BDC hopes to hit right note restoring famed city jazz club
by Daniel J. Sernovitz
The historic Pennsylvania Avenue Sphinx Club, a jazz club which closed shortly after the death of founder Charles Tilghman in 1988, could get new life under a Baltimore Development Corp. rehabilitation effort.
It could, but only if the city's development arm is able to convince the city it has gotten the best possible price to acquire the last two properties it needs to kick-start the process.
"We're trying to do a little Pennsylvania Avenue renewal, (but) it's not easy to do," BDC President M.J. "Jay" Brodie remarked after being sent back to work following a Baltimore City Board of Estimates conference Wednesday morning.
Brodie said the BDC and its Baltimore Main Streets program have been trying to acquire the cluster of rowhouses including the Sphinx Club for several years in order to rehabilitate the properties. In addition to a restored Sphinx Club, Brodie said the plan could also include some retail and residential components.
"The Sphinx Club had a certain fame for jazz in the African-American community," Brodie told the city's Board of Estimates Wednesday morning as part of a request for $35,000 to buy two properties as part of the project.
The club, which opened in 1946, was one of several cultural icons along Pennsylvania Avenue. Others included Club Tijuana, where the likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Billie Holiday performed.
On behalf of the city, the BDC bought the former Sphinx Club property at 2107 Pennsylvania Ave. in June for $17,127 and an adjacent property at 2105 Pennsylvania Ave. in August 2005 for $137,352. Mary Pat Fannon, director of the BDC's Main Streets program, said the BDC also has foreclosure agreements for 2109 and 2111 Pennsylvania Ave.
At the Board of Estimates pre-meeting Wednesday morning, Brodie said he needed two more properties in order to seek developers to undertake the project. He said he had reached an agreement to buy the remaining two properties, at 2101 and 2103 Pennsylvania Ave., for $35,000 -- a price he termed "not all that unusual" even for "two falling-down rowhouses."
Colliers Pinkard appraised the property at $15,000, Brodie said, but a second appraisal by owner Frances V. Tilghman came in at $65,000. While the BDC found flaws in Tilghman's appraisal, Brodie added, no one raised them with her. The BDC instead decided to negotiate with Tilghman, and the two settled on $35,000 as the mid-point between their appraisals.
The board, however, disapproved of how Brodie reached that agreement. H. Harriette Taylor, deputy comptroller for the city, said the BDC should have confronted Tilghman with the flaws in her appraisal. Instead of giving the BDC the money to buy the properties, she delayed the vote for a week and sent Brodie and Fannon back to the negotiating table to report back to the board next week.
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