Our community could only watch as Governor Hogan slipped a last-minute agenda item into the final Board of Public Works’ meeting of 2016, pulling the plug on the State Center Redevelopment Project. With little explanation and no public comment, the State of Maryland flushed a project down the drain, taking a lot more down with it than most realize.
The 25,000 Baltimore residents affected by State Center saw the opportunity to build an urban village on the blighted parking lots of State Center go down the drain. The State Center redevelopment project would have offered the people of West Baltimore a chance to walk to work, to shop for weekly groceries, to sit in a park, grab a cup of coffee or to catch public transit to a crosstown medical appointment. It would bring our community together.
The team of developers brought something new to the table as well. The plan wasn’t just another design by Plank, Angelos or Paterakis. It was created by a diverse team of local faces, and African American and female-owned development teams. It would have been the first project of this magnitude in Baltimore to be managed by a minority team. Just imagine the inclusionary statement Baltimore could have made to its residents.
In canceling the project, the Governor raised the specter of violating Maryland’s debt affordability limits and jeopardizing the state’s bond rating. Highly debatable and at odds with what the state’s auditor and the Treasurer herself previously concluded.
We cannot let the promise of a revitalized State Center with new jobs, millions in private investment, and a mix of dynamic housing, retailers and State agencies be carelessly thrown away due to politics. A city desperate to find funding for crumbling infrastructure and to upgrade its schools is losing millions of new tax dollars each year with the end of the State Center Project. Governor Hogan has tried to end this dream and break that promise. Can he come back to the table for the good of all the citizens of Maryland?
Developing a new plan will not come at the snap of a finger. The plan we have now is the result of hundreds of community meetings, two administrations, and ten years of work. The options were not just explored, they were scrutinized, piece by piece with a fine-toothed comb.
If the Mayor and City Council are listening, the only way to maintain State Center is the privately financed plan Governor Hogan wants to discard. Even if he wanted to, Governor Hogan couldn’t redevelop State Center on his own. The State’s Capital Budget does not have room for the hundreds of millions of dollars it will take to build new facilities to replace the obsolete ones. The prior two Governors knew this.
Since State Center cannot be fixed with public funds, Governor Hogan will ultimately dump the abandoned complex in a “white elephant sale,” leaving Baltimore to deal with the bottom-feeding developer who wins it.
For now, Governor Hogan is simply scattering the State Center employees around the state outside of “Democrat-friendly” Baltimore while we wait and wait for the next plan.
By Jim Peiffer – Resident of Mt. Vernon, Baltimore
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Baltimore Fishbowl.
you talk very cheary but when the state dumps money into projects like this where the developer was openly trying to rip off the state ultimately the state loses money,has to raise taxes then business’s stay out of Maryland and very far from Baltimore. The best plan is to be fiscally responsible, lower taxes and regulations and charm city will grow organically. What you describe sounds good but the means to acomplish it is the opposite
I thank Gov. Hogan for trashing this taxpayer scam. Under this plan, the taxpayers would have been paying exorbitant rent back to the developers. In fact, it would have been cheaper to rent space for state workers in Harbor East. Also, this deal was opposed not just by Gov. Hogan but also by the treasurer and comptroller, both democrats, back when O’Malley was pushing this. Read here for a more fact-based analysis: http://marylandreporter.com/2017/01/01/rascovar-re-imagining-state-center/
you have the right vision but wrong way to accomplish it must stop spending and lower taxes and that organically attracts capitol
The site of State Center cleared of the Soviet style worn out buildings would be not a white elephant but a unbelievably valuable site for single family housing and retail. With a safe gated community on top of mass transit and steps from MARC to Washington, developers would flock to bid. The state agencies all can go downtown into vacant Class B space (think the Chandler Building being abandoned by Excelon). That vacant space is currently going for $10 a square foot less than the State Center developers wanted from State Government.