SCG Breaks Ground on Baltimore Project
South Street Centre will offer both affordable and senior housing once completed.
SCG Development Partners has begun is development of South Street Centre Apartments, a five-building, mixed residence, 152-unit affordable housing community located at 110-130 W South St. in Frederick, Md. SCG is building the community in a partnership with New Harbor Development and the Maryland and U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development. Morgan-Keller Construction will lead the fabrication of the new buildings. The project was funded in part through Low Income Housing Tax Credits and a Multifamily Bond Program.
After its completion, South Street Centre Apartments will be home to South Street Family, a 56-unit affordable development and South Street Senior, a 96-unit, affordable senior housing community. Both spaces will serve residents falling below 60 percent of the area median income.
South Street Family will be built through a mixture of a new, 73,000-square foot mid-rise apartment building, as well as the renovation of three historic Frederick rowhomes built in 1850, according to CommercialEdge data. It will host a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Amenities include laundry rooms, dishwashers and balconies for each individual unit, as well as offices, a fitness center and lounge for the community.
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South Street Senior will be built over two buildings totaling 90,800 square feet of space and including a blend of one- and two-bedroom units. Unit amenities will include the same as those of South Street Family, in addition to offices, a wellness center and community room.
The entire project will be situated within a mile of the Maryland 70 interstate, placing it an equidistant 20 miles from both Baltimore and Washington D.C.
Baltimore’s affordable housing in demand
Another affordable senior living and family project in the Baltimore-D.C. area is the Community Housing Initiative’s construction of Cascades of Frederick, a 151-unit, 144,000-square foot garden-style community also in Frederick. Vivo Investment Group’s planned renovation of Vivo Baltimore, a city block full of hotels in downtown Baltimore being converted into an affordable housing, is another high-profile development in the region.
The planning of the development takes place as Baltimore experiences a large-scale need for affordable housing, coming as the city faces slowing demographics and an aging population, according to a March 2022 Yardi Matrix Report. The city’s rental rate rose only 0.1 percent in the first three months of 2022, with a record low 1,730 units coming online in the city’s construction pipeline, data from the report shows.