Everything Was Illuminated! Neon Sign for Arts Center Symbolizes Energy of the “Next Baltimore”
Baltimore – The city celebrated an important achievement on the evening of March 3, by lighting up the marquee of the Centre Theatre, the newest rehabilitated building in Baltimore’s Station North Arts and Entertainment District.
The blue neon of the letters on the distinctive facade instantly illuminated an otherwise dark corridor, acting as a symbolic beacon of the kind of development momentum currently re-energizing the district.
The $18 million project will be “a center for arts and innovation in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District,” according to developer Jubilee Baltimore’s website. The project converts a 67,000 square foot building that has been vacant for more than 20 years into restaurant space, film centers for Johns Hopkins University and Maryland Institute College of Art programs, the Baltimore Jewelry Center, and the Center for Neighborhoods, a nonprofit hub of community development-focused nonprofits including Central Baltimore Partnership, Neighborhood Housing Services of Baltimore and Jubilee Baltimore.
“This is a milestone in the next Baltimore, the Baltimore that we want to live in,” said Charlie Duff, president of Jubilee Baltimore.
The project received financial support from DHCD’s Neighborhood Revitalization funds, including from the Baltimore Regional Neighborhoods Initiative and Community Legacy programs.
The builders obtained the use of occupancy at the beginning of the week and are looking for restaurant tenants. The first office tenants are slated to move in sometime in April.
The Centre Theatre joins other recent and future development on North Avenue and in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District, such as the MICA Studio Center, North Avenue Market, Maryland Festival Parkway and Load of Fun building rehabilitation.
– By Olivia Ceccarelli-McGonigal