Downtown Partnership CEO Shelonda Stokes: ‘We’re changing Baltimore. I promise you that.’

Downtown Baltimore’s assets — a renovated Lexington Market, the Hippodrome theater, renowned educational and health care institutions, and a proposed redo of Harborplace among them — got lots of love during Thursday night’s Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc. annual meeting. CEO Shelonda Stokes talked about how the Urban Land Institute, a national group of real estate and land use experts, told her Baltimore “has amazing assets, now connect them.” Stokes, speaking to a crowd at the Center Club, asked audience members to help her make those connections. She said despite fallout from the pandemic and continued crime, change is on its way for downtown.