Seawall’s Thibault Manekin discusses his company’s efforts to buy Sisson Street drop-off facility site for redevelopment, disagrees that Seawall has been ‘AWOL’

Last May, Seawall development partner and co-founder Thibault Manekin told Remington residents that he thought he had a winning idea for redeveloping the site of Baltimore’s bulk trash drop-off facility and transfer station on Sisson Street: a grocery store-anchored commercial center.

“We think we’re pretty close on a pretty cool grocery announcement” for the city-owned property at 2840 Sisson Street, he told the Land Use Committee of the Greater Remington Improvement Association (GRIA).

“There’s…an awesome grocery store that is super interested,” Manekin said. “We’re kind of at letter of intent right now. Hopefully we can get that across the finish line…We hope that we’re super close to some announcements there. The city has been working really hard on a relocation spot and we’re hopeful that can start to become public really soon.”

But six months later, Manekin was less firm about what might happen with the bulk trash transfer station he wants to buy from the city, a 5.6 acre parcel officially known as the Sisson Street Sanitation Yard and Citizen Drop-Off Center.

Speaking to the same group he addressed in May, Manekin said on Nov. 5 that he couldn’t say what he would build on that land if the city sells it to his company as he has proposed – or even if the city will sell it at all.

“I don’t have the foggiest idea of what would happen on the west side of Sisson Street, you know, because we haven’t started those conversations,” he told the group. “I’ve got some dreams and some ideas. A lot of them have come from conversations with you all.”

During the second meeting, Manekin didn’t mention the letter of intent with the “awesome grocery store.” At the same time, he said, he’s still enthusiastic about working with the community.

“I don’t know if the transfer station will close. I don’t know if it will be awarded to Seawall,” he told the Remington residents. “But if it is, I’m really excited about the opportunity to kind of roll up our sleeves and figure out how to make it another great asset for this amazing community that we all deeply love.”

What led to the change in Manekin’s stance? The developer says recent public discussions about the possible relocation of the Sisson Street drop-off facility have helped him better understand what community stakeholders would like to see constructed on the west side of Sisson Street if the city agrees to sell the drop-off center property to his company.

A member of GRIA’s land use committee, Manekin said he has closely followed the recent meetings of Mayor Brandon Scott’s Sisson Street Task Force and heard the attacks against his company – that Seawall is a greedy developer, that Seawall doesn’t care about the community, that Seawall is ‘AWOL’ because it hasn’t revealed its plans for the drop-off center parcel or spoken up at task force meetings.

Manekin told the GRIA members that he knows there’s strong community support for bringing a full-service grocery store to Remington. But he said he has also come to understand that many residents don’t want a suburban-style grocery store surrounded by a sea of parking, but a more dense, walkable, mixed-use development, perhaps with housing as well as retail space.

The dilemma for Seawall, he says, is that the grocers he has been in contact with have indicated they won’t open a grocery store on the drop-off center property unless there is ample surface parking for it.

And as he told the land use committee on May 7, the city-owned parcel is a former landfill that can’t support high rise construction without substantial foundation work – a costly proposition that could rule out any sort of dense development the community wants to see.

Manekin said in November that he hasn’t given up on a grocery store and that Seawall is prepared to work with the community to come up with a plan that residents will support.

“The number one thing that we feel that we’ve missed on that the community has asked for is a grocery store,” he said. “It’s in the list of 50 businesses” that the community has indicated it wants to see.

“I think what’s become abundantly clear…is the need for density and the need for housing and the desire not to have a sea of surface parking, which is in line with how Remington wants itself to be developed, and we’re fully committed to rolling up our sleeves on all of those things,” he said.

“We’re not going to give up on a grocery store. We just need to find a grocery store that’s willing to go into the ground floor of a mixed-use project and not have a sea of parking that the community needs to walk through in order to shop.”

Wide-ranging discussion

Manekin expressed his views and his reaction to criticisms of Seawall during a wide-ranging two-hour discussion conducted over Zoom with members of GRIA’s land use committee on Nov. 5.

