A school building that has sat empty for more than a decade in Baltimore's Waverly neighborhood is one step closer to becoming apartments for the people who teach in the city's classrooms.
On Wednesday, Oct. 7, Baltimore's Board of Estimates approved a land disposition agreement that clears the way for the city to sell the former Waverly Middle School at 707 E. 34th St. to Waverly Eco-Village LLC. According to Baltimore Fishbowl, the team plans to turn it into the "Waverly Teachers' Eco-Village," a 37-unit residential community.
The development team is led by Schreiber Brothers Development LLC, a Baltimore-based community revitalization and affordable housing company that works in transitional neighborhoods. The city's Department of Housing and Community Development picked the team through a request for proposals.
The building and the plan
Baltimore Fishbowl describes the building as a three-story, 30,000-square-foot school built in 1959, though the developer's state bond fact sheet lists it at 33,705 square feet and gives 1954 as the construction year. It most recently housed Waverly Middle School No. 51 and, before that, Venable High School. It sits on 41,387 square feet of land, about four-fifths of an acre.
A project description on file with the Maryland General Assembly lays out the vision. It says the conversion will create "a zero-energy residential community" with "37 high-quality apartments for Baltimore City teachers, para-educators and school staff, offering stable and affordable workforce housing within walking distance of nine local schools and the Johns Hopkins University School of Education." The plan also includes indoor and outdoor community spaces meant to serve both residents and neighbors.
The total estimated cost is about $13.3 million. The developer's 2026 bond initiative fact sheet breaks that into roughly $12.1 million for construction and $1.2 million for design, funded mostly by a $9.1 million CDFI first mortgage and about $3 million in impact investment equity, plus state energy-efficiency grants and zero-energy rebates. The apartments will be one- and two-bedroom units.
The architect is Onion Flats Architecture, which lists the job as a deep energy retrofit aiming for Passive House certification and net-zero energy, using all-electric systems and solar panels.
This has been a long time coming. City Council legislation authorizing the sale cleared the council's Ways and Means Committee in 2023 and the full council in 2024.
How the deal works
Here's where it gets interesting. The city housing department puts the building's appraised value at $975,000. The sale price is $206,900, or $773,100 below appraisal.
The housing department explained the discount on the Board of Estimates agenda: the property's "poor condition requires extensive and immediate remediation." The department said the balance of the appraised value "will be considered as the City's equity contribution to the project," and that the sale and renovation "will be a specific benefit to the community, eliminate blight, and return a vacant building to the tax rolls."
Under the agreement, the developer pays $5,000 at settlement. The remaining $201,900 is covered by a purchase money mortgage held by the city, with no regular payments due until the property is sold, refinanced or transferred.
The board also approved a capital projects grant agreement with the State of Maryland and Schreiber Brothers. According to Baltimore Fishbowl, the grant, approved by the General Assembly, will provide up to $1.25 million in state general obligation bond proceeds for the project. The developer's 2026 fact sheet had requested $500,000, and the coverage doesn't explain the difference.
The fact sheet says design is complete, city approvals are in place and a general contractor has been selected, but it doesn't name the builder, and we couldn't find one named publicly. It projected construction running from September 2026 to September 2027; no start has been announced.
Why it matters for Contractors
Converting a mid-century school into 37 zero-energy apartments is the kind of job that tests a whole team. Before anyone frames a wall, the city says the building needs "extensive and immediate remediation," which points to early work for environmental and abatement contractors and selective demolition crews. After that comes a heavy MEP package, since classrooms don't come with kitchens or bathrooms in every unit. And a Passive House, net-zero target means an airtight envelope, high-performance windows and insulation, all-electric mechanical systems and a solar array, so contractors with deep energy retrofit experience have a real edge. With a general contractor reportedly already selected, subs and suppliers should reach out to Schreiber Brothers now to find out who's running the job.