Cecil Clarke, a Gaithersburg-based real estate investor owns the row of remaining properties on the 1000 block of West Baltimore Street. According to a 2015 Baltimore Sun article on the founding of the Southwest Partnership, Clarke stated that the Commercial Property and Business Owners Association, which represents firms on West Baltimore Street, should have a stake in any plan calling for facade improvements, code enforcement, or targeted demolition. Clarke also supported the Poppleton $58.6 million tax increment (TIF) bond for the New York-based La Cite housing development, telling a journalist, “The community is desperate for this project to see a new birth.” Clarke recently sold the Lord Baltimore Theater (1110 W. Baltimore St.) to the Southwest Partnership, which plans to turn the historic theater into a community cultural arts center as part of the revival of West Baltimore Street.
In 2018, the dozen properties that Clarke owns on the 1000 block of West Baltimore Street received facade improvement grants from the Baltimore Development Corporation. A beauty salon and a pharmacy have already moved into the storefronts and Clarke has renovated apartments above taking the block back to its historic roots where small independent businesses were located in storefronts along the streets and residential space above.
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West Baltimore Street