Baltimore shopping centre rebounds with 200 community investors, 10 new leases and 100+ jobs

Baltimore shopping centre rebounds as 200 community investors take ownership, with 10 new leases and 100+ jobs (Image Credit: The Kresge Foundation)

A Baltimore shopping centre that once served as an important retail destination spent decades struggling with disinvestment and vacant storefronts. Today, Edmondson Village Shopping Center is undergoing a different kind of transformation, driven partly by the people who live around it. According to the Kresge Foundation, the historic centre was acquired in 2023 with 200 community investors, giving local residents a direct ownership stake in the property. Three years later, 10 new leases have been signed, bringing services including groceries, primary care, child care and food retail. A planned headquarters for Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland is also expected to bring more than 100 jobs. The changes highlight how community ownership can become part of a broader effort to revive a neighbourhood shopping centre.

From retail hub to decline

Edmondson Village Shopping Center opened in 1947 as one of Baltimore's early major retail destinations. For decades, it served residents in the surrounding community, but the centre later faced years of decline. According to the Kresge Foundation, demographic shifts and disinvestment over roughly three decades contributed to the property's deterioration. Storefronts became vacant, reducing the range of goods and services available to local residents. The decline reflected broader changes in the neighbourhood and the difficulty of attracting investment to an older commercial centre.

Residents become owners

A major change came in August 2023, when Chicago TREND acquired Edmondson Village Shopping Center through its Chicago TREND Real Estate Fund. The acquisition included 200 community investors, meaning local residents became stakeholders rather than simply customers. Chicago TREND is a certified benefit corporation that acquires and redevelops shopping centres while giving residents opportunities to invest in their neighbourhood commercial properties. Kresge Foundation invested $2 million in the Chicago TREND Real Estate Fund in 2022 through a program-related investment. The fund allows between 10% and 49% local resident ownership in each shopping-centre investment, with community investors able to participate with investments starting at $1,000. The model is intended to connect residents to the economic value created when a local property improves, allowing some of the benefits of redevelopment to remain within the community.

Ten new leases

Three years after the acquisition, Edmondson Village is showing signs of renewed activity. Ten new leases have been signed, bringing services that residents had lacked. New tenants include a national grocery chain, a primary-care provider, child-care services and food retail. Physical improvements have also been made, including work on the roof, lighting, signage and site security. Construction for the new grocery store is also underway, adding another major service to the centre.

More than 100 jobs

The redevelopment is expected to create employment as well as new services. Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland is in predevelopment on a planned 34,000-square-foot headquarters at the shopping centre. The project is expected to bring more than 100 jobs to the community. The headquarters would add an employment component to the retail and service activity returning to Edmondson Village.

A community ownership model

The Edmondson Village project is part of Chicago TREND's broader community-ownership approach. At Edmondson Village, the model gives residents a financial stake in a commercial property that had experienced years of decline. Their involvement is intended to connect them more directly to the centre's future and the economic activity generated by its redevelopment. The approach also changes the relationship between a shopping centre and the people who depend on it. Residents are not only customers of the businesses operating there; some are also owners with a stake in the property's success.

A centre finding new life

The transformation of Edmondson Village is still underway, but the changes already mark a significant shift from the centre's long period of decline. For the 200 residents who became co-owners, the redevelopment represents more than new businesses and construction. It gives them a direct connection to the future of a commercial property in their own neighbourhood. The centre that opened in 1947 and later endured decades of disinvestment is now being reshaped through local ownership, new leases, physical improvements and planned job creation. Its revival offers an example of how community investment can play a role in bringing neighbourhood commercial spaces back to life.