When the Sisserman family opened a cosmetology school at 18 N. Howard St. in 1973, the bustle of the area — now known as the Superblock — mirrored that of Manhattan, with plenty of pedestrian traffic filing in and out of small businesses, restaurants and offices.

Some 50 years later, that stretch of Howard Street is a “dead block,” said Samara Sisserman, daughter-in-law of the Baltimore Studio of Hair Design’s founder.

Then the school moved a few blocks north on Howard after being displaced by the city in 2002 to make way for redevelopment in and around the Superblock.

“We’re obviously happy to be here, but it’s never been the same,” Sisserman said, noting that the school’s students count on ample public transit nearby. “But we keep waiting for something to move this way.”

Businesses have come and gone, but those that stayed said they feel disillusioned by the politicians — seven mayors and counting — and developers who have made promise after promise about what the area could become. Instead, they’ve been forced to navigate the circumstances of what never happened.

The Superblock is a two-block parcel bounded by Howard, Lexington and Fayette streets and Park Avenue. It’s part of what the city defines as the heart of its downtown, which has about 9,500 residents, according to a Banner analysis of census data.

Paul Sturm passes the Superblock on his walks to Lexington Market and laments the lack of redevelopment during his 18 years as a downtown resident.

But change may finally be coming.

A five-alarm fire in September destroyed about a dozen Superblock buildings, some of them with historic designations. That may clear an easier path for redevelopment; previous plans had hit hurdles with preservationists. And now, the Baltimore Development Corp. will lead the Superblock project, saying it will prioritize small businesses.

People like the Sissermans and Sturm hope this time will be different.

Small business shuffle

The Cho family remembers when they could look out of their store windows on West Lexington Street and see people, not passing cars. They’ve owned businesses in downtown Baltimore since 1976.

The department stores, including Hutzler’s and Hecht’s, clustered near Lexington and Howard, had made the area a premier shopping destination since the 19th century. The draw of these big stores helped smaller businesses thrive.

But by the 1990s, the department stores had pulled up stakes, many of the area’s buildings were falling into disrepair and the city wanted to redevelop it.

Baltimore’s City elected officials passed a law in 1999 giving the local government the power to condemn properties and remove businesses if the owners refused to sell. The following year, the city’s Board of Estimates voted unanimously to take over five properties in the area.

Young Cho, who owns Lexington Beauty Supply, was part of a group of business owners who did not want to sell their buildings to the city.

Cho, now 82, and her husband, Bong Cho, 89, had only owned the West Lexington Street building for a few years, after stints as renters on Eutaw Street and at another West Lexington Street building.

After the city condemned some 127 buildings, “business went so down,” Young Cho said.

She waited for years to be informed about whether her property would be taken or if she could stay. By 2008, several buildings on the north side of West Lexington Street were acquired by the BDC, but were never offered to developers, The Baltimore Sun reported.

Decades have gone by. Cho and her husband are still at the West Lexington Street storefront that was initially a nail and hair salon.

They would like to retire soon, but they haven’t had much luck finding someone to take over or buy the building. They believe their storefront, sandwiched between a vacant building and a wig shop, has the potential to become something else: “Dunkin’ or Starbucks,” Cho said.

The city’s 1999 push in the area also forced Lou and Judy Boulmetis to relocate their 85-year-old custom hat business, the Hippodrome Hatters, at 15 N. Eutaw St. The city acquired and demolished their four-story building in pursuit of redeveloping the Hippodrome Theatre, which opened in 1914, and building more apartments.

Lou Boulmetis told The Sun in 2000 that he was worried he would go out of business during the theater’s rehab.

Boulmetis was offered $127,000 to move, fought for the $219,000 the property was assessed at, and moved into a storefront at 318 W. Baltimore St. in the early 2000s.

Hippodrome Hatters closed in 2015, and Lou Boulmetis died four years later.

Judy Boulmetis is one of many who have given up on downtown.

“I mean, it’s just, it’s enough already,” she said in a phone interview. “It’s not going to be a commercial district again. I think the best thing to do would be to make it a parking lot.”

After the city bought the beauty school out of its space in 2002, the Sissermans purchased a three-story building at 318 N. Howard St. that was in disrepair. It had been the Scheinman store in the 1930s, the Fur Outlet Company in the 1940s, and the Hess shoe store in the 1970s.

Using the nearly $93,000 relocation payment from the city and loans, they fixed holes in the roof, installed central air and heat and overhauled the building’s plumbing and electrical system. The first floor was built out for the school, but the Sissermans haven’t had the money to fix up the two floors above it, they said.

Founder Larry Sisserman died in 2014. Maxine Sisserman said her late husband was excited about the idea of redevelopment for Howard Street and planned to renovate the rest of their building as the area was reviving.

But that day still hasn’t come, and now the soft subfloors of the upper levels are covered in small mounds of crumbled ceiling tiles. The wallpaper from decades past is water-damaged and dust sits in the undisturbed air.

