The Baltimore Banner
By Hallie Miller

In late 2021, Dana Henson made a panicked, late-night phone call to the CEO of the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, expecting to drop a major bombshell that would almost certainly spell disaster for both women.

Henson, principal and vice president of The Henson Development Company Inc., told CEO Janet Abrahams that their plan to bring a full-service grocery store to East Baltimore to serve as an anchor tenant for an ambitious development project and provide relief to an area long classified as a fresh food desert would not work. The two would have to walk back the promises made to investors, government leaders and, most notably, legacy residents who had been relocated to make way for the 244-acre transformation. And they would have to find a different use for the eight-story marquee building where they had planned to house the grocer.

Click here to read the full story about Mission First and Henson’s project.