Supporting the Baltimore Station at the Homerun for Recovery

On a warm spring night, people of all walks of life came out to Nick’s Fish House at Cross Street Market to support the Baltimore Station.  The annual Homerun for Recovery is always a great event complete with delicious food, drinks and an exciting live auction. The Michael Group was proud to the lead sponsor for this year’s fundraiser!

Keith Mills was the MC for the event. He shared his own personal story of addiction and praised the Baltimore Station for the great work they do every day to help men in recovery.

From left to right: Sebastian Soriano, The Michael Group, John Batz, the Michael Group, Michael Seipp, ED of the Baltimore Station, Keith Mills, Jeff Hill, The Michael Group, Del. Brian McHale, Michael Shacklette, The Michael Group

Congratulations to the Baltimore Station and thank you for your important work!

The Michael Group Wins GEDCO’s Partner of the Year

On a cold, damp Spring night, a huge crowd gathers in St Mary’s Church Hall in Govans for GEDCO’s Annual meeting. While this is primarily a business meeting, this year the GEDCO staff has added an fun filled line up including Ms Beverly Burke as MC, special award ceremonies and the GEDCO’s Got Talent Talent Show. 

This year marks the 20^th year that GEDCO, Govans Ecumenical Development Corporation, has been serving the needs of low-income elderly residents of North/Central Baltimore. Their work attracts support from religious congregations of all denominations as well as businesses, neighborhood associations and residents themselves. You could tell by listening to songs, stories and more how important GEDCO is in the lives of those who were attending and to the community outside St Mary’s doors.

About half way through the evening, Perry Savoy, Vice President of the Board of Directors, stood to announce the Partner of the Year Award. “Each year, GEDCO recognizes a very special organization whose partnership greatly enhances the success of our work to build caring and compassionate communities. This year it is my honor to present our Partner Award to The Michael Group”

Left to Right: Ellen Frost, The Michael Group, Mitch Posner, GEDCO, Michael Shacklette, the Michael Group, Perry Savoy, GEDCO, Jeff Hill, The Michael Group

Michael Shacklette, President of the Michael Group Inc General Contractors in Baltimore has been a supporter of GEDCO for the past three years. Last year, Michael headed up the GEDCO ThanksGiving Tribute fundraising committee. While the committee was successful, raising a record amount of funds to support GEDCO’s operations, Michael wanted to do more. This year, Michael is heading up a year long campaign to secure corporate sponsors and major gifts that will allow GEDCO to continue the important, life saving work they are doing.

“Having gone to elementary school here in Govans, I feel like I still have a connection to the well being of the neighborhood” says Micahel Shacklette. “Since I began the Michael Group Inc nine years ago, we have committed ourselves to building affordable housing and supporting non-profits like GEDCO that are provide housing and services for low-income and elderly residents of our community. I am honored to receive the GEDCO Partner of the Year award.”.

The evening ended with laughing and dancing and celebrating the good works of GEDCO. The Michael Group is so proud to be a part of this amazing organization!

Celebrating a New Beginning at the St Stephen’s Court Apartments

Last Thursday, the new community building at the St. Stephen’s Court Apartments was filled to capacity. Residents chatted with architects, developers laughed with construction workers; despite the bad weather, everyone in attendance was full of joy. The renovation work at the St. Stephen’s Court Apartments was complete-and the property looked amazing!

Commissioner Graziano praising the work at St Stephen’s

The Michael Group began work at St. Stephen’s back in July. Since then, the transformation at the property has been striking. Residential units which had not been upgraded since the 70’s, were given a complete overhaul. New kitchens, flooring and fixtures were installed in addition to new windows, HVAC systems and doors. Common hallways were upgraded with new flooring and paint as well as a state of the art security system. Outside, all the entryways were updated with new siding, canopies and glass.

For 40 years, the residents of St Stephen’s had no community space where they could meet, hang out, socialize and have community get-togethers. All that has changed now that the community building has been built. This beautiful building, centrally located on what used to be empty space in the middle of the complex, is now the central meeting place of the residents. It’s filled with natural light, soothing colors and comfy furniture.

Dan McCarthy, Executive Director of Episcopal Housing Corporation MC’d the event. As the developer, Episcopal Housing brought the Michael Group in to the project early on to ensure a successful project. Sure enough, the project  was completed with months to spare, under budget, and with many happy residents.

The Michael Group staff was brimming with pride as Dan told the crowd about the positive experience he had working with the Michael Group. We were especially proud of the great work of Project Manager Jeff Hill and Superintendent Sebastian Soriano. This is the second large scale project that Jeff and Sebastian completed together. The first was the Monte Verde Apartments. Jeff and Sebastian are like a well oiled machine. Any owner interested in doing “resident in place” renovation would be lucky to work with this team!

Thanks to everyone who made this project such a great success-especially the Developer, Episcopal Housing Corporation; the architect, Marks, Thomas Architects and everyone at the Michael Group! Great work everyone!