It was the first time that he has spoken at any length in a public forum about Seawall’s plans for the drop-off facility parcel since the Sisson Street Task Force began meeting in October. It was actually the second time in 2025 that Manekin had spoken to GRIA’s land use committee in some detail about his vision for replacing the drop off center, after the session in May.

A wider public discussion began on Aug. 11, when city officials held a community meeting at Druid Hill Park and outlined a plan for relocating the Sisson Street drop-off facility to a site at 2801 Falls Road, a storage yard owned by the Potts & Callahan construction company, so the Sisson Street property can be sold for private development.

On Jan. 12, 2024, the Baltimore Development Corp. (BDC) had issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) from groups interested in redeveloping the Sisson Street parcel if the city relocated the drop-off facility, and set a deadline for bids of Feb. 9, 2024. BDC officials have not announced a developer, but the meeting in August was a sign that city officials may be getting close to naming one.

No developer was named at the August meeting either, but by then it was widely known that Seawall had put in a bid – in part because Manekin had spoken about his interest in acquiring the land and his vision for a grocery store-anchored development at the GRIA meeting in May. And while BDC officials haven’t named a developer, representatives from the Mayor’s Office and City Council have acknowledged at GRIA meetings and elsewhere that Seawall has expressed interest in developing the land and is under consideration.

Also in August, legislation was introduced that would give the Mayor and City Council authority to sell the Sisson Street property to a developer, presumably the one chosen through the BDC’s RFP process. The legislation does not name a buyer or state a sale price, but its introduction was another sign that city officials have a buyer in mind.

Task force formed

After the Falls Road relocation proposal drew strong opposition because the land is in a floodplain and part of a picturesque stretch of the Jones Falls Valley, Mayor Scott announced in September that he would form a task force to recommend the best way to dispose of bulk trash and hazardous waste if the city closed the Sisson Street facility and sold the land to a developer.

Scott said he wants the panel to consider all options: moving the drop-off facility; keeping it where it is or simply closing it and not relocating it. The first task force meeting was held on Oct. 20. By Nov. 5, the 13-member panel had held three meetings, and it has since held two more.

Chaired by council member Odette Ramos, the task force will hold its sixth meeting on Monday, Dec. 15, and is aiming to complete its work in early 2026. The council bill related to a possible land sale has been put on hold, pending the outcome of the task force deliberations.

Change in tone

During the May 7 discussion with the GRIA members, Manekin was upbeat about a specific vision he had for developing the Sisson Street property. During the November meeting, he took a step back from that specific vision. Recordings of the two virtual community sessions are posted online. Together, they show some of the efforts the developer has made to acquire the city-owned site and where those efforts stand now.

Over the course of the Nov. 5 meeting, Manekin talked about growing up in Baltimore, explained why he became a developer, and traced his company’s nearly 20-year involvement with Remington. He talked about the projects Seawall has completed in the neighborhood, including Miller’s Court; Charmington’s cafe and the 2015 visit from then-President Barack Obama; R House; Remington Row and plans for a mixed-use development called Sisson East. He spoke about projects Seawall has completed in other parts of Baltimore, including a $40 million home for Lexington Market.

After outlining the company’s history, Manekin spoke about how he became interested in developing the drop-off center property and how that interest was an extension of the other work his company has done in Remington. He said he wanted to share his perspective and clear up misconceptions he believes some people may have about Seawall’s role in the current discussions about the drop-off center property, which he calls Sisson West.

The developer selection process has been shrouded in secrecy. To date, BDC officials have never even said how many proposals the agency received. BDC Executive Vice President Kimberly “Kim” Clark explained at one of the BDC’s meetings that doing so prematurely could reveal proprietary information that could hurt the agency’s ability to negotiate with developers.

In its request for proposals, the BDC included a clause requiring that the “selected” bidder agree that “it will not solicit press coverage or answer unsolicited questions about its development program from print radio, television, social media or electronic media until it has secured an Exclusive Negotiating Privilege with the BDC.”

That stipulation has limited what Seawall or any other developer can say about any proposal submitted for transforming the Sisson Street parcel. It has also limited the amount of information available to community residents about the bidding process, what has been proposed for land in their neighborhood, and whether it’s consistent with the master plan created to guide development in the area. In part because of the restrictions imposed by the BDC, Seawall has never unveiled renderings, site plans or other images to show what it proposes to build on the Sisson Street parcel.

