The Can Company in Baltimore: Mixed-Use Market in a Former Cannery
The Can Company is a 150,000-square-foot mixed-use shopping center in Canton that occupies a 1920s-era tomato cannery building on Toone Street. It functions as a hybrid retail and dining destination rather than a traditional enclosed mall, combining independent shops, restaurants, and offices within restored industrial space.
What The Can Company Actually Is
The building's brick facade, arched windows, and timber-beam interior are original to its cannery days. The center contains roughly 30 tenants across ground and second-floor spaces, arranged around a central atrium with high ceilings. Unlike Harbor Place or The Gallery (both downtown anchor-heavy centers), The Can Company skews toward independent retailers, local restaurants, and service providers. It draws both neighborhood residents and visitors exploring Canton's waterfront district.
Tenants and Shopping Categories
Retail spans home goods, clothing, specialty food, and personal services. The Twisted Tail occupies a substantial ground-floor footprint and operates as a craft-spirits bar and restaurant. Mount Washington Pottery offers ceramics and pottery supplies. Artifact Coffee anchors one corner. Other spaces rotate with lower-tenure independent boutiques, vintage dealers, and small-batch food producers. Food vendors and restaurants occupy roughly a third of leasable space, making dining and shopping equally central to the center's draw.
Because tenant rosters at conversion centers like this shift more often than at anchored malls, specific shop names change year to year. The consistent draw is the mix of casual dining, coffee, and locally-focused retail rather than any single flagship store.
How It Compares to Other Baltimore Shopping Areas
The Can Company sits between neighborhood shopping strips and larger suburban malls. Cross Street Market (nearby, in Federal Hill) is smaller and food-focused; The Can Company incorporates broader retail. Canton Crossing and Fells Point's waterfront retail are comparable in walkability and mix but more dispersed across multiple buildings. Downtown's Harbor Place and The Gallery offer anchors (Macy's, Dick's Sporting Goods) and concentrated, climate-controlled shopping; The Can Company is open-air internally but weather-exposed for parking and entries. If you want one destination for a meal and specific retail rather than anchor-store browsing, The Can Company suits better than Harbor Place. If you need a specific national brand, the downtown centers or Cross Keys (suburban, Roland Park area) are more reliable.
Who It Suits and Who It Does Not
The Can Company works well for people living in or visiting Canton who want to combine lunch or coffee with low-pressure browsing. The architectural setting appeals to those drawn to repurposed industrial spaces. Parking is street and lot-based, not unlimited; weekend parking in this district fills quickly, especially on nice weather days. Families with young children will find fewer dedicated kids' retail anchors than at a suburban mall. People seeking a specific national chain retailer often will not find it here.
What the First Visit Involves
Most visitors park on Toone Street or nearby lots and enter via ground-level storefronts or the central atrium. Navigating the center takes 20 to 30 minutes for casual browsing; the layout is logical but spread vertically. Many shoppers spend more time in restaurants or cafes than in retail. Walking around the building's perimeter and second floor covers most tenants. Weekend afternoons draw crowds, particularly from May through October.
Hours, Parking, and Logistics
The Can Company is open-air internally with unenclosed entries to Toone Street, meaning weather affects comfort year-round. Individual tenants maintain their own hours; most ground-floor food and retail operate 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, though verify current hours by shop. Parking is free in surrounding city lots and street parking; the lots often reach capacity during peak weekend hours (11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays). There is no single parking structure or paid lot specific to the center. The area is walkable once parked.
The Can Company succeeds because it fills a real gap: a place where Canton residents and visitors can eat, browse, and linger without the standardized feel of suburban retail or the scale of downtown. The historic structure is functional, not just atmospheric.
