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(Enlarge) Brick crosswalks are part of the streetscaping on St. Paul Street. (Staff photo by Todd Spoth)

With a little arm-twisting by the deputy mayor, the city has repaid a developer about $700,000 for streetscaping in conjunction with a stalled project in Charles Village.

The Baltimore Board of Estimates approved the payment to Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse on Oct. 29 for work it did near its stalled Olmsted office and apartment project at East 33rd and St. Paul streets.

But Struever Bros. had to fight for the money -- and agree to clean up the vacant lot where the Olmsted building was supposed to be -- to fend off a challenge from a city councilwoman who said the developer shouldn't get the money until it cleaned up the trash- and rubble-strewn lot.

Struever Bros. fronted the money for streetscaping, including laying brick crosswalks along several blocks of St. Paul -- with the understanding that the developer would be reimbursed from the city's sale of Tax Increment Financing bonds.

Tax Increment Financing involves the city selling a bond on the public market. That money is used to pay for infrastructure improvements while increases in property taxes cover the cost of the bond.

At the time it did the streetscaping, Struever Bros. planned to build the Olmsted, an office and apartment building with a parking garage.

On the site, the company razed two fraternity houses, one in a building housing several businesses on the ground floor, in 2005.

Since the streetscaping was finished, however, plans to build the Olmsted have come to a halt because of the credit crisis, and the city never started the Tax Increment Financing process.

Now the lot is vacant -- and an eyesore, says City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke of the 14th District.

Despite protests by her and neighbors, problems there persist, Clarke said.

"They left the Olmsted lot looking abandoned and unkempt," she said.

When Struever Bros. sought reimbursement for streetscaping, Clarke asked the Board of Estimates not to consider the request until the lot was cleaned.

The money Struever Bros. wanted from the city was the only leverage the community had to force the company to clean up the lot, Clarke said.

"They've got to make this place look decent," Clarke said, expressing pessimism over whether the project will get off the ground any time soon.

"It's (the empty lot) going to be there for years."

After months of stalemate, Deputy Mayor Andrew Frank intervened and asked Clarke to drop her opposition in exchange for an agreement by Struever Bros. to keep the lot clean.

Frank said he believed the situation could be resolved without the city's holding money hostage.

Frank negotiated an agreement that Struever Bros., in exchange for reimbursement of streetscaping costs, would sod and clean the lot.

He said if Struever Bros. doesn't maintain the lot to the community's satisfaction, the city could hold up other Struever Bros. projects.

However, Frank said, he doesn't feel those actions will be necessary.

"They're good for their word," he said.

Bob Rubenkonig, a spokesman for Struever Bros., said the developer was glad to have the issue behind it.

Still unresolved is the fate of the lot. There is no further movement on developing the Olmsted, he said.

The Olmsted has been a hotly debated project in Charles Village. A change in height to 340 feet, and the passing of a planned unit development provision to allow for the height increase, drew the ire of nearby Johns Hopkins University.

Hopkins officials said they were upset because the revised project would be taller than the university's three-year-old Charles Commons building across East 33rd Street.

Plans for the Olmsted have shifted several times to meet economic downturns since 2006.

At one point, the building was to be shorter and feature condos that would have sold for up to $700,000. Those plans were scrapped when the housing bubble burst.

Struever Bros. said it couldn't sell most of the condos in its Village Loft housing and retail project across St. Paul, let alone build the Olmsted.

Last known plans for the Olmsted before the project was put on indefinite hold called for 30,000 square feet of retail businesses and 75,000 square feet of office space, as well as 202 apartments.

Struever Bros. was also preparing to develop the apartments as "work force housing" to lure young professionals and by renting the apartments at below-market rate, with Struever Bros. making up the difference from city tax credits.

Dana Moore, president of the Charles Village Civic Association, was never a big fan of the project to begin with, and said she would just as soon see the lot become a park. She agrees it's an eyesore and hopes Struever Bros., a developer she said she respects, will honor its commitment to keep the lot clean.

"We wouldn't want that lot to be Struever's legacy to Charles Village," Moore said.

Editor Larry Perl contributed to this story.

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