexington materials, exhibits, and long-term Market redevelopment, is hosting preservation. The partners MCMA and Bromo will host two application rounds. Round recognize that Lexington volunteer days to help keep The one is open now through Oct 2. Market’s diverse people – Meadow clean. If interested, business owners, regular patrons, contact Kristen Mitchell. The Transform Lexington website visitors, and employees – are a explains the desired mix of core part of its history and central The Meadow is made possible by business types and products— to its future. The stories will be the city’s Design for Distancing fresh, prepared, and specialty tied to archival research. program, coordinated by the food vendors and related retail, Baltimore Development at a variety of price points, to The partners have contracted Corporation and Neighborhood appeal to diverse customers. In with historian Dean Krimmel and Design Center. The program aims addition to vendor stalls, the are interviewing consultants to to help small businesses reopen Market will have kiosks suitable lead the community engagement and operate without for a range of products that fit in and storytelling part of the compromising public health. small spaces. project. For information, or to sign up for project updates and The website has a map of vendor opportunities to participate, visit stalls, example floorplans, a rent the Lexington Market Public chart, breakdown of tenant and History page on our website or market pre-opening contact Kristen Mitchell. responsibilities, and schedule of information sessions and This project has been financed in technical workshops. Workshops part by the Maryland Historical include: Business Finance Society. However, project (instructed by Lyndsae Peele, contents or opinions do not BB&T Bank), Branding & necessarily reflect the views or Marketing (instructed by Sabrina policies of the Maryland Historical Depestre, MICA), and Designing Society.

—4—

MCMA COMMITTEE UPDATES If you are interested in participating on a committee, contact Kristen Mitchell at 443-478-3014 or [email protected]

CLEAN & SAFE  The committee’s Clean & Safe Task  The committee facilitated a COMMITTEE Force has evolved into the Post meeting with city leaders and 114/Market Center Coalition, Market Center stakeholders to which has also absorbed the press the city to address Market Ann Winder, Chair Lexington Market Environment & Center’s failing infrastructure, The Place Lounge Safety Workgroup. The Coalition is particularly sidewalks and using its increasingly strong voice streetlights. The meeting built on Mike Watson, Co-Chair to advocate for making Market prior work to identify, map, and Everyman Theatre Center cleaner and safer. The prioritize infrastructure needs. For Coalition developed a workplan, information, visit the Public Realm which you can read on our Post page on our website. Meets the second Monday 114/Market Center Coalition page of every month at 11:00 on our website. a.m.

COMMUNITY  The committee is tracking Strategic Revitalization Plan, halted anticipated first floor renovations earlier this year due to DEVELOPMENT at 403 W. Franklin Street (the H&H Coronavirus, in September. Phase COMMITTEE Building). The Market Center II will include discussions about Community Development topics not fully addressed in Phase Corporation (MCCDC) received a I, as outlined on page 3 of this Wendy Blair, Chair state grant to facilitate the newsletter. Re/Max Commercial Logic renovations for new commercial uses and storefront window Meets the first Thursday activation at this important corner. of the month at 9:00 a.m.  The committee is collaborating with MCCDC on the Market Center Strategic Revitalization Plan. MCCDC will re-start Phase II of the

MARKETING  The committee led the effort to Directory and Map, which was COMMITTEE update MCMA’s website to make it distributed to apartment buildings, more user-friendly and businesses, hotels, and institutions informative. earlier this year. It is also available Jenny Kessler Klump, Chair on-line here. If you would like  The committee facilitated the copies for distribution, contact Howard Row Small Business Kristen Mitchell. Storefront Competition, which The Marketing Committee resulted in the selection of Cajou meets the fourth Creamery and Cuples Tea to Wednesday of the month receive a year of free rent at 411 at 9:00 a.m. and 409 N. Howard Street, respectively. Read about their plans on page 3 of this newsletter.

 The committee led the creation of the Market Center Business

—5— INFORMATION FOR MEMBERS — OF THE MARKET CENTER MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION —

ArtStar Custom Paintworks (321 W. Madison) specializes in “art for architecture” – residential and commercial finishing and decorative painting.

