Design firm mixes residential, office lofts near Penn Station

“The market is tough in sales, but rental is hot,” said Hord, senior principal of Hord Coplan Macht, a Baltimore-based architecture and design firm.

One- and two-bedroom “cascading loft” apartments are renting at the nearly finished Railway Express project on St. Paul Street near Penn Station. Hord is part of the Railway Express LLC development team, and HCM designed the project.

HCM turned the 75,000-square-foot Parcel Post Station, built in 1929, into a mixed-use project, with 37,000 square feet of office space on the first floor and 38,000 square feet of apartments on the second floor.

As of Monday, 19 businesses had leased 20 commercial spaces at Railway Express, with some companies moving into their new offices at the beginning of the year. Nineteen of the 30 apartments have been leased.

“It’s historic renovation, it’s transit-oriented development, it’s mixed use,” Hord said.

The apartments are unlike any in Baltimore, with 17-foot ceilings and 14-foot-by-14-foot windows. The apartments, 65 feet in length, are loft-style, with stairs leading to the bedrooms, which are open to the rest of the space. “The windows are just so cool,” Hord said as he pulled a window shade to let sunlight in.

Eric Harris, 26, moved into a one-bedroom apartment with his girlfriend at the beginning of the year. “We were sold as soon as we saw it.”

The one-bedroom apartments are leasing for $1,200 to $1,300 a month, with two-bedroom apartments leasing for $2,200 to $2,300 a month, Hord said. Office space is renting for about $18 per square foot.

Baltimore-based Incite Creative will move into its 1,800-square-foot, loft-style office space at Railway Express on Friday, said Dina Wasmer, the company’s president.

“We were able to work with the space planners to design the office, which was helpful,” Wasmer said. “We’re paying twice as much rent than our old office, but I think the location will pay for itself.”

acannarsa@baltimoreexaminer.com