BYE, BYE, Bagby.
By year's end, if all goes according to plan, the old furniture company showroom at Fleet and Exeter streets will be transformed into downtown Baltimore's newest office complex.
The $12 million conversion is the latest project of Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, a local construction and development firm that has led the effort to recycle the American Can Co. complex on Boston Street and other city landmarks, and Sylvan Learning Systems.
"We've moving forward," developer C. William Struever said yesterday. "We expect to be finished by the last week in December."
Struever and Sylvan have a contract to purchase the four-story building by the end of this month, and they hope to begin construction 60 days after the sale goes through, said Caroline Moore, director of commercial development for Struever Bros.
"This is [a] historic redevelopment of a building that has been a blight on the community for ages, and two companies have chosen to move there," Moore said. "I think it really bodes well for the city. It's going to mean 300 more jobs in the area."
The project was stalled after one partner in the development team ran into financial difficulties.
Michael W. Lasky, founder of Inphomation Communications Inc., the "Psychic Friends Network" operation that filed for bankruptcy court protection last month, was going to be a financial partner in the project. Struever Bros. was going to be the developer with Sylvan, and Struever was going to be the general contractor.
But Lasky is no longer part of the team. "It's the same project," Struever said. "It's just not the same money partner."
The building was constructed in 1901 for Bagby, which began business on Howard Street as Bagby and Rivers in 1880. It manufactured residential furniture that was distributed across the East Coast.
When the company closed in 1990, it was part of a wave of longtime furniture retailers that went out of business in Baltimore, including Fallon & Helen on Mulberry Street and C. H. Lear's of Howard Street. A previous plan to convert the building to apartments met with community opposition and didn't move ahead.
The building contains more than 100,000 square feet of space and features sweeping views of the harbor. The prospective owners say its space is 100 percent committed to two companies.
Eisner & Associates, an advertising agency based in Mount Vernon, is expected to occupy the second and third floors and half of the first.
