From Office to Hotel to Multifamily: Developer Plans $19M Inner Harbor Redevelopment

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Byrnes & Associates has acquired Hotel RL Baltimore Inner Harbor, with plans to begin an $18.5 million redevelopment and convert the 10-story Baltimore hotel into an apartment building.

The seller, Red Lion Hotels, acquired the property at 207 E. Redwood Street in 2015, while it was still an office building, for $15.7 million. It then spent $3.5 million to redevelop it as a hotel, which closed last year.

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“The need for multifamily in Downtown Baltimore is due to the current vacancy rate of approximately 4 to 6 percent,” Brad Byrnes, president of Byrnes & Associates, told Commercial Observer. “A renaissance has taken place along East Redwood Street over the past few years as business owners, office workers and consumers alike have rediscovered the magic of this section of Downtown Baltimore, which was known as the ‘Wall Street of the South’ in the early 1900s.” 

The converted apartment building will feature 130 studio, junior one-bedroom and one-bedroom units. Amenities already incorporated into the project include a fitness center, a banquet room and conference rooms, with the new owners planning to also install a game room and storage space.

“This was a savvy conversion because the project was completely gutted and converted from office to a hotel in 2015,” Byrnes said. “Therefore, our construction activity and costs are limited because we are keeping the exact amount of rooms, and adding a small kitchen and washer/dryer and doing some cosmetic upgrades such as painting and hallway carpets and lighting.”    

Nearly 155,000 people reside within a two-mile radius of the buildings, including more than 68,000 households with an average household income approaching $90,000, according to the company. 

In 2020, Byrnes & Associates acquired adjacent sites at 225 and 233 E. Redwood Street, a combined 90,000 square feet of office and retail space, and spent $5 million to renovate and rebrand the four- and 13-story assets as Vickers Exchange and Redwood Exchange respectively. 

The company has signed 60 office and retail leases at the buildings to elevate occupancy of the spaces to 65 percent from 5 percent at acquisition.

Kove Group will serve as the general contractors on the project and is part of the investor acquisition team along with Brendan Ferrara of Carm Capital.

Keith Loria can be reached at Kloria@commercialobserver.com.