Mixing It Up with HAND in Baltimore

Housing development professionals from the Baltimore area got together to mix and mingle Thursday night for HAND’s Baltimore mixer. While many of HAND’s events tend to be held closer to DC, HAND’s Executive Director Jill Norcross was excited to be in Baltimore and happy about the great turnout. Jill reminded everyone that this is HAND’s 20th anniversary year and to celebrate, HAND will be hosting it’s largest Annual Luncheon yet! The luncheon will take place on Thursday May 26th at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in DC. If you work in affordable housing, this is an event not to missed.

The Michael Group staff enjoyed the opportunity to get together with our colleagues in the industry. Dan McCarthy, Executive Director of Episcopal Housing Corporation (EHC) is seen below with VP of Construction at the Michael Group, Jeff Hill and Michael Shacklette, President of the Michael Group. The Michael Group is just finishing up the Stephen’s Apartments project with EHC. Looking forward to many more successful projects with them in the future.

Ellen Frost of the Michael Group and Joyce Moskovitz, Senior VP at Bank of America Merrill Lynch chat about MAHC’s Housing Day as well as where the industry is headed in the next year.

 

Denise Murphy and Tracey Pomponio of Murphy Consulting LLC enjoy the great snacks at Tavern 101 with Randy Kuser, Project Manager of the Michael Group and Steve Rubin of Harkins Builders.

Thanks to HAND for putting together a great event! Looking forward to seeing everyone again at the 20th Anniversary Annual Luncheon in May! 

Celebrating MLK Jr. at the Druid Hill YMCA Family Center

The Y of Central Maryland celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr at it’s 36th Annual MLK Breakfast at the Druid Hill YMCA Family Center. The Michael Group is proud to have played a leadership role in the renovation of this historic center.

This year’s breakfast featured Dr. Carnell Cooper, a surgery professor and founder of the Baltimore City Violence Prevention Program. Dr. Cooper credited programs like those at the Druid Hill Y Family Center for making the life saving difference in many youths lives.

The audience, including Lt. Governor Anthony Brown was captivated by 17 year old Kenneth Franklin and his story about the positive roll the Druid Hill YMCA Family Center has had in his life. Franklin passionately told a story of his friend who was shot and killed in his neighborhood. Franklin was at the Y that night instead of hanging out with his friends on the street. He credits the Y with saving his life that night.

 Left to Right: Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, Dr. Carnell Cooper, Founder of the Violence Prevention Program, Michael Shacklette, The Michael Group, Y Baltimore City Community Advisory Board, Perry P. Savoy, Peristyle LLC, Y Baltimore City Community Advisory Board (Chair), Commissioner Evan Richardson, MD Commission on African American History & Culture, Andrea Jackson, DPN Group LLC, Y Baltimore City Community Advisory Board

Positive Change is Coming to Coppin Heights

On a cold January morning, dignitaries,community stake holders, leaders of Copping university, staff of the Michael Group and many others came out to celebrate the beginning of the Coppin Heights Urban Revitalization project. Lead by a partnership between Coppin Heights Community Development Corporation, Coppin State University and the City of Baltimore’s Vacants to Values program, the Coppin Heights Urban Revitalization will bring new housing, increased public safety, jobs and more to the west Baltimore corridor of North Avenue.

 

As the General Contractor, The Michael Group Inc will begin by renovating one existing row house, building one new town house from the ground up and installing one modular home on a vacant parcel on North Avenue. In addition to the Coppin Heights Urban Revitalization project. The Michael Group has been working in Coppin Heights for last year on the St. Stephen’s Court Apartments project. Each of these important community projects will have a lasting positive effect on the neighborhood.

Stabilization of the existing home has begun. Developer Wendy Blair, together with the Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake and Dr. Gary Rodwell, Executive Director of Coppin Heights CDC stand inside the existing unit reviewing the long term plans for the neighborhood.

We’ll keep you updated on our progress!

Photos by Mark Dennis, Office of the Mayor.

Celebrating with New Song!

The spirit of giving permeates all of the work New Song Urban Ministries does in Sandtown. The Michael Group has been partnering with New Song Urban Ministries for the past several years. Our first project with New Song was Gerry’s Goods back in 2008. Gerry’s is a corner store/cafe owned by Gerry Palmer in partnership with New Song Urban Ministries. To celebrate it’s 2nd Anniversary, Gerry’s is donating over 150 snacks to the students at a local school.

Our current project with New Song is the construction of New Song Square. This exciting project includes a complete rehabilitation of an existing structure to include teacher’s offices, lounge and conference room. An addition will be constructed which will provide a new dance studio, art studio, preschool and kindergarten as well as classrooms for first through fourth grade. The new school will be connected to the existing school by a bridge that spans over Presstman Street.

To celebrate the holidays, the Michael Group donated and delivered over 150 cups of hot chocolate and bags of chocolate chip cookies to the students and New Song Academy.

Together with staff from Gerry’s Goods and New Song Urban Ministries, the Michael Group went classroom to classroom handing out treats from Gerry’s.

 

The kids loved every minute of it! (So did we!)

We’re looking forward to continuing our work with New Song in 2011! We’ll keep you updated on our construction progress as New Song Square gets started.