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Rian Hargrave, the owner and CEO of Onyx Development, has been working from her home office in Waverly for the past three years as a residential developer who helps get people into their own homes.
But she — along with 29 other small businesses — recently relocated to the tallest office building in the city.
Baker Donelson, a national law firm, gave the business owners use of the 15,614-square-foot 23rd floor at 100 Light St. The gift was the result of the launch of the Light of Baltimore Incubator, a partnership among Johns Hopkins University’s Office of Economic Development, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses program to support local startups.
It was a welcome move for Hargrave, who lives alone and no longer wanted her business address to be her home address, since that information is listed publicly. Also, having a central office space helps keep her in compliance with her certification and provides a professional meeting setting that puts her closer to her clients.
“Typically, office rental spaces are not priced for a small business such as my own,” said Hargrave, 39. “As an emerging development company, this would really lay the foundation for the work that Onyx is doing and the 13 houses that are currently under development.”
The idea for the office space came in June, after two University of Maryland law school friends — Jennifer Curry, a 2006 graduate and managing partner of Baker Donelson’s Baltimore office, and Alicia Wilson, a 2007 graduate and vice president of economic development and community partnerships at Johns Hopkins University — hopped on the phone.
“She [Curry] called me and said, ‘Alicia, we’re decreasing our footprint and we have an entire floor within our Transamerica building that we will not be using. How would you utilize that if you had a magic wand?’” Wilson explained. “I said, ‘I think it’d be great if you turned this space into an incubation space for small businesses that want a location in the city, and this would be a supercharge in helping their businesses grow if they don’t have to think about rent.’”
In addition to providing physical office space, Baker Donelson said it will provide free resources to support members of the incubator, including mentorship and legal and marketing resources. The goal is to provide ongoing opportunities for the participants to learn about various business and legal practices that will help them on their journeys.
When asked what the floor could be used for if it wasn’t given to local businesses, Curry said “it would’ve been a waste of space with remote work having changed Baker Donelson’s environment and where people work.”
Curry called the diverse group of businesses “future leaders of the Baltimore City business community. We are excited to create programs to help them succeed,” she said.
Commercial developer Newmark said in its quarterly Baltimore office report that rents in the city’s downtown area went up in the last year by 1.3%, rising to an average of $25.11 per square foot. The floor at 100 Light St. currently has a retail value of $392,000, if the law firm were to let it sit unused or try to sublease it.
Although some firms have been able to successfully sublease unused office space over the last couple years, “the market conditions are not favorable for swift and successful subleasing,” according to Newmark.
David Marshall, an adoption and foster care consultant, said he is “elated” that he no longer has to rent a space to help people start their own journey to fostering or adopting children. After he went public with his own adoption story, he started his business — Journey to Josiah — in March 2021.
“There were two people who I knew that were not connected to each other, and asked where they went to adopt their babies. They both said that that they went to the Adoptions Together website. And when I went, I saw that it was a safe space for me as a gay man,” Marshall said.
“I went to an information session in January 2015, and that wasn’t without some things making me nervous: one being the cost. At the same time I had so many questions, but I knew that I was welcome there and I knew God would make a way. So with that, I decided that was going to be where I started my own adopting journey. And on April 3, 2017, I held my baby in my arms for the first time,” he added.
With Journey to Josiah, Marshall said he helps “people avoid the pitfalls and problems as it pertains to the adoption process. People come to me to get those questions answered and find out what to look for.”
Marshall said although his clients are comfortable doing their training virtually, the donation of the office space means his business has a “legitimate home that allows me to serve people in a greater capacity.”
Businesses like Hargrave’s and Marshall’s were selected for the contributions that they could make to the Greater Baltimore area. According to Wilson, at Johns Hopkins, the companies were chosen based on their record of growth, their commitment to the city and how the businesses could complement one another by doing business with one another.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, whose family owns Coldspring Co. Inc., a heating and air conditioning business in Park Heights, is also a supporter of the donation.
“Thank you to Baker Donelson, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg Philanthropies Goldman Sachs, for coming together to make sure that [30] small business have access to this space … You can really have a sense — especially if you’re a small business owner – of what possible by just looking out the window, and we know especially though the pandemic that so much has happened to our small business owners. This opportunity is a great one,” Scott said.
penelope.blackwell@thebaltimorebanner.com
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Penelope Blackwell is a Breaking News reporter with The Banner. Previously, she covered local government in Durham, NC, for The News & Observer. She received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Morgan State University and her master’s in journalism from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
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