Developer Chukuemeka “Chukes” Okoro on Tuesday cleared a key hurdle in his quest to build 48 market-rate apartments on the west side of downtown Baltimore, when his plan received preliminary approval from the city’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP).
The project is a seven-story building at the northeast corner of West Lexington Street and Park Avenue, in the city’s Five & Dime Historic District. Okoro is the founder of Okoro Development, and his plan calls for six floors of apartments above a first level containing about 3,000 square feet of commercial space.
The apartments will be constructed on parcels that currently contain three vacant, city-owned buildings in the historic district, and that’s why the plan needs CHAP’s approval. The buildings are: the former Ann Lewis department store at 116-120 W. Lexington St., a structure that dates from 1941 and is windowless above the first floor; a three-story building at 114 W. Lexington St. that once served as the entry to a theater called The Garden, and a four-story commercial building at 207 Park Ave.
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