For decades, a religious non-profit has occupied a double-wide and unassuming building at the southeast corner of 19th & Bainbridge. The foreign missions arm of the National Baptist Convention, the Foreign Mission Board (FMB), operates numerous mission stations in Africa, the Caribbean, and Central America. Though the group’s mission is primarily missionary in nature, it also offers educational services, health services, various supplies, and building repair and maintenance services in some incredibly poor communities. From what we can tell, FMB has been working out of this corner space since at least the 1930s, making them one of the longest term property owners in the entire neighborhood.

As the demolition notice on the building suggests, though, that last sentence really should have been in the past tense. FMB listed these properties for an astounding $1.5M last summer, ultimately selling them a few months later for a still significant $1.15M. Zatos Investments has a sign in the window, indicating they’ll be developing the property and thanks to their Instagram feed, we see they’re planning a six-unit condo building here. Given the purchase price for the property, we have to think that these units, designed by Gnome Architects, will come at a hefty price point. No renderings yet though, we’re sorry to say.

This developer is taking a keen interest in this neighborhood, as they’ve also purchased the apartment building catty corner to their upcoming project. Also thanks to their social media feed, we see that they’ll be renovating this building and maintaining it as a rental property. Add in another condo project at 19th & Christian and a couple one-off projects on Kater Street, and we see Zatos expanding their presence in Graduate Hospital. Figure these won’t be the last projects in this neighborhood for this developer, and we have to think that future projects will take a similar approach in terms of density and sale price. After all, Grad Hospital is in very high demand, especially when it comes to new construction, so we expect Zatos and other developers to continue to think along these lines.