Traction House

Traction House is an $18MM adaptive reuse project to restore a historic trolley garage on a one-acre site in West Baltimore into a hub of regenerative community activity. The first phase of the project includes the development of the first zero-energy, Passive House-certified mixed-use building in the state of Maryland, and will house over 50 units of affordable workforce housing, a half-acre of open “urban park land”, and a central community gathering space open to public use. 20% of the residential units will be reserved for youth aging out of foster care, and will be supported by a non-profit coffee shop that exclusively hires and trains former foster youth. The building will serve as a resiliency hub and a community solar hub, and will share the proceeds from using less energy than the building consumes with residents and nearby community members who join the solar co-op. Schreiber Brothers Development is serving as lead developer, convening several local and regional partners.

Project PLASE/Beacon House Square

Beacon House Square (BHS) is the $20MM conversion of a formerly abandoned school into a 70,000 square-foot facility. Utilizing Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) and Federal Historic Tax Credits , BHS will house nearly 100 formerly homeless veterans and the new headquarters of Project PLASE, a homeless services provider operating in the greater Baltimore City region for nearly 50 years. Schreiber Brothers served as development consultant and owner’s representative, shepherding the project from conceptualization and early design – in partnership with a strong pre-existing design team – through due diligence, feasibility, and schematic design. Upon securing preliminary financing commitments and the support of state housing officials, Schreiber Brothers led the formal selection of a Managing Development Partner and the LIHTC application process. Various federal, state, and local funding sources have been secured and are contributing to the success of BHS. Project completion is anticipated in late 2020.

Marble Hill/Upton Affordable Homeownership

In partnership with BRAND, LLC, Schreiber Brothers Development is leading the restoration of four historically significant rowhouses in the Marble Hill neighborhood of Baltimore City. Utilizing CORE funds secured by BRAND, LLC’s principals and the local community association, this project marks a major step forward for the revitalization of Baltimore’s West Side. Moreover, it will serve as a leading example of the possibilities for affordable homeownership in heavily divested neighborhoods, where the confluence of state, local, and private resources is absolutely critical to helping hyper-localized communities realize their own visions for their neighborhoods. One of the four houses will achieve Passive House certification and Zero-Energy-Ready status, with the option to install solar and go fully net-zero-energy.

1700s Historic Renovation:

Reisterstown Welcome Center

In 2018, Schreiber Brothers acquired the historic Beckley House in Reisterstown, Maryland. Constructed in stages beginning in 1779, the building required significant historic restoration to salvage the structure and interior character of the building. More than simply saving the building, the project will serve as a new community hub for Historic Main Street Reisterstown, housing the Main Street Manager’s office, community gathering space, a locally-owned coffee shop, and various small office tenants. In keeping with Schreiber Brothers’ commitment to whole-block approaches to revitalizing neighborhoods, this project is intended to serve a larger community development role, leading the charge on the full commercial restoration of Reisterstown’s historic Main Street.

Sandtown Low-Income Rentals

An example of Schreiber Brothers’ most common type of work, the Sandtown Low-Income Rentals project is the full gut rehab and restoration of two vacant rowhouses in the heavily divested neighborhood of Sandtown-Winchester in West Baltimore. With the support of a local CDFI, the project is bringing the two remaining vacant buildings on the block back into productive use, effectively “completing” the block. The residences are each laid out to support family renters, and will be marketed to Section 8/Housing Choice Voucher holders. While Schreiber Brothers is strongly committed to the distribution of vouchers and development of quality housing in Communities of Opportunity, we also believe in using any tools available to restore Baltimore’s most neglected communities.

Franklin Square Zero Energy

Franklin Square Zero-Energy will be the first zero-energy affordable housing rowhouse restoration in Baltimore City. Before this project, nearly all zero-energy work in Baltimore served the high-end or institutional market. However, in a city with nearly 20,000 vacant rowhouses, restoration of the existing housing stock is an absolute necessity. Given our commitment to sustainability, and the need to demonstrate that one-off gut rehabs of rowhouses can achieve ambitious energy use reductions, Schreiber Brothers is developing this demonstration project, and will share all of our lessons learned, best practices, and data with other like-minded developers and contractors.

Forest Park Affordable Homeownership

This was Schreiber Brothers Development’s very first project: the restoration of a collapsing single-family home along Liberty Heights Avenue in the Central Forest Park neighborhood. In a neighborhood with massive potential and historical significance, but dotted with many large, difficult-to-develop detached homes, Schreiber Brothers saw an opportunity to not only initiate the revitalization of this critical residential corridor, but to sell the home at a price affordable to first-time homebuyers. Through careful preparation and management of construction budgets, the project achieved a reasonable margin while still remaining accessible to 60-80% area median income homebuyers. Click here to see the before-and-after photos.