The 23-story office tower known as One Charles Center in downtown Baltimore is going to auction today.
Bidding is set to open at $1.5 million and begins Tuesday afternoon. The online auction is scheduled to end on Thursday.
The 345,663-square-foot building, located at 100 N. Charles St., is recognized as Baltimore’s first modernist structure. It was built in the 1960s and last renovated in the 1990s, according to its online auction listing.
It was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, known as a pioneer in modern architecture. One Charles Center was modeled after the Seagram Building in New York, which Mies van der Rohe also had a hand in designing.
Ten-X, the online auction house that’s listing One Charles Center, describes it as a “dual opportunity” for a new owner to “enhance its value” with office space or convert it to “a premier urban high-rise.”
The property, owned by the late Peter Angelos, has just under 33% occupancy. State records show Angelos acquired the property in 1996 for $6 million. It was valued at almost $10 million in 2022, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.
It was unsuccessfully listed for sale in 2022. As part of a possible sale, the Angelos family hired the firm BCT Architects “to create a concept to convert the structure into 333 luxury multi-family units,” reported the BBJ.
The building is in an “opportunity zone,” meaning there are tax incentives to encourage long-term private investment.
One Charles Center has a “natural breakpoint” on its 12th floor where low-rise and high-rise elevators meet, according to the online listing. Ten-X writes that it be “an ideal location” for building amenities and a “potential segment” between commercial and residential floors.
The property has 146 on-site parking spaces and rights to 500 monthly parking spaces at the nearby Charles Plaza Garage, according to the Ten-X listing.
One Charles Center is on the National Register of Historic Places in part because it brought modernism to Baltimore architecture and because it had a “role in the early stage of Baltimore’s downtown renaissance.”
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