Recent comments in /f/baltimore

Animanialmanac OP t1_j9l51es wrote

Reply to comment by 27thStreet in Committee approves $9 million for troubled Edmondson shopping center, vote goes to Council by Animanialmanac

I can’t give an abridged version of the capital improvement process, maybe someone who works with the city can. I believe most of the larger developments in the city receive money from the CIP or TIF.

This is similar to the $650 million TIF for the Port Covington projects, but paid out of current capital improvement funds instead of future taxes.

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call_me_ping t1_j9l3l8w wrote

Reply to Property Management and Companies You Vouch For (& Has anyone had exp with HHG Properties?) by no_name_d_z

Your general assessment of management companies is pretty on-point right now, based on general experiences shared from neighbors. My building was originally managed by Thornhill Properties, which never rolled out the red carpet but were decent with communication overall and I didn't have complaints. My apartment itself has had few to no issues in the past 3 years, so I cannot attest for what Thornhill would have done back when they were in charge.

What I've gathered over the years of living in Mount Vernon:

Decent management, straight forward leases, but higher priced apartments:

  • Southern Management
  • PMC
  • Zahlco
  • Greystar

Hit or miss managements, a few okay-ish reviews (where the apt itself didn't have many issues, which always helps) and also several notable, complete horror-stories:

  • American Management
  • Bay Management Group / Mount Vernon Apartments
  • STAR Property Management
  • JBZ Management
  • Horizon Management
  • Chasen Companies = special shoutout. From what I've seen from friends... Chasen bought up a bunch of old contracts of apartments, gave ridiculous increases to current tenants to force them to vacate, hastily renovated units that are now showing issues just 1-2 years later, and are either selling the flipped properties (causing the tenants more headaches), or are being really sketchy with their treatment of current tenants.

A lot of times issues between renters/owners/management comes from miscommunications from one side or the other TBH. My advice to you and anyone else reading: wherever you end up looking or renting, don't be afraid to ask questions and ALWAYS follow up with email documentation to recap any convos + photos.

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moderndukes t1_j9kus7m wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in New owner to renovate, reopen historic Butchers Hill grocery store by locker1313

Ad hominem attacks aren’t going to help you - and I’ve never heard anyone from here call them bodegas, just NYC transplants. (Notice how none of what you just linked to, which are actually about Baltimore this time, say the word “bodega” once? Yeah…)

From your first article: > Most probably never paid the prices that these stores charge for the hot dogs, snacks and other packaged goods they sell and which are usually higher than those for similar items in a Harris Teeter, Trader Joe's or Wegmans.

So they’re more expensive…

From the third article (the study): > Study Results At baseline, our sample of 118 stores had a mean healthy food availability score of 7.06 (standard deviation: 4.28) (Exhibit 1). Behind-glass stores had the lowest overall healthy food availability (4.53 points), followed by convenience stores (5.14 points), corner stores (5.96 points), and supermarkets (16.31 points). In multivariate models, corner stores differed significantly from both supermarkets and behind-glass stores but not convenience stores.

So convenience stores and corner stores are helathier than nothing, but overall below average and significantly worse than a grocery store.

Your own articles agree with me that they are more expensive and don’t provide as good of healthy / processed-heavy options.

Now if you do want to talk about race without just resorting to calling me racist out of nowhere, here’s another finding from that third link, the study:

> Stores in census tracts with more than 60 percent black residents had the lowest scores at baseline (6.40 versus 8.19 in tracts with more than 60 percent white residents and 8.76 in tracts without a majority).

That aligns with the food desert crisis in Baltimore disproportionately affecting majority Black communities. It aligns with the city’s history of redlining and disproportionately lower investment outside the White L. You see it all the time on here too with people yearning for Trader Joe’s in their affluent neighborhoods while corner stores seem to be “good enough” for the places that actually need good grocery stores.

Here’s a link to the food desert map from 2015 (the year of that study) so you can see how it aligns with both the study results and the Black Butterfly.

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27thStreet t1_j9krtqr wrote

Reply to Committee approves $9 million for troubled Edmondson shopping center, vote goes to Council by Animanialmanac

Somebody give me the abridged version of why a privately developed shopping center should receive any public funds at all?

Is it just a straight up bribe to an out-of-town developer who would otherwise avoid the investment?

edit:

The answer to my question above is "yes" this is a grant where the city and state has no expectation of financial return.

So many other red flags in the link below.

From the formc:

TREND plans to use these funds to purchase the Shopping Center, make renovations and capital improvements and cover leasing, financing and soft costs. Anticipated sources and uses are tabulated below and in Exhibit A, the Acquisition and Construction Budget, and you’ll find a detailed operating proforma in Exhibit B.

Sources

First Mortgage Debt $12,794,100

CDFI Subordinate Debt $7,779,505

City Grant $7,500,000

State Grant $5,000,000

NMTC Equity $3,377,800

Insurance Proceeds $2,000,000

Sponsor Equity (TREND) $1,020,000

Investor Member Equity (Crowdfunding) $980,000

Total sources $40,451,405

Uses Purchase Price $17,050,000

Closing Costs $1,307,264

Hard Costs $16,865,712

Soft Costs $4,216,428

Developer fee $1,012,000

Total uses $40,451,405

Investor Return The Company plans to distribute its Available Cash within thirty (30) days after the end of each calendar year, as follows:

  1. 49% to the Investor Members, in proportion to each Investor Member’s ownership of Shares; and
  2. 51% to the Sponsor.

As of now, the Company has only two classes of securities: Investor Shares and Sponsor Shares. The Investors in this Offering (which may include the Sponsor and its affiliates) will own all the Investor Shares, while all of the Sponsor Shares will be owned by the Manager. Investor Shares which total 1 million, shall include investors in this Offering, and may also include the Sponsor, its affiliates or investors acquired in a follow up offering.

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moderndukes t1_j9kogrq wrote

Reply to comment by DfcukinLite in New owner to renovate, reopen historic Butchers Hill grocery store by locker1313

Two stories about NYC bodegas doesn’t mean anything to Baltimore’s corner stores and convenience stores. Baltimore does not have bodegas. I’m surprised the second even contends that DC “has a bodega culture” because it 100% does not.

Our corner stores look closer to 7/11s than they do grocery stores. They don’t actually fill the food desert gap in our city.

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Cunninghams_right t1_j9ko651 wrote

Reply to comment by DfcukinLite in Another word for Row House? by dddddddssss

you're such a fucking asshole while being so obviously wrong. why? just to troll? I don't get it. if you lived in mt vernon, you should know that the majority of houses are brick, even though it is one of the neighborhoods with the highest concentration of brownstones (link). same with res hill. that's why I had to ask whether you knew what a brownstone was.

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