Joss Sushi Bar, the highly acclaimed sushi restaurant on Annapolis’ Main Street, has recently announced that they will be opening their second location in Baltimore this Spring.  The new location will be at 414 N. Charles St. in the Downtown Baltimore area just south of Mt. Vernon.  Joss Sushi Bar in Annapolis is Zagat rated and is considered by many to have the best sushi in Annapolis, if not all of Maryland. 

jeffcantonite@yahoo.com

Baltimore Business Journal article

Seems to be a lot going on up there…

A former senior center in Mount Vernon is now the focus of a $62 million project that will add a new center and residential and retail development in the community.

The Baltimore Development Corp. and the Baltimore City Commission on Aging and Retirement Education announced plans Tuesday to work with MtV2, a group of local developers, to rebuild the Waxter Center.

The developer will construct a new 40,000 square foot center on the site at a cost of $8 million. At least $2 million has already been raised for the project, officials said.

On the remaining portion of the site, the developer will build a $54 million residential and retail component featuring 600 apartments and condos, 20,000 square feet of retail space and more than 200 parking spaces.

“This is a niche market that’s never really been tapped,” said Howard Chambers, a developer with MtV2 Development, which is working on the project, aimed at attracting young professionals and graduate students.

Estimated prices on the condos — expected to range in size from 375 square feet to 425 square feet — are to be around $150,000. But the spaces will be available to be leased as apartments for $850 a month.

Article from The Examiner about new development in Mount Vernon 

Part of Mount Vernon is getting a makeover, thanks to a pair of developers with big plans.  Two large buildings at the north end of the 800 block of Park Avenue are the targets of new development projects. One, the historic Brexton Building, will be turned into a boutique hotel. Across the street the Waxter Center, a senior center, will be rebuilt at an adjacent site along with a 600-unit apartment-condominium complex targeted to young professionals and grad students.

Full article

Came across this “newish” condo project in Mount Vernon. The 1800’s building is an apartment-condo conversion that now houses 18 units.  7 of the 18 units are still for sale.

http://www.madisonflats.com

Today’s Baltimore Sun reports that Baltimore’s Board of Estimates approved $200,000 to help study whether it’s possible to build a trolley to link the Inner Harbor with the Johns Hopkins University.  The Trolley would run from Baltimore’s Inner harbor North through downtown and Mount Vernon, ending in Charles Village.

…an engineering study to examine how the trolley might interfere with utility lines and if the train could make it up the hills of Mount Vernon.

We can put men on the moon, build 1,400 foot tall skyscrapers , and squeeze the Library of Congress onto a drive smaller than a credit card, but Baltimore isn’t sure if they can get a trolley to go up hills.  Of course this is also the city that built a hot air balloon tied to the ground and were surprised when the wind took over and the riders had to be rescued.

More public transportation in Baltimore City - Absolutely.  It’s something the city is desperately lacking.  But why not incorporate this with the existing underused Baltimore metro system.  We recently looked at the current study of the metro red line project.  Why not expand on this?  A separate trolley system would result in yet another disjointed public transportation system that serves only a small portion of the city.  I assume they would built it so that stations connected near one of the existing metro stations downtown. 

Obviously the cost of building an above ground trolley system is on much smaller scale than building additional underground metro lines.  So maybe the city is thinking about this as an interim step.  Do the Hopkins students really need to get to the Harbor that badly? Perhaps a trolley taking them right to Fells Point would make more sense.  Or how about a trolley that runs from Canton through Fells Point, Harbor East, downtown, Federal Hill, ending in Locust Point.  That would save a lot of us some weekend cab fair $.