Old Town Is Growing Up Fast

I love Old Town Frederick, the restaurants, the shops, the lights at Christmas, just the whole feel of it. Old Town is so uniquely Frederick. But with the Carroll Creek Project speeding to completion the make-up of Old Town may be changing.

For example, the Homes at Market Square is a new residential development that is being built in Old Town. It consists of condos and townhouses with prices starting at $495,000. That's right half a million dollar condos are coming to Frederick.

With prices starting at $495,000, the Homes at Market Square could be country estates - but this upscale housing is in downtown Frederick.

The project, consisting of 14 luxury townhouses and condominiums, is under development on South Market Street, a long-depressed neighborhood that has become one of the city's hottest residential markets as buyers seek homes in the historic district near the downtown MARC station.

Scheduled for completion next year, it is the latest in a number of upscale residential developments planned or under way in the low-lying area near Carroll Creek. A flood-control project completed in 1996 virtually eliminated the flood threat and turned the banks of the creek into a paved walkway through a neighborhood ripe for redevelopment.

The $9 million Homes at Market Square project, by the Rockville-based Brodsky Group, combines new construction with some of the 18th- and 19th-century buildings that give the downtown its charm. The units range from two-bedroom condos to four-bedroom townhomes ranging from $625,000 to $749,900.

But you have to take the good with the bad. For every residential development out of the price range of most Frederick residents you get something like this ...

The Downtown Frederick Partnership wants to take its support of the arts to a whole new level by developing a downtown building where artists can live and work.

The group is hiring Artspace, a Minneapolis-based consulting firm, this month to produce a $12,000 study to kick off the ambitious project.

Arts and entertainment is part of downtown’s economic niche that is blessed with support from government and residents, according to Downtown Frederick Partnership director Kara Norman.

‘‘We want to do something big to support the Arts and Entertainment District because it is important to downtown," she said. ‘‘People go downtown to see a show, they go to dinner, maybe do a little bit of shopping. They are looking to have a fun and enjoyable time. The arts increases the vibrancy of downtown... and this project supports that idea."

Will I ever live in the artist retreat, probably not. I just think it is great to see something like this in Frederick. So what is the future of Old Town? Only time will tell, but I feel it's pretty good as long they still let the "poor" folk like me in.