‘Vague and shady’

In his May 7 talk with GRIA’s land use committee, Manekin apologized that he couldn’t be more explicit about the “pretty cool” grocery announcement.

“I hate having to be, like, kind of vague and shady,” he said at the meeting. “And I realize fully that I’ve done all of that when describing the west side of Sisson Street. I would love to be able to say more and hopefully can really soon.”

During the November meeting, Manekin told participants he’s aware that he and Seawall have drawn criticism for remaining quiet about his attempts to buy the Sisson Street parcel and his failure to say what he proposes to build.

It was clear from his remarks that he was trying to honor the BDC’s order not to talk about his proposal but that its instructions were negatively affecting his company’s reputation and his ability to be forthright with the community.

“Look, for months we’ve been just listening, at least since the start of the summer when we started these conversations about Sisson Street,” he said. “The narrative has taken on a little bit of a life of its own, to say the least. You know I’ve been cursed at and received countless text messages and emails…People have just been saying some pretty rough stuff to me and about Seawall. And look, I don’t blame people. This is a big thing.”

Manekin acknowledged at the November meeting that moving a public amenity such as the drop-off facility won’t be easy, if that’s what city officials decide to do.

“This is a hard conversation,” he said. “Moving this thing is going to be complicated. And the place that it’s being proposed to move to, we’re here to listen to the complications of that. I appreciate the healthy dialogue that came as a result of that. And then there was the big city meeting and then the floodgates opened, right, and it really took on a life of its own.”

At a task force meeting on Oct. 27, Stone Hill resident Anthony Fortenos said he believes Seawall needs to make a strong case for why it wants to displace the drop-off facility.

“The burden of persuasion here belongs to Seawall,” Fortenos said. “Seawall needs to make a case and Seawall is AWOL. Seawall is AWOL from all these meetings. They’re not showing up…You have to make a very strong case to give away a public good.”

Manekin said at the November meeting that he disagrees with Fortenos’ characterization that Seawall is ducking discussions about development of the Sisson Street property.

“There have been articles about, like, Seawall has been AWOL and not shown up to the meetings,” Manekin said. “I think it’s the complete opposite. I’ve read every single article. I’ve read every single thing that’s been said about us. Every single quote. And it’s been really helpful to get perspective on it, you know, outside perspective. And I don’t disagree with anything anybody’s saying around how adamant they are about not moving it to Falls Road. I think that message has been loud and clear and appreciate the voices that have come up.”

To show the committee that he’s aware of what people are saying about Seawall, Manekin took time to read excerpts from a Baltimore Banner article in which three residents blasted his company for wanting to develop the Sisson Street property.

“First one is: ‘This is a classic example of ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’” he read. “The Sisson Street drop-off station is indeed an asset to the community and all of Baltimore. Seawall is a typical urban developer that wants to own the entirety of Remington. If it couldn’t be bothered to show up for Monday’s meeting here for the community…why should we believe they have the community’s best interests in mind?’

“The second one says: ‘I would love to see why Seawall wants the Sisson Street site. Right now residents in this city are being asked to solve a problem that doesn’t exist so that Seawall can purchase the transfer station for an undisclosed plan. Can The Banner get some more information from Seawall on how the purchase of the Sisson Street transfer station would be integrated into all of the other development they have in Remington?’

“And then this last one says: ‘It’s all about greedy urban developers who don’t give a flying flip about the community’s best interest, Seawall in this case.”

‘I don’t see them raising their hands’

Manekin said Seawall employees use the drop-off facility as much as anyone and will miss it if it’s moved or closed, but he doesn’t believe it’s the best use for the land where it’s located. He noted that other neighborhoods aren’t stepping up to offer a spot for it.

“My take on it is that having a transfer station at the gateway into any community is poor urban planning,” he said. And yet “I appreciate how convenient it is. We use it every single day. It not being there is going to take away time from our days. And of all these communities that are weighing in on this, I don’t see any of them raising their hands…offering to have it as the gateway into their community and standing in the way of progress that their neighborhood has dreamt up for some time.”

