Photo by danielle_blue
Diamonds may be a struggling commercial district’s best friend. Samuelson’s Diamonds Downtown (426 W. Baltimore St.), a Baltimore institution for almost ninety years, has been very busy lately. In addition to relocating and renovating its own store, the family-owned company has invested in several properties on the 400 block of West Baltimore Street, a once-hot shopping spot that’s fallen into decline.
Their six-story development will include a sparkling, technologically enthusiastic Samuelson’s as well as 130,000 square feet of mixed use office, retail, and restaurant space on both sides of the street between Eutaw and Paca from 407 to 425 West Baltimore. The property is being managed by David S. Brown and is currently under construction.
Ron Samuelson, the scion of the diamond dynasty, promises a PNC Bank, a Five Guys, and a Panera. Reputed to be somewhat excitable, but endearing, Mr. Samuelson also promises to play the video of your favorite song when you come visit the new store, which the family hopes to open later this year.
It may be a little sad to see yet another slice of Baltimore become commercially homogenized, as in any other American city, but it beats the alternative of row upon row of condemned buildings.
What’s your call on the redevelopment of West Baltimore’s 400 block?
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Thanks for the mention, guys. I suppose we all wish we could be Fell’s Point, but it seems more and more these days that there are three kinds of stores – cheap, chain and boutique. We’re trying hard to be a genuine local store, but it is not easy. The internet will either help us greatly or utterly flatten everything …!
But that’s up to us, right?
Panera’s and Five Guys are some of my favorite chains, by the way.
-Garth, Tech Director, Samuelson’s Diamonds
Thanks for the post. We’re moving next week and will have a grand opening soon.
I like “scion of the diamond dynasty”
Chain stores aren’t cool, but they are better than vacant buildings — and, more to the point, they aren’t permanent. Just look at Belvedere Square — originally almost all chain stores, but slowly evolved into a local-dominated shopping center. But it wouldn’t have taken off if it didn’t have those tenants to start, and it’s easier to get chain stores into a new development.