Apartment tower for Little Italy wins design panel OK
A 24-floor glass tower proposed for the former Della Notte site in Little Italy took a step forward Thursday, receiving final approval from Baltimore’s Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel.
The building, at 801 Eastern Ave., will include about 385 apartments, 345 parking spaces and 8,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. Developers AvalonBay Communities and WorkShop Development Inc. want to begin construction in early 2018.
WorkShop had previously proposed a smaller, 240-unit tower, but the firm won approval last year for unlimited height during the city’s comprehensive rezoning and attracted AvalonBay as a partner.
AvalonBay, a real estate investment trust based in Virginia, has been involved in projects in the city’s suburbs, but 801 Eastern Ave. will be its first in Baltimore. The building will be branded under AvalonBay’s name, said David Bookhout of AvalonBay.
Located at the corner of President Street and Eastern Avenue, the building’s glass-and- brick facade is intended to blend the neighborhoods it straddles.
“We wanted it to be a marquee building that celebrated the entrance to Harbor East on President Street, while at the same time responding on the eastern facade to the historic nature of Little Italy,” Bookhout said.
The city’s design panel also reviewed plans for two other apartment buildings — a 240-unit building at 3400 Boston St. in Canton and a 224-unit building at 1100 Key Highway, on a narrow strip of land across from Digital Harbor High School.
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