By Jacques Kelly
Just two years ago the sky seemed to be falling on the artists’ studio compound known as Area 405. The old industrial building where 30 Baltimore artists created works in studios came up for sale.
Rumors circulated that Philadelphia developers were eyeing the place for a condominium conversion. Some thought gentrification was inevitable.
The situation turned around with the rapid intervention of the Central Baltimore Partnership, a behind-the-scenes organization that’s working in neighborhoods around and north of Pennsylvania Station.
The nonprofit partnership raised $4.7 million (from the State of Maryland, the city’s Neighborhood Impact Investment Fund and foundation and nonprofit lenders) and bought the complex of several conjoined buildings. Next was upgrading the electrical and safety systems…