Growing up in West Baltimore, Monesha Phillips used to tell her parents she wanted to be an “entrepreneur,” even before she understood the meaning of the word. Phillips, who now runs Pandora’s Box gift shop in Federal Hill, said she feels like she’s taking her youthful aspirations to new heights this summer, expanding her business to Harborplace along with several other small merchants. “For me it’s like a dream, having this opportunity to open up a business on a waterfront property,” Phillips said.
“Most small businesses like myself don’t have the opportunity or luxury or the means.” Pandora’s Box, which sells jewelry, gifts, home decor and accessories, is among seven Black-owned businesses chosen to open in June at the iconic waterfront attraction in a temporary tenancy program. Harborplace, which for years lost tenants and patronage under former ownership, finds itself at the center of a debate about how best to renew the city’s downtown district as a controversial redevelopment plan is considered.
Its latest owner, MCB Real Estate, has proposed razing the twin retail pavilions and replacing them with a mixed-use project that will include apartments and offices as well as shops, restaurants and parkland. The proposal, which requires changing the city charter, will go to voters as a ballot question in November. Opponents, meanwhile, are waging a campaign to defeat that question, arguing that the plans would forever strip the city and state of one of .