TEMPORARY OUTDOOR DINING THANK YOU, ROBERT MAX longer serves on the board, he

PERMITS ------remains committed to the health ------At the same time, we are sorry to and well-being of Market Center as Food service establishments have say goodbye to longtime board a property owner. two options to add or expand member Robert Max with Max outdoor seating through June 30, Realty, who stepped down from RESOURCES FOR BUSINESSES 2021. Restaurants seeking to add the board at our annual meeting. ------outdoor seating on private For many years, Robert served as MCMA’s webpage includes property or on sidewalks can apply information on grants, loans, the organization’s treasurer, to the Department of Housing & technical assistance, and other provided helpful insights into Community Development for an resources available to business "Outdoor Seating – Temporary” for commercial real estate, and was a owners. For information, visit a permit that will be valid through reliable and outspoken advocate http://marketcenterbaltimore.org/i June 30, 2021. Restaurants seeking for Market Center. Though he no nformation-for-businesses/. a permit for outdoor dining that requires street closures and/or closure of parking lanes should apply with the Department of Transportation. For information, visit the Temporary Outdoor Dining page on the city’s website.

WELCOME TO NEW BOARD MEMBERS ------MCMA is pleased to announce and welcome four new board members: Chris Mahan, Vice President, Hippodrome Theatre; Michael Peace, owner, M.A.P. Technologies & Gaming Lounge; Abdoulaye Sawadojo, owner, Quick Food Mart; and Sam Storey, Director, Economic Development, Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.

—6— ABOUT MARKET CENTER

Market Center is comprised of 27 blocks near Lexington Market, roughly bounded by Baltimore Street to the south, Greene to the west, Cathedral/Liberty to the east and Madison to the north. The exact boundaries are best shown on a map [back page].

Established in 1983, Market Center is one of ten Retail Business District License (RBDL) areas in the City of Baltimore. Each RBDL was established by a separate City Council ordinance, and the businesses within the RBDL boundaries are required to pay an annual fee, which the city collects and then redistributes back to the business association for use in the district.

D’s Juice Bar, 318 W. Baltimore Street, pretty in pink and green. Visit D’s for smoothies, raw juices, wraps, Acai bowls, and wellness shots. ABOUT THE ADVERTISING SALES RATES

MARKET CENTER MERCHANTS MCMA offers advertising opportunities in this quarterly newsletter, which we send to our email distribution list ASSOCIATION (406 members and growing), post on social media and our website, and distribute to Mount Vernon Marketplace and some apartment buildings for welcome packets. The Market Center Merchants Association (MCMA) represents the businesses within Market Advertising Prices* Center. MCMA promotes commerce, retains and 1 issue 2 issues 3 issues 4 issues attracts business, and enhances the customer and ¼ page $60 $110 $155 $200 residential experience. MCMA uses the RBDL fees ½ page $100 $190 $275 $355 to support a variety of work, much of which is Full $170 $320 $460 $590 outlined in the reports in this newsletter. page * Market Center businesses that are current on their Retail Business District License fees receive a 10% discount.

WELCOME NEW BUSINESSES TO THE DISTRICT

 Baltimore Gold Grills, 110 N. Eutaw  Lady Dee Cares Beauty, 226 N. Liberty Street  Beauty Zone, 230 N. Eutaw Street  Metro Tobacco, 203 W. Saratoga Street  Dire Market, 219 W. Saratoga Street  Mess in a Bottle, 602 N. Howard Street  Free Ink Studio, 119 W. Saratoga Street  Oriole Pizza, 5 N. Howard Street  Refunds to Go, 9 N. Howard Street —7— DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY — IN MARKET CENTER —

Key

Blue – Complete in Last 2 Years Green - Under Way Orange - Breaking Ground Soon

A – SJ2 Apartments – 12 apartments B – 418-24 N. Howard – apartments C – 416 N. Howard – 5 apartments, retail D – Le Mondo Arts Incubator E – 108 W. Saratoga, 7 apartments F – Lexington Market G – Springhill Suites & Prosper on Fayette – Apartments for university students, retail, and a hotel H – Four Ten Lofts – 78 apartments I – 109 W. Lexington – 20 apartments, commercial J – 106 W. Saratoga – 10 apartments K – HeLa Franklin Apartments – 50 apartments, retail L – 9 N. Howard – 15 apartments, commercial M – Howard Row – 41 apartments, retail N – Dwell on Park – 94 apartments, commercial O – Pratt Library Renovations P – L on Liberty – 72 apartments Q – Paca House Renovation, Expansion R – Crook Horner Lofts – 15 loft apartments, commercial S – Mayfair – 50 apartments, commercial T – Fayette/Liberty - 20 apartments, commercial

BOARD OF DIRECTORS ------Wendy Blair, Vice President David O’Donnell John Campion, Treasurer Michael Peace Brenda Fletcher N. Scott Phillips Judson Kerr, President Abdoulaye Sawadojo Jenny Kessler Klump Sam Storey — IN MARKET CENTER — Douglas Kington Jason Sullivan Chris Mahan Bailah Thomas Sam McNeill Mike Watson, Secretary Luke Mowbray Ann Winder