BDC to issue proposals for jazz club restoration

[Lois Gilbert]

BDC to issue proposals for jazz club restoration
Baltimore Business Journal -

Daniel J. Sernovitz
Staff

The historic Sphinx Club on Pennsylvania Avenue is one step closer to becoming memorialized under a Baltimore Development Corp. rehabilitation effort.

The city's Board of Estimates voted Wednesday morning to let its development arm buy the last two properties it needs to put together a redevelopment proposal to turn the former jazz club into a museum.

Mary Pat Fannon, director of BDC's Main Streets program, said the development corporation has acquired four of the six Pennsylvania Avenue properties it needs to seek redevelopment proposals for the project, which involves restoring the buildings and creating some retail and residential spaces in them.

"We should own everything free and clear by the end of the year," Fannon said.

The plan also calls for turning the Sphinx Club into a sort of museum highlighting the role the club played in Baltimore's jazz history. Several prominent musicians, including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Billie Holiday, performed at the club, which shut down shortly after club founder Charles Tilghman's death in 1988. Fannon said a resident has recovered several recordings of performances at the club, and if established, the museum could host screenings of those images. Fannon said the BDC might look to partner with officials at The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture on the museum effort.

Earlier this month, Fannon and BDC President M.J. "Jay" Brodie said they reached an agreement to pay Frances V. Tilghman $35,000 for the two remaining properties at 2101 and 2103 Pennsylvania Ave.

BDC appraisers estimated the buildings were worth $15,000, but Tilghman's appraisers put the structures at $65,000, and $35,000 represented the negotiated mid-point between the two figures. The Board of Estimates sent Brodie and Fannon back to the negotiating table after learning the BDC knew of but did not question Tilghman about flaws in her $65,000 estimate for the properties.

Appraisers representing both parties reexamined their appraisals and, prior to Wednesday's meeting, both sides reaffirmed the fairness of the negotiated price for the buildings, which Brodie said are practically shells in dire need of rehabilitation.

"It's a fair price," Brodie said. "I am worried about the buildings, so we wanted to go ahead and get the (request for proposals) out."

The amount, by coincidence, also matches how much the BDC expects to spend to attend this spring at the International Council of Shopping Centers' 2007 conference, scheduled to be held in Nevada in late May 2007. The Board of Estimates also voted Wednesday to reimburse the BDC in advance for that expense.

Fannon said the corporation considered reestablishing the Sphinx as a jazz club, but the neighborhood has changed since Charles Tilghman opened the club in 1946, and she felt there would be resistance to the idea.

"The community is not keen on the idea of it being an actual club again," Fannon said.