Robin Godwin: New Wayfinding, Neon Signs, and Mural to Direct People Between Cross Street Market and West Street Garage

As part of Caves Valley Partners’ (CVP) $8-million redevelopment of Cross Street Market, CVP Partner Arsh Mirmiran wanted to clean up the 1100 block Patapsco St. and ensure visitors knew how to get from the market to West Street Garage. CVP is partnering with Pizza Boli’s and the West Street Garage to add new a new mural, signage, and wayfinding to this block.

Cross Street Market and West Street Garage are separated by a half of a block. With more than 20 new restaurants and food vendors coming to the 31,800 sq. ft. Cross Street Market, Mirmiran knows the West Street Garage will be essential to accommodate visitors from outside of Federal Hill.

Pizza Boli’s is in a one-story building at the corner of E. Cross St. and Patapsco St. It sits adjacent to both the Cross Street Market and West Street Garage. The cinderblock sidewall of Pizza Boli’s facing Patapsco is painted white and beige, and the back wall facing West Street Garage is also white.

CVP and its leasing partner CANAdev worked with Younts Design Inc. and Pizza Boli’s on a new design and mural for this building. The storefront of Pizza Boli’s and a small portion of the wall on Patapsco will be painted beige, green, and red and will be wrapped with a new Pizza Boli’s awning.

The rest of the wall on Patapsco will be painted charcoal with a large ‘Cross Street Market, ESTD. 1846 – Federal Hill’ wayfinding design pointing towards Cross Street Market. At the back corner of this wall is a ‘West St. Parking’ wayfinding sign pointing directly at the garage.

The back wall of the building will be painted charcoal with white signs for both Pizza Boli’s and Cross Street Market.

Mirmiran said this mural could start any day.

CVP, CANAdev, Younts, and Parking Authority of Baltimore City (PABC) are partnering on new neon signs for the West Street Garage. The new signs will be in the same style of the newly-added vintage black and white Cross Street Market sign on the Light St. entrance. This same sign will also be added to the S. Charles St. entrance of the market.

CVP paid for the designing of the signs and PABC will pay to install them.

On the Patapsco St. facade of the West Street Garage, situated at the corner adjacent to Pizza Boli’s, will be a vertical ‘West St. Parking’ neon sign. A circular ‘P’ neon sign will also be installed at the corner of Patapsco and West St. above a square ‘Cross Street Market, ESTD. 1846 – Federal Hill’ neon sign.

The front facade of the West Street Garage on West St. will have another vertical ‘West St. Parking’ vertical sign.

The two vertical ‘West St. Parking’ signs are replacing old blue and green signs.

Mirmiran said signage installation should start in the next couple of weeks.

West Street Garage currently has three parking decks and was built so that a fourth deck with about 90 new parking spots could be added in the future. This idea has been pushed in recent years by Federal Hill business owners and Councilman Eric Costello, but there is no current plan in place to move it forward.

Cross Street Market is currently closed, but Mirmiran said it will likely reopen in mid-April, though it’s possible it could open before that. The first four businesses to open will be longtime Cross Street Market vendors including restaurant Steve’s Lunch, butcher shop Fenwick Meats, and candy store The Sweet Shoppe, which is adding Taharka Bros. ice cream to its offering, as well as the new addition coffee shop Ceremony Coffee Roasters, which is based in Annapolis.

Mirmiran expects to have 10-12 vendors open by Memorial Day. This will include Annoula’s Kitchen, a modern Mediterranean soup and sandwich place from Anna Leventis, owner of SoBo Market and SoBo Café; Cans Filling Station, a craft beer concept from Will Glass of Taps Fill Station, which has locations at Mt. Vernon Marketplace and The Bourse in Philadelphia; Ono Poké, a poké and Hawaiian-style restaurant that has a location Downtown; and Taco Love Grill, a family-run taqueria based in White Marsh; Burger Bar from the team at Southside Diner; Vietnamese pho restaurant from Hanover Phubs; Korean concept Rice Crook; and Haitian cuisine farmer’s market and event business Sobeachy.

Additional vendors, some which will also be open by Memorial Day, will be announced in the coming weeks. Mirmiran said about seven to eight stalls will begin construction in the next week.

Specific vendors have not been announced yet, but Cross Street Market will have a wine bar, a craft cocktail bar, and vendors selling produce, cheese, and additional groceries. CVP also has a signed letter of intent with an approximately 5,000 sq. ft. seafood restaurant and fresh seafood stall that will replace the former Nick’s Inner Harbor Seafood.

Pizza Boli’s

Screenshot courtesy of Google Maps