Urban Landscape: Baltimore saw construction activity in nearly every part of the city in 2024

What constitutes a Renaissance and is