HAND Member Spotlight: East Baltimore Development, Inc., a Transformer Creating Change in Charm City
When East Baltimore Development, Inc. (EBDI) was founded the community, government, institutional and philanthropic groups came together to establish the organization had three goals: to revitalize, re-energize and rebuild East Baltimore.
By leveraging the neighborhoods’ close proximity to the Johns Hopkins medical complex, EBDI is using the facility as a leading economic driver for East Baltimore, and keeping community, business and opportunity in mind for the new and established residents living – and working – in the area.
Supported by a public-private partnership, including the federal, local and state government, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Johns Hopkins Institute and others, EBDI’s mission is to reinvest in the community to create a dynamic neighborhood supportive of today’s family with:
– 2,100 mixed-income homeownership and rental opportunities
– 1.7 million square feet of research and office space
– a new seven-acre community learning campus with an early childhood center
– a public K-8 elementary school
– a new community park; and
– fresh food stores, retail opportunities and green spaces.
In 2014, EBDI helped open the Henderson-Hopkins Community School, a state-of-the-art school campus partnership with Johns Hopkins University after being started and incubated by EBDI for the first three years. A Pre-K to 8th grade school, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Early Childhood Center and a Family Resource Center are also located on the campus. Henderson-Hopkins was the first newly constructed school in Baltimore City in over 20 years, and can hold a student body of up to 720 children in the grades K-8. The Early Childhood Center can hold 174 children, including 80 Head Start/Early Head Start seats and 94 tuition slots to facilitate a mixed-income student population. Truly having these schools integrated into the thread of the neighborhood is important to EBDI, and so the campus includes a certain number of “Shared Spaces” for the surrounding community to use.
Earlier this year, EBDI also had another exemplary accomplishment with the opening of the Maryland Public Health Lab. Built for the Maryland State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the building is 235,000 gross square feet and exceeded EBDI’s local, minority and women-owned economic inclusion goals during construction. Additionally, the State achieved the highest number of local hires in any one project within EBDI’s project area.
Being a HAND member has given EBDI access to a vast network of partners in the community development field, and with whom they can share, collaborate and learn from during the organization’s journey of building sustainable, mixed-income, mixed-use communities.
HAND is pleased to spotlight East Baltimore Development Inc. which certainly contributes to our organization’s COLLABORATION, INNOVATION and TRANSFORMATION within the metropolitan area!