Wire Star Looks to Revitalize Station North Arts District

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Gambling on a project to help turn a Baltimore neighborhood around. It's happening in the Station North Arts district.

And it brought one actor from "The Wire" back to Baltimore.

Penn Station is across the street. Restaurants and the Charles Theatre are around the corner. At a site cleared for construction, Wendell Pierce was mingling with nearby residents Tuesday.

His role this time? Investor.

New apartments and shops are coming to the area, and for Pierce, the payoff means more than a profit.

"If we can look at India and China as developing markets, we can look at our under-served communities of our cities as developing markets, too," he said.

Artists who lend their talent to this project will be offered apartments at reduced rent, a strategy to keep people in the neighborhood.

"People who suffer through a bad neighborhood without resources, when those resources start to come in, they shouldn't be kicked out. And I think that's how people are going to advance," said project developer Ernst Valery.

And as an investor selling that goal, "I'm not going to say what I say on "The Wire," but shoot, it's going to be good," Pierce said.

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