Major makeover planned in Govans
Homeland Shopping Center, which has been a fixture in Govans since the middle of the last century, is about to get a makeover.
This rendering depicts the proposed new look for the Homeland Shopping Center.
Facade improvement program brightens York Road Corridor
Homeland Shopping Center, which has been a fixture in Govans since the middle of the last century, is about to get a makeover.
The most obvious changes will be aesthetic. These will be new awnings and new paint on the siding, a shade of green that will be the same or very similar to the color of Belvedere Square.
“We’re trying to keep everything brighter and lighter,” said Soon Park, a partner at York Investment Inc., which bought the shopping center in 2024. The owners are planning to upgrade the landscaping, install new lighting and add a new security camera system.
“That’s all going to help,” Park said.
Several other changes are in the works that are intended to make the area more pedestrian-friendly and welcoming to shoppers. These include
- Two new tenants, a hair salon and a Southern-themed restaurant serving crepes and fried chicken.
- Additional sidewalk plantings to help beautify the exterior.
- A property management company to address problems of littering and loitering.
- Closer community coordination, including with the police and the Homeland Association.
The two-building center is “100% occupied,” she said. “That tells you that it is essentially needed. But it has to be safe for people to utilize.”
She and her partner are taking a range of steps to improve safety, such as pushing the city to do a better job of keeping litter off the sidewalks and to trim and possibly replace trees that are breaking up the concrete out front.
An alcove at the northern end of the 5412 York Road building will be enclosed to discourage loitering there.
Several new tenants are moving in at the Homeland Shopping Center.
“It’s going to take everybody’s effort, the community and the Police Department,” she said. “We want to just bring everybody’s effort together to clean that up.”
Her company has already taken steps to reduce drug activity. A gate was installed so that the back parking lot could not be used as a shortcut between York Road and Woodbourne Avenue. “We put a big bar there,” Park said. “Customers using the facility know how to come in and utilize the space and leave.”
The shopping center sits on a 1.5 acre parcel. It was designed in the 1940s with two separate buildings and a large interior parking lot. The original plans called for office space and stores as well as bowling alleys.
When it was sold two years ago, a news release said it had “16 tenants, with uses ranging from retail, medical, services, food, liquor and office.”
The York Road BID has been actively promoting facade improvements along the Corridor, said Andrew Schuster, the group’s interim executive director.
Maryland Premier Tag & Title has gotten a new look.
Key elements include painting, signage, lighting and awnings that can lead to a “a more unified, aesthetically pleasing exterior,” he said. “That new look elevates a property and encourages more retail activity.”
The BID is helping businesses work through two different programs that are available from the Baltimore Development Corp., and the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.
“They’re both independent programs, but they can be stacked together,” Schuster said.
HNI is the grantee for the Maryland Façade Improvement Program (a Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development grant program) and partnered with YRID on the upgrade effort.
“HNI and YRID were awarded $150,000 to expand York Road’s Façade Improvement Program to cohesively beautify commercial facades along York Road with exterior improvements,” said Jessie Melara, HNI’s Middle Neighborhoods Vacants Program Coordinator.
In addition to the Homeland Shopping Center, the following properties have been part of this program, although some of these projects have not yet closed.
- 4709 York Road–Nappee by Nature Salon
- 4612 York Road–York Road Barber
- 4670 York Road–Maryland Premier Tag and Title
- 4711 York Road–Chicken Run
BDC has been working with several of these properties, including Chicken Run, Maryland Premier Tag & Title and Nappee by Nature.
Other BDC projects are:
- 4652 York Road–Paradise Tobacco
- 4701 York Road–Shop 47 Beauty & Barber
- 5718 York Road–HEX Ferments
- 434 E. Belvedere Ave.-York Road Improvement District
- 436 E. Belvedere Ave.–Scotty’s Shoe Service
- 438 E. Belvedere Ave.–Tokyo Sushi Bar & Hibachi
“Having partners in the community like York Road BID is critical to the success of most BDC programming, and we appreciate their ongoing efforts to connect the businesses along the corridor to all the resources available,” said Elias Hinderberger, BDC’s vice president of commercial districts.
“While the BDC’s property improvement grants have supported businesses and improved commercial corridors throughout the city, they’ve been especially impactful along corridors like York Road, where committed organizations deeply understand their districts, know the business owners, and advocate for their success,” he added.