A partnership among the East Baltimore faith community, development groups and all levels of government bore its first fruit Monday with the completion of five new homes in Oliver.

The homes on the southeast corner of North Caroline and East Preston streets are the first of 122 planned for the new Preston Place development.

“Progress is not inevitable, we have to choose to make progress,” Gov. Martin O’Malley said. “This is a neighborhood that’s showing Baltimore’s comeback.”

Preston Place is the product of a partnership between Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development and the Reinvestment Fund, with support from city, state and local governments. The BUILD coalition includes several local churches and faith leaders.

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The project began in 2001 when BUILD approached the city to help reclaim abandoned properties around Oliver, and secured $1.2 million to acquire 200 properties.

The state has invested more than $10 million in the project, federal contributions have exceeded $800,000 and the city has helped the BUILD-TRF partnership by reclaiming titles on vacant property.

The three-bedroom, energy-efficient homes are subsidized to keep mortgages at $140,000 for families with annual incomes of $35,000 to $60,000.

The lots where the five new homes stand had been occupied by vacant buildings for 30 years, said the Rev. Calvin Keene, a board member of the partnership and pastor of Memorial Baptist Church, across Preston Street from the

homes.

Keene said a walking tour of the neighborhood earlier this year found 44 percent of Oliver’s buildings abandoned.

“Often we talk about partnerships ... but this is a true example of it,” Mayor Sheila Dixon said. “What we need to say to people in this community that are skeptical ... is be patient. Feel the spirit of all these organizations working together.”

Several speakers during Monday’s ceremony recalled Angela Dawson, a Oliver community activist who was killed along with her five children in 2002 when a drug dealer set fire to their home in retaliation for her efforts.

O’Malley and BUILD Co-Chairman Bishop Douglas Miles said Oliver revitalization efforts were already under way at the time, but believed the tragedy gave the project a new urgency.

“That tragedy was like our Alamo,” O’Malley said. “Rescuing good from evil ... is something that’s ingrained in the people of our city. There are very few cities and states that would have triumphed from that tragedy.”

acahall@baltimoreexaminer.com