A developer’s unexpected death has led to the abrupt closure of a day care tucked inside a historic Mount Vernon church, leaving parents scrambling to find alternative childcare with just days’ notice.

A letter announcing the closure of Mt. Vernon Place Early Learning Center and reviewed by The Baltimore Banner went out Friday to families of the 30-40 children enrolled at the early learning center. It came as a surprise to some parents, who said they have for weeks been asking Joseph Novoseller’s company, Aria Legacy Group, for more information about their childcare arrangements.

When Melissa Freilich and her husband learned of the closure, the first thing they did was consider which of them would need to quit their job if they couldn’t find a new day care for their 2-year-old son.

“They clearly don’t care about leaving people in the lurch,” she said of Novoseller’s company.

Representatives for Aria did not respond to requests for comment.

The center, which opened in 2020, was perhaps the only part of Novoseller’s plan for the 150-year-old United Methodist church flanking Baltimore’s Washington Monument not considered unpopular with neighbors and preservationists.

The New Jersey developer wanted the community’s support and was pursuing his plans when he suffered a fatal heart attack this spring. Novoseller’s unexpected death resulted in the expiration of a $1 million contract agreement to buy the historic Mt. Vernon Place United Methodist Church.

Trustees for the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church are looking to offload the church for $1.32 million, which includes a provision for its tiny congregation to continue leasing space in the building for another 20 years.

The day care, however, will close long before a buyer is found.

“Despite our best efforts to remain at our current location, we have received notice from the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church that we must vacate the premises by August 1st,” the unsigned letter delivered to parents said.

Representatives for the Methodist trustees are disputing some of the details in the letter. Real estate broker Barb Bindon, who is overseeing the building’s sale, said Friday that the letter’s claim about a deadline for vacating the premises was “absolutely not true.”

She acknowledged the day care faces a steep barrier to remaining in the space permanently. The church facilities notably fail to meet modern building code requirements for Maryland preschools and new ownership would prevent the childcare center from being grandfathered into those requirements, Bindon said.

The day care’s closure comes at a time when the demand for affordable childcare in Baltimore can often exceed the number of available slots.

Some parents said they learned about the day care’s imminent closure from local media and were blindsided by the short notice heading into fall.

Freilich said she received a notice on July 19 to pay all outstanding balances shortly after hearing about the building sale. She worried whether the center would be open in the fall and followed staff’s advice to contact Aria Legacy Group. Ten phone calls later, exasperated with the radio silence, she said she threatened to withhold her payments until they gave her an answer.

“I just wanted to put their feet to the fire because daycare is not like another industry,” Freilich said. “They’re taking care of our children, and we rely on them for our livelihood.”

Then the closure letters arrived. Children ages 2 to 5 — including Freilich’s son — would be offered spaces at another Baltimore day care center, Little Miracles, which shares a director with Mt. Vernon Place Early Learning Center.

That doesn’t help families with infants or who are expecting a baby this fall, Freilich said. She called 40 in-home day care centers looking for a spot for her son when he was 4 months old, she said. Parents need ample notice before their childcare evaporates.

The center’s website on Friday still flashed an outdated promotion for enrollment with an empty claim that just four slots remain. The message’s tone was urgent: “Apply before it’s too late!”