A hole in downtown

The Superblock is a short walk from the Hippodrome Theatre and Everyman Theatre. It’s two blocks from the 14,000-capacity CFG Arena. There’s also nearby Lexington Market, which reopened in 2023 after a $45 million facelift.

But the revamps and renovations haven’t had the ripple effect city officials hoped for — leaving its residents waiting for more.

Paul Sturm uses the analogy of a doughnut to describe the area: a hole lacking street life.

He has called Baltimore’s Charles Plaza home since 2007 and is ready to see his stomping grounds live up to its “potential to be one of the most vibrant urban spaces, not just in Baltimore, but in this country,” he said.

On his walk from his apartment to Lexington Market, where he likes to get Berger cookies, he passes the vacant storefronts, a Mexican restaurant he likes and the graffiti-covered metal security gates along the Superblock.

Sturm recalls the initial media stir about a Superblock that was supposed to “bring life back to this part of Baltimore,” he said.

“Here we are 18 years later,” Sturm said. “That didn’t happen.”

Not-so-healthy Howard Row

Six years ago, as the Superblock sat untouched, a small section north on Howard Street was finally about to transform. It would become the only redevelopment in recent years that was successful in bringing new business and foot traffic to the area.

Poverni Sheikh Group finished the renovations on five vacant and crumbling buildings on Howard Street and Franklin Avenue in January 2020, turning them into a new mixed-use development with 39 apartments and five storefronts.

The real estate developer and the Market Center Merchants Association created the Howard Row Small Business Storefront Competition to fill some of the newly available commercial space.

Cuples Tea House and Cajou Creamery were the first two businesses to move into Howard Row in 2021. Both businesses won one year of free rent and funds to help them build out their stores.

“When we opened in 2021, our thoughts were that this would continue to spread down Howard Street,” said Lynette Dodson, co-owner of Cuples Tea House and Vinyl and Pages. “We were hearing talks about Superblock,” and “the importance of Howard Street to the city.”

Dominique Allen, owner of Vegan Juiceology, coined the moniker “Healthy Howard Row.”

Allen knew the area wasn’t great, but its poor reputation wasn’t enough to deter her from being part of what she thought would become an evolution. Plus, she was in good company, having the Dodsons, along with Dwight Campbell and Nicole Foster of Cajou Creamery, right next door.

But all three businesses experienced issues almost immediately. Some came with the territory of doing business on Howard Street, like a lack of parking and “coming soon” signs for developments that would never seem to start or just went away.

Some problems only seemed to get worse with time.

Unhoused people sleeping on the steps of their stores, never-ending trash on the sidewalk and requests for proper street lighting that went unanswered.

The Dodsons saw an increase in crime: a slew of car break-ins and a brick through their store window. They were left disturbed by the murder of 26-year-old tech CEO Pava LaPere, which happened in the apartment building across from their stores in 2023.

Campbell told The Banner at the time that the incident was like a punch to the chest.

Many business owners said they felt celebrated when the city needed a Black-owned business to tout, but alone when they encountered troubles.

Around January 2024, sales and foot traffic slumped, and the building’s property management company drastically increased the rent, the owners said. As their leases came to an end, all three businesses decided to move on from Howard Street.

Allen moved Vegan Juiceology in September 2024 to join its sister brand, All Good Things Café, in Reservoir Hill. The Dodsons moved Cuples Tea House and Vinyl and Pages to Harborplace in April, another area near the city’s downtown that has struggled for decades.

Cajou Creamery is the last business from the original Healthy Howard Row collective on the block. But not for long. Campbell and Foster are planning to relocate their business in the coming months.

“Howard Street hasn’t changed,” Campbell said. “We tried to come in and inject some life into the block, because it used to be that block. But now it’s just one of those statistics on the balance sheets of municipalities.”

Future plans

Under new leadership, the Baltimore Development Corp, the city’s economic development arm, will now lead the redevelopment of the Superblock, and will find a private partner to get the work done, CEO Otis Rolley told The Banner last month.

Rolley said he plans to unveil a new redevelopment plan in the latter half of next year, get capital and investments between 2027 and 2028, and finish what will become a mixed-use “Main Street” by 2031.

Unlike outside developers who might prioritize profit, Rolley said, the BDC is “going to have a heightened sensitivity to be much more inclusive of small and mid-sized businesses.”

Rolley said he’s inclined to make sure there’s vibrancy and exciting choices that will attract residents coming into the neighborhood.

Small businesses haven’t been part of the planning process in the past, Rolley said, and he wants to change that this time around.

“It was almost like the Superblock was held hostage,” said Maxine Sisserman of the Baltimore Studio of Hair Design. “This was going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it just never materialized, and it languished so long that a lot of the small businesses in the area just couldn’t hold on.”

Banner editor Greg Morton contributed to this story.