Station North Arts and Entertainment District
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Station North Arts and Entertainment District

The Station North Arts and Entertainment District (often referred to as just Station North) is an area and official arts and entertainment district in the U.S. city of Baltimore, Maryland. The neighborhood is marked by a combination of artistically leaning commercial ventures, such as theaters and museums, as well as formerly abandoned warehouses that have since been converted into loft-style living. It is roughly triangular, bounded on the north by 20th Street, on the east by Greenmount Avenue, and on the south and west by the tracks of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, though the neighborhood's boundaries include a one-block wide extension over the tracks.

Station North is composed of portions of three Baltimore neighborhoods: Charles North, Greenmount West, and Barclay.

In recent decades, the area represented a relatively impoverished area between the wealthier neighborhoods of Mount Vernon, Bolton Hill, and Charles Village. However, a number of factors also made the area amenable to redevelopment and gentrification.[citation needed]

Many of even the poorer sections of the neighborhood feature three-story, early 20th-century rowhouses as the main housing stock; the Maryland Institute College of Art is within walking distance; and Penn Station lies at the south edge of the neighborhood, providing walking-distance access to Amtrak, Light Rail and MARC commuter rail service (the latter being of particular interest to those commuting to Washington, D.C.). The real estate bubble of the 2000s caused Baltimore's housing prices to skyrocket, and drove home buyers seeking out cheaper areas on the upswing to the neighborhood.[citation needed]

The Baltimore city government's 2002 designation of the area as an arts district has furthered the neighborhood's transformation. The earliest and most visible signs of change were the official conversion of several industrial and warehouse buildings to mixed-use housing. The Copycat Building is probably the best known, but two other buildings — the Oliver Street Studios Building (which also houses Area 405 and the Station North Tool Library) and the Cork Factory — are also occupied. These buildings have been in use recently as artist's studios and benefitted by the area winning the State of Maryland's first Arts and Entertainment District status under then-mayor Martin O'Malley. Such designation paved the way for these buildings to be rezoned for residential use, due to the collaboration between multiple building owners in The District.

The Korean immigrant community in the city was the most solid from the 1970s until the 1990s, after which urban flight led many Koreans to settle in surrounding counties, particularly Howard County. A cluster of Korean establishments still exist in the lower part of Charles Village and the Station North Arts and Entertainment District.

The neighborhood's commercial, residential, and artistic venues began to thrive.[citation needed] The commercial district on Charles Street is anchored by the Charles Theatre, an art house multiplex that also serves as the anchor venue for the annual Maryland Film Festival each May, as well as Artscape (a music and arts festival) each Labor Day weekend, as well as a number of galleries, cafés and theaters. One block away is the Charm City Art Space which serves as a Music Venue, and Art Gallery. The nearby "Chicken Box" is home to the Baltimore Annex Theater.

In Maryland, the State Department of Business and Economic Development designates certain neighborhoods “arts and entertainment districts”, which confers three specific tax breaks. Artists who live and work in the district are offered property-tax credits on qualifying renovations, can apply for an income-tax credit when they make money on their art, and are given a waiver of the admissions and amusement tax charged by the city. Artists who live or work in Station North may qualify for certain tax breaks by submitting Form 502AE (Subtraction For Income Derived Within An Arts and Entertainment District) with their Maryland Tax Returns. Major tax benefits concerning building usage are also in place, with assessment freezes and building rehab credits to encourage growth.[citation needed]

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