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After over a year of being empty , the former Bank of America building in Brooklyn in South Baltimore is now in the hands of the community.
The bank donated the building to the Greater Baybrook Alliance, a nonprofit community development corporation, during a small ceremony Monday. The building will house the development corporation’s headquarters and an emerging small business of their choosing, said Meredith Chaiken, executive director of the alliance.
Chaiken said they are excited about the chance to “show off a gem of Brooklyn.”
“We see this as such a unique opportunity to use the building to generate wealth in the community,” Chaiken said.
The group will now focus on raising funds to support the renovation of the building, Chaiken added. Senate President Bill Ferguson said his office also submitted a $400,000 local bond initiative — a chance to get capital funding for the renovations if approved.
The former bank building is on a primary commercial thoroughfare in Brooklyn at East Patapsco Avenue and South Hanover Street. Garrett Park and an Enoch Pratt Library branch are also neighbors to the building.
Sean McDaniel, a Brooklyn resident and small-business owner, said the intersection has been a hot spot for criminal activity. He’s happy to see a local organization take over the building with the community’s needs and interests in mind, he said, and thinks Brooklyn has far too many methadone clinics.
“There was a time when Brooklyn was this broken place, but that’s changing,” McDaniel added.
The Bank of America branch permanently left the 3,500-square-foot building in 2021. Janet Currie, president of Bank of America Greater Maryland, said the branch was seeing fewer customers pre-pandemic and it continued to decline thereafter. Though Bank of America left an ATM at the site, Brooklyn residents still faced limited, in-person banking options.
Not having a storefront bank in a community can mean more than simply dealing with an empty building. A Baltimore Banner analysis found that compared to banked areas of Baltimore, median incomes in unbanked areas are $21,000 lower and median home values are $88,000 lower.
Chaiken said she hopes this project is a catalyst for other investment in Brooklyn and stressed the group effort it took to guarantee a community-driven use of the building. The Greater Baybrook Alliance accepted the donation for the Baybrook Coalition, which includes a number of South Baltimore community groups.
“I think that public, private and civic partnerships really have positive outcomes, and I think this is an example of what can happen when you work together,” Currie said.
Currie added that she hopes the bank can continue to be a part of the transformation of the building. Bank of America recently showed support for a project in West Baltimore to turn a once-segregated elementary school into Justice Thurgood Marshall Amenity Center.
Marceline White, executive director of Economic Action Maryland, said it’s a rare occurrence that a bank donates a building back to the community. The donation eased a widespread worry about the building becoming derelict.
“It really is a story with a happy ending,” White said.
jasmine.vaughn@thebaltimorebanner.com
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Jasmine Vaughn-Hall is a neighborhood and community reporter at the Baltimore Banner, covering the people, challenges, and solutions within West Baltimore. Have a tip about something happening in your community? Taco recommendations? Call or text Jasmine at 443-608-8983.
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