A plan to start conversations

Manekin denied that a rendering that’s on a real estate broker’s website showing a potential development on the Sisson Street parcel – an image of a grocery store surrounded by parking – accurately depicts what Seawall would build.

Any images that people may have seen on the internet, he said, were generated by a real estate firm that Seawall hired years ago, KLNB, to help drum up interest from prospective grocery stores but not what will actually be constructed.

“We hired KLNB six, seven years ago, I think, and asked them to help us find a grocery store,” he said. “And so they put together that plan that’s on their web site, which is a big box retail store and a pad site with 150 parking spaces on it.”

Manekin said the plan generated by KLNB doesn’t reflect Seawall’s current thinking about ways to develop the Sisson Street parcel.

“That was a plan that lives on the internet,” he said. “It was put together to start conversations with national grocers to see if they would come here. That is not Seawall’s plan. That is not what is intended to be built here…That was a brochure and a flyer that KLNB put together to try to find a grocery store.”

No interest in selling

Manekin said he knows there is concern in Remington about one developer controlling too much real estate in one city neighborhood, but he has no interest in selling any of the projects Seawall has completed.

“I do want to say that we hope that a lot of other developers come in and start doing other things too,” he said. “I’d say that I get a dozen calls a week from companies in New York and Chicago and LA and big major cities trying to buy these properties, and I delete every single one of them. I haven’t returned a single call. [I’m] again, fiercely protective of this community and what we’ve built together and honestly don’t trust an out-of-town developer — probably got way more money than we do – to come in and listen, and listen deeply…

“It’s definitely impossible to please everybody,” he continued. “But we’re in the neighborhood every day, picking up trash once a month as a company. We have open town hall meetings where you can come and yell at us and bring up complicated things. We love a tough conversation. It promotes growth and, look, we are like intertwined in the fabric of a very tiny place…We coexist in an incredible way, and it really is an honor to have a seat the table in shaping it. It shook out this way because of how cool we thought the plan was and how committed we are to this neighborhood.  But I don’t like the idea of selling parcels off to out-of-town groups that won’t have the community’s best interest at heart.”

Genesis of the sale

Manekin said during the November meeting that he wanted to correct a misconception that some people may have about Seawall’s role in the plan to sell the Sisson Street facility.

He said Seawall didn’t come up with the idea of moving the drop=off facility. He said the idea was initially mentioned in a 2017 master plan for guiding revitalization efforts in Remington, a document that was adopted by the city following a long community engagement process.

In that document, he said, the drop-off facility was singled out as a use that community stakeholders would like to see relocated and replaced with uses more consistent with the Remington master plan. The planning document states that residents believe it would be a good site for what they want to see more of in Remington: dense, walkable, mixed-use development.

Manekin said he has used the community’s master plan as a “north star” to guide Seawall’s development efforts in Remington and that Seawall has acquired a number of properties along Sisson Street for future development. One of the properties it acquired, he said, is the former Baltimore Whiskey Co. distillery at 2800 Sisson St., on the south end of the block. He said the seller was Douglas Carroll, who held off selling it for many years but contacted Seawall after another potential buyer said he wanted to turn the property into a nightclub.

Manekin said that after he bought that property, he approached the city’s Department of Public Works about buying the drop-off center land and combining the two to create one large development parcel on the west side of Sisson Street and potentially a better drop-off facility in a different location.

He said DPW representatives were receptive to the idea but told him to contact the BDC if he wanted to buy city land. And that eventually led to the RFP that BDC offered in 2024.

That’s the main misconception about the property sale that Manekin wants to address.

“I think that part of the narrative is that everyone has been blaming Seawall for moving the transfer station,” he said. “But it wasn’t our idea. The stuff is all coming from the community’s neighborhood plan.”

More light may be shed on the project this week. The restrictions on speaking about proposals for the Sisson Street property were issued when Colin Tarbert headed the BDC for Mayor Scott. Tarbert has since been replaced by Otis Rolley, who served as Baltimore’s planning director from 2003 to 2007. Rolley has agreed to address the Sisson Street Task Force at its meeting on Dec. 15.