Port 44 and Ritchie Revival: Can targeted determination help rejuvenate communities?

Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a series of stories looking at investment in the Hagerstown area over the past few years. Hagerstown might be the hub, but not all the new development is happening there. This week, we're profiling the visionaries behind two targeted redevelopment efforts on opposite ends of Washington County.

For the best part of two decades, a once active Army installation in Cascade languished while various entities struggled to settle on an appropriate use for it.

In Williamsport, several venerable buildings needed rejuvenation — too much, in practical terms, for the owner to tackle.

The course looked a little dim in each situation until someone stepped forward who was both troubled by the state of things and had a vision for what could be.

And now, just a few years later, Port 44 in Williamsport and Ritchie Revival in Cascade are seeing the fruits of their efforts.

It hasn't all been smooth sailing, perhaps, but they're demonstrating what can happen when determination and foresight are targeted on a specific area.

The goal is stated succinctly on the Port 44 website: "We're revitalizing our community, one historical building at a time."

She was just a small-town girl … with a great big dream

Selena Wilkes grew up in Williamsport. After high school, she went away to college and then toured the country as a professional golfer.

"It's kind of funny because I was always encouraged, 'Hey, go away, learn, figure yourself out, see the world, see the country," she said, "'but one thing — don't forget where you came from.'

"And that always stuck to my head, because I've traveled all over the United States playing professional golf and things like that. And I've run into a lot of great people and places. But you know, the back of my mind, I always said, you know, when the time is right, I need to move back home."

She had the opportunity in 2011 to buy back a farm that had been in her family, where she and her sister now operate Elmwood Farm Bed & Breakfast and Event Venue.

But she was disheartened by the number of businesses no longer operating in Williamsport.

"When I was a kid, Williamsport was a thriving, small manufacturing town," Wilkes recalled. "But by the time I came back, all that was gone. And it was just like, oh my gosh, what in the heck happened to our town?"

Her sister Lettie also had left and was a college volleyball coach. But she was looking for a career change. So when Wilkes called and asked if she'd come back and help run Elmwood Farm, she took up the offer.

Once Lettie was in place, Wilkes had another suggestion.

"I said to her, 'Now you're gonna laugh at me,'" Wilkes said, "because people look at me like I'm crazy; they thought I was crazy when I did the B&B, but it turned out great. My next step was, well, we're right on the (Interstates) 81 and 70 interchange, we're between two national parks — Antietam Battlefield and the (Chesapeake and Ohio) Canal, but we've got a problem. This town has nothing.

"And I said, 'I've always said I believed in giving back to good causes, good things … and our community, our town needs our help.' And I said, 'We're not millionaires, but by God, we got a vision and we can make things happen.'

"And she looked at me and said, 'Selena, you're right.'"

Though they didn't have the money, Wilkes said "we can make the community effort and we'll figure it out … we have got to get this town turned around to attract tourism." And that would not only affect economic development for Washington County and the state, she said, "but it's also helping all the other local businesses thrive, like ourselves."

She reasoned that since tourists visiting the C&O Canal also visit the battlefield, "if we don't capture that, they're going to Shepherdstown, W.Va.," for meals and such, "and that means the state of West Virginia takes our revenue."

'You're reading my mind'

She started doing research and as she was thinking about how to resolve the problem she saw, the owner of a Williamsport building approached her and suggested she buy it.

He'd been impressed by the restoration of Elmwood Farm, and said "'I think you can fix this up and you could help fix up this town.' And I kind of looked at him like 'why me? I mean, this is crazy, even though I had been thinking about it, but you're reading my mind.'

"And he said, 'You're the person to do it.'"

She discussed it with her sister. "She said, 'Selena, I've been around you long enough, I know you when you when you're on to something, it's gonna happen. I'm on board. But let's figure out a plan."

They recruited three partners — Susie Miller, Brenda Paul and Jesse Burgoon — and Port 44, named in reference to Williamsport's history as a canal town, was born. That was in 2019.

"We started out with one, and then ended up with 20 buildings," Wilkes said.

Of those, 17 are on Conococheague Street and three are on Salisbury Street. Timing helped spur that expansion, she said. While they were working on the first building, "a family and a gentleman owned a lot of buildings," Wilkes said. "They were in clusters," and he was ready to sell. "It was a situation where we were blessed … we're Williamsport people, and we were young, and he thought that we were the change it needed.

"With that project, not only are we revitalizing the town, but we're actually improving the whole income bracket as well."

Their work on Concococheague Street is naturally improving its environment, she said. "People either want to be part of something good, or it's not for them and they leave," she said.

Port 44's plan is to spread what they see as needed and beneficial businesses along Conococheague Street, peppered with newly renovated luxury apartments. Seven of those apartments are completed and occupied, and there's a waiting list of potential tenants.

Businesses are moving in, too. Five business spaces are occupied with restaurants, offices and retail. Wilkes rattled off a list of about a dozen more coming, ranging from an Overloaded Outdoors store to a bakery and other eateries, a bike shop, a "fresh" market with meats and produce, a "health hub" fitness and wellness center, boutiques, a gift shop and more retail.

Also planned are a winery and a rooftop bar.

Some of those businesses came to Port 44, she said, but the partners recruited many of them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But "we all have strong faith," Wilkes said. "We pull each other up, and I can't tell you how many highs and lows we've had … but we've all come together.

"I've always looked forward to our group meeting; I always know when we come together for that meeting come up with resolutions or ways to resolve things, I always know we're gonna figure it out."

After 20 years of angst, a mountaintop miracle?

Fort Ritchie in Cascade had been a busy place for a long time.

