Kamenetz Details $2.4 Million Redevelopment in Downtown Pikesville

County Executive Kevin Kamenetz chose a quaint, yet busy Pikesville street corner for his first press conference as executive.

He chose Pikesville's Reisterstown Road and Sudbrook Lane, the site of a new $2.4 million redevelopment project, because he has a history of helping redevelop businesses along Pikesville's main street: Reisterstown Road. 

It's the second Pikesville project to use the county's Pikesville Redevelopment funds Kamenetz helped create.

"Historic communities like Pikesville are really the great strength of our counties ... however, one of the challenges we have in the county is finding ways to redevelop our older communities without sacrificing what makes them so unique. And Pikesville is an outstanding example of how this can be done," Kamenetz said.

During the past eight years, he said, the county Department of Economic Development has been involved in more than $75 million of redevelopment projects in Pikesville.

Those projects include the expansion of Seven Mile Market, the largest Kosher store in the country, and the renovation of Pikesville Plaza office building, which includes green, environmentally friendly, features.

As Patch reported Nov. 25, Health-Way Pharmacy will be the lead tenant of the new, single-building development at the corner of Reisterstown Road and Sudbrook Lane, a project spearheaded by developer Timur Yusufov. Health-Way will move to the site from its current location on Bedford Avenue, behind Staples at Reisterstown and Old Court roads.

The new, 10,000-square-foot building will house Health-Way Pharmacy as well as other retail on the first floor, and offices on the second floor.

Health-Way will occupy 2,500 square feet, which will be half of the first floor, said Yusufov, who owns the properties being developed. Currently the pharmacy occupies 2,000 square feet, not enough for Health-Way's pharmacy, medical supply store, and homeopathic herbs and vitamins department, he said.

In addition to the 10,000 square feet of office and retail space, there will also be a 3,750-square-foot basement, Yusufov added.

Yusufov's redevelopment properties are the former sites for the defunct Backfin seafood restaurant, and the former location of two other businesses, Luda's Tailoring and Heels & Soles shoe repair. Both of the latter businesses have moved to 25 Hooks Lane.

"We are going to move because Walgreens bought Staples (property), where we are located," Yusufov said.

The County Department of Economic Development provided a $300,000 Pikesville Redevelopment Fund grant to Yusufov to help in the purchase and redevelopment of the properties.

Kamenetz, who was District 2 councilman for 16 years, spearheaded the creation of that fund, to revitalize unused properties in downtown Pikesville. And on Monday, he and Pierce Macgill took media and county VIPs on a tour of two blocks of Reisterstown Road, to show the fruits of that effort.

They stopped in front of Mari Luna Latin Grille at 1010 Reisterstown Road, just down the street from the new redevelopment site. "This property had been vacant. It was a prime piece of property, but nobody was doing anything with it," Macgill said.

That is, until two years ago when Jaime and Alva Luna opened their second Pikesville restaurant there. Now it boasts of having the only rooftop deck in Pikesville, he said. Since then, the Lunas have opened yet a third restaurant downtown.

"Success breeds success," said Sherrie Becker, executive director for the Pikesville Chamber of Commerce.

"We can say (to Luna) 'We knew you when,'" Macgill said.

And Kamenetz spoke about another building across the street on Reisterstown Road — the former Pikes Theater at 921 Reisterstown Road. "The community was very attached to it," he said, referring to the former movie theater. "The county purchased the building for $800,000," he said, noting that, when he was councilman, he decided to sell the building so that it could be redeveloped. "It's really nice inside," he said of what is now Pikes Diner. "It's very kitsch."

"The goal is to try and create a nice concentration of restaurants, like a Little Italy," Kamenetz said of the area. And to meet that goal, the county hopes to attract yet another restaurant to move in beside Pikes Diner, to the land where the Suburban House restaurant once operated. There could be plenty of room for parking.

"I think what is now going to sell the area ... is the treatment we are doing with the block," Kamenetz said, noting that the work on the Mari Luna building is what got Yusufov's attention to buy land in the same block. "Investment attracts interest," he said.

Vicki Almond, new county councilman for District 2, said she is very excited to have the redevelopment area in her district.

That area includes the "Restaurant Row," Kamenetz described — a stretch of Reisterstown Road where revitalization has attracted restaurants such as Mr. Chan's Szechuan restaurant, Mari Luna Latin Grille, The Pikes Diner, and Vernisage Restaurant and Cafe.

"Hard (economic) times bring out the best in people, with their creativity," she said. "The Restaurant Row is going to be a huge part of Pikesville, to help attract more local businesspeople to come in and make their home here."

Since 2002, the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development's commercial revitalization program has facilitated more than $75 million in private investment in downtown Pikesville, according to a news release.