Making The Old New Again
Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse takes old factories and warehouses and makes incredible mixed-use projects that create and redevelop communities.
Randall Shearin

If ever there was a company that could be termed an urban pioneer, it is Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse (SBER). The Baltimore-based developer and general contractor is on a mission to reclaim old factories, warehouses and the like and turn them into live-work and play environments.

Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse is redeveloping the Royal and Ace Dye Mills in West Warwick, Rhode Island.

SBER is developing larger scale projects in neighborhoods “that haven't happened yet” as Struever describes them. These are areas that have some architectural shine to them; some fundamental market potential that hasn't been developed. These old factory buildings and unused warehouses are ripe for redevelopment, but municipalities are stalled on how to bring them back to life. With an expertise at making projects like these an important asset in the local community, Struever Brothers Eccles & Rouse is more frequently being called to bid on such projects. The company currently has projects going on not only in Baltimore, but in Providence, Rhode Island; Durham, North Carolina; Massachusetts; Pennsylvania; Delaware; and Tennessee.

“The projects we enter must have a history, a character and a spirit,” says Struever. “That is the compelling nature of someone wanting to live and work downtown.”

The redevelopment of the former American Can Company factory in Baltimore is one of Struever Bros.' success stories. The development has office and retail space near downtown Baltimore.

Since many of the projects that the company is doing will be the pioneers in a particular area, SBER is particular about what it creates with regard to retail. Oftentimes, national retailers aren't so willing to go into some of the company's projects because of market concerns. Instead, SBER will incubate a local restaurateur. When this restaurant begins to develop a loyal following, other retail is attracted and the project becomes successful. In other projects, one national retailer is all it has taken to lure other tenants. At the company's American Can project in Baltimore, the company was able to attract Outback Steakhouse to the project. With that deal signed, other tenants came quickly on its heels. Still, SBER was careful not to overload the project with national tenants. Local favorites, like a restaurant operated by Baltimore Ravens' linebacker Ray Lewis, also are among the tenants at the project.

Brewer's Hill in Baltimore is one of Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse's latest projects to come online.

“We feel that we have to be there to continually grow, support and nurture our retail tenants and restaurants,” says Struever. “Of course, if the need be, we also need to be there to find a replacement tenant that is more suitable.”

For its retail tenants, SBER looks for retailers and restaurants that will serve the office workers during the day and morning hours, and the community as a whole during nights and weekends. The projects really become local destinations. Marketing and promotions encourage the projects as a social place.

Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse's $63 million redevelopment of a former Procter & Gamble soap factory in the Locust Point area of Baltimore has created   Tide Point, a 400,000-square-foot office campus that has become a part of Baltimore's “Digital Harbor” high tech office space. A portion of the harbor's waterfront promenade extends to the campus, offering spectacular views of Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Fells Point and Canton.

But marketing isn't the only notion that makes Struever Brothers' projects succeed. The company also invests in the community by getting involved with nearby schools. It also invests in small businesses, like the restaurants it incubates. It also subsidizes local artists who often live in these pioneering areas before they become popular. By investing in its tenants and its consumers, it realizes that the project will be a key part of the community.

“We also recognize that we are going to raise value in the neighborhood by a large margin,” says Struever. “If we don't do this, our neighbors won't be able to adapt to the rising housing values and the local retailers won't be able to react to the rising rents. If we don't help our artists succeed, we'll lose the real character of the neighborhood that is attracting everyone in the first place. We want to create a double bottom line to any project that we get involved in. The community has to come first.”

Plans for phase II of the American Tobacco Historic District in Durham, North Carolina, which SBER anticipates starting this year, call for 170,000 square feet of office space, a high-end restaurant, 50 apartments and 12 condominiums. A later phase will add a 2,800-seat   performing arts theater, 450 new residential units, 12,000 square feet of additional office space and upwards of 40,000 square feet of retail space.

What attracts Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse to old buildings?

“The guiding principle for us comes from the value of the land,” says Struever. “The history and character of the building also play a large role into what we can do with the property and with the neighborhood. If you believe in that, it is about saving the buildings and then celebrating the history and culture that they once gave to the town.”

SBER was brought to Durham by Capitol Broadcasting Company, who owns the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team. Capitol had the idea to build a new baseball stadium around the old tobacco warehouses in downtown Durham. The problem was, the old warehouses were vacant and had no use. Now that SBER is involved, the warehouses of the American Tobacco Historic District will now have new life as a retail, entertainment and office project. Plans for Phase II of the project, which SBER anticipates starting this year, call for 170,000 square feet of office space, a high-end restaurant, 50 apartments and 12 condominiums. A later phase will add a 2,800-seat performing arts theater, 450 new residential units, 12,000 square feet of additional office space and upwards of 40,000 square feet of retail space.

The company also quickly identified a major need in the local community, and offered its financial and personnel resources to help solve a problem. Fundraising was lagging in an effort to build a new Farmer's Market in downtown Durham, which called for a new 9,200-square-foot pavilion, to include approximately 40 individual stalls for farmers to sell their fruit, produce and flowers. The project, which is contained on city-owned land at Durham's Central Park, will include space for the SEEDS Durham Inner City Gardeners (DIG) program, which works with at-risk youth in Durham in an effort to teach them entrepreneurial, business and conflict-resolution skills.

On Friday and Saturday nights, upwards of 2,000 people — mostly young families — gather at Belvedere Square in Baltimore simply looking for things to do. The center has become the social scene of the neighborhood.

In late 2006, Struever Bros. plans to begin construction on The American Locomotive Works, a former locomotive factory located on the banks of the Woonasquatucket River near downtown Providence, Rhode Island. Using buildings dating back to 1865, SBER plans a 2.3 million-square-foot mixed-use community. The company plans to develop 348,000 square feet of office space, 93,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and 657 residential units. An 87,000-square-foot hotel is also planned for The American Locomotive Works.

Struever Brothers has begun development on the warehouses of the American Tobacco Historic District in Durham, North Carolina. The old warehouses will now   have new life as a retail, entertainment and office project.

The retail and office space, as well as the residential, have generated significant interest from tenants. While the history of the buildings is an attraction, tenants like the fact that SBER has been able to create state-of-the-art space with open floorplates and other amenities that modern offices, retail space and homes have. There is the occasional oddity, though, like the swimming-pool sized fermentation tank that sits on the eighth floor of the National Bohemian brewery building. Too large to be removed, there have been many discussions of what can be done to use the tank. At the American Can Company project, the base of an old oil tank was used as a goldfish pond after it was determined it could not be removed.

SBER acquired Belvedere Square, one of the oldest strip centers in Baltimore, a few years ago. Today, it has worked to re-establish the center as the social center for a large area of northeast Baltimore.

“That is a remarkable testimonial to the resilience and adaptability of these old buildings,” says Struever.

Working with old buildings, SBER has acquired a warehouse full of what Bill Struever calls “cool stuff.” These are the remnants of days gone by — old fans, product molds, storage tanks, doors and windows that were used in the projects' former lives. SBER eventually plans to launch a Web site for its tenants, homebuyers and architects can log on and buy artifacts to use in design projects. Currently, the company tries to use as much of the cool stuff as it can in the original redevelopments.