First as a camp for the Maryland National Guard, then as a training base during World War II with a mission so secretive hardly anyone knew about it until this century. And finally as a permanent U.S. Army installation.

Permanent until 1998, that is, when Army operations closed as a result of base realignment decisions.

The PenMar Development Corp. was formed to market the bulk of the more than 600-acre fort, but after years of mostly fruitless efforts, its fate ultimately rested with the county government — which also tried to market it and finally opted to sell it.

The buyer, John Krumpotich of Cascade, purchased about 500 acres of the fort in 2021, including its administrative buildings, lakes, and 58 of its housing units.

Krumpotich is a financial planner with some experience renovating old homes. But some of the fort's buildings were in "monstrous" condition, he told The Herald-Mail earlier this year. And like the women of Port 44, he was frustrated by the decline of his community that resulted from the exit of its major player.

"I just hated how this was. It's hard when you're investing in an area like we already were in Cascade with other rentals, and you've got a crumbling military base in your backyard," he said. "So, if you're going to invest in an area, what better way than to take on the biggest project in this little area?"

Fast-forward to September 2023, and the former base is bustling with activity again. Krumpotich put together a team to revitalize the fort — a building at a time — and now new occupants are moving in all over the property.

The first order of business was to renovate the housing units — all now occupied, Krumpotich confirmed last week — and Lakeside Hall, the former officers' club that now is a popular event venue.

Two manufacturers operate in larger facilities toward the back of the fort, and there's a café, an ice cream shop, the Flat Top salon suites and a museum dedicated to the fort's extensive history. Meritus Health operates a clinic at the fort.

Special events, including a regular farmers' market and the "Haunting of Historic Fort Ritchie" Halloween attraction opening this weekend is attracting people to the fort, too. And soon, visitors will have more reasons to head for the mountain.

"In less than a month now we will have the Fort Ritchie Artisan Village and the Nisei Gallery will be online; should be Oct. 20," Krumpotich said. And the Top Secret Taproom could be open by mid-Novermber, he said.

"Following those, we are really going to be starting hot and heavy on the 'finger building' project which is bringing those 35 structures back online," he said.

The "finger buildings" are the small, nearly identical structures lining one side of Barrick Avenue at the fort. New roofs were added to them in the spring.

They've served over the years as small mess halls, classrooms and offices. But Krumpotich has new plans for them — "it's a mix between boutique residential (apartments), small commercial as well as overnight stays," he said.

"We have some other projects that are in there and other lessees that are going to be coming in, which is exciting," he said. "But at the same time, the finger building and Barrack Avenue Project, that's our front door and that's really where our focus is going to be in 2024."

Although he couldn't divulge details, he expects "recreation-based" development along Lake Royer Drive.

'Nothing's gonna happen with that place'

After years of non-starters, Cascade residents wondered whether anything could be done with the fort.

"That was a lot of motivation for us, for my wife and I really, because you know you had a large contingent of folks up here for 25 years (who) had a crumbling military base in their backyard with seemingly no hope of it being renovated," Krumpotich said. "It crushed property values. I mean, it really it wasn't a positive for anyone.

"I had plenty of people tell me, as I was in the purchase process, how 'nothing's gonna happen with that place.'

"But we never believed that."

That's not to say there was never a time when they wondered what they'd gotten themselves into.

"Absolutely you have those moments," he said, "but you've just got to find a spot and get started."

And the result?

"We're at a spot right now, which we never thought we would be, that it takes us longer to get the tenants in (because of available renovated space) as opposed to not having the interest."

Krumpotich said the response among his neighbors in Cascade has been "overwhelmingly positive. You know, all of them want responsible development. But the last thing they want is buildings falling down in their backyard."

While other proposals for the Ritchie property were more ambitious, "we always thought that this place needed more just kind of a grassroots approach, as opposed to a monster redevelopment, because there's always been a lot here," he said.

A ripple community effect, perhaps, that the Ritchie Revival already has had was to factor into the fate of Cascade Elementary School.

Shortly after Krumpotich purchased the Ritchie property, the Washington County Board of Education conducted a hearing in Smithsburg on a proposal to close the school. Parents pleaded with board members to save it.

The Herald-Mail reported that many of them cited Krumpotich's plans to redevelop housing on fort property.

"The only reasonable argument (for closing the school) that I see is declining enrollment," Krumpotich, told the board.

"The other arguments hold very little water. … So now we finally have real prospects of growth on the largest parcel in the 21719 (ZIP code), we have a happy and healthy student and teacher body, we're coming out of a year of COVID, all areas surrounding us are growing and will have direct impacts to our school, and this is the time we vote to close? Short-sighted seems like an understatement."

A few weeks later, the board voted to keep the school open.

"We're not going to take all the credit for this," he said, "but if you look at the 21719 ZIP code, so many of these houses have been renovated; homes that were vacant are all lived in now. Many of them with families. So just kind of the rejuvenation of the entire area has been a real benefit for Cascade Elementary."

He does believe, nevertheless, that Ritchie Revival "absolutely" contributed. "As more families continue to move in, there's 12, 13 kids sitting at the bus stop for the elementary school. That's not insignificant. And you've really seen the numbers climb over there at the school."

In both Williamsport and Cascade, a keen sense of each community's history guides the effort to restore its vitality and its structures — which in itself can be a challenge.

Next week: Everything old is new again — how more older buildings in Washington County are getting a new lease on life.

Have you noticed all the new development in Washington County? There's a reason for it

Starting at the core: How one big venture reflected a sea change for downtown Hagerstown

Hagerstown's new factory, med school and stadium: Why are these projects 'game-changers'?

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Port 44 and Ritchie Revival are restoring properties — and communities