The developers of teacher housing on Howard Street are seeking zoning approval to do the same at a historic mill in Hampden.

Seawall Development Corp. plans to build 54 apartments in the old Druid Mill at 1500 Union Ave.

Seawall developers Donald Manekin, his son, Thibault and their partner, Evan Morville, have a contract to purchase the 86,000-square-foot property. They plan to go before the Baltimore City Planning Commission next month to argue for a planned unit development, or PUD, zoning amendment that would allow for the residential use of a building that is zoned for manufacturing.

Seawall would lease the apartments to teachers at below-market rates.

The plan has conceptual support from the Hampden community, although the Hampden Community Council has taken no official position, said George Peters Jr., who chairs the council's zoning committee.

The $20 million project, called Union Mill, is based on Miller's Court, also a $20 million project, which opened in early July in the former U.S. Census building at 2601 Howard St.

"Basically, we're going to duplicate what we do here," said co-developer Donald Manekin, who gave the Messenger a tour of Miller's Court on July 22.

Miller's Court, with 40 one, two and three-bedroom apartments, plus 30,000 square feet of office space for nonprofits, is the first apartment complex in the Baltimore area to target new teachers, as well as nonprofit agencies. Although anyone can rent there, Seawell offers teachers discounts of $300 to $400 on rents that range from $700 to $1,500 a month, Manekin said.

He said the practice is not discriminatory and is aimed at helping the city attract teachers.

"We spent an awful lot of time talking to lawyers to make sure what we did was right," Manekin said.

The city public school system alone hires about 750 teachers per year, and "the vision was to roll out the red carpet" for them.

The historic Miller's Court building, which Manekin said is located on the eastern edge of Remington and the western edge of Charles Village, was built in 1874 as the home of the HF Miller Can Co. It later served as a sewing company, but is best remembered in modern times as the area headquarters for U.S. Census workers in the early 1990s.

1st Mariner Bank was about to foreclose on the vacant building when the Manekins purchased it in 2007, Donald Manekin said.

"We spent a lot of time (redeveloping) a war-torn building after being vacant for 15 years," he said.

Now fully leased and with a waiting list, Miller's Court includes a courtyard, fitness center, secure parking, a conference training room, and a resource room with high-speed copiers, so teachers won't have to run out to copy centers late at night to photocopy their lesson plans for students, Manekin said.

There's also a kitchen/break area in the building for nonprofits, which include Experience Corps, the Baltimore Urban Debate League, Building Educated Leaders for Life, Wide Angle Youth Media, Catholic Charities, Young Audiences of Mar land, Play Works and Teach for America.

"It's starting to feel like home," said Gin Ferrara, the executive director of Wide Angle, which introduces youths to photography. Wide Angle's spacious offices are notable for their big windows and exposed brick.

Seawall's offices are in the building, too. A coffee shop/cafe is planned.

About 80 percent of teachers in the building were placed in jobs in Baltimore through Teach for America, Manekin said.

Manekin said Union Mill is envisioned as a similar development with 54 one- and two-bedroom apartments, marketed to teachers, and 35,000 square feet of office space, marketed to nonprofits.

The same team, incuding the Key Highway-based architectural firm Marks-Thomas and general contractor Hamel Builders, of Elkridge, would be involved, Manekin said.

Financing would be similar, too -- a mixture of historic and new market tax credits, city and state loans, and equity financing from Seawall, said Manekin, who is former senior vice president and partner of Manekin LLC, one of the largest commercial real estate companies in the Baltimore-Washington region.

Seawall put $13 million in equity financing into Miller's Court, according to Manekin.

The block-long Hampden building, near a Pepsi bottling plant at the JFX, was built in 1866, with an addition in 1872. It was first used by Gambrill Sons and Co., to make cotton duct for sails.

Though known historically as Druid Mill, the cornerstone says, "Mt. Vernon Mill #4."

In the early 1900s, the building was a Poole & Kent factory for industrialist Robert Poole, founder of the Hampden Library and the old Robert Poole Middle School.

In the 1960s, the building was used by Lifelike Products to make miniature lawns, houses and other scenery for train sets.

Now, the building could start a new life as a home for teachers.

"It's a good thing for our neighborhood," said Peters, the zoning committee chairman in Hampden. "We've been working hard as a neighborhood to improve education.

"This is right in line with what Hampden wants."

But while the community generally supports the idea, it does not yet support the PUD.

"We're sort of in negotiations" with Seawall, Peters said. "The devil is in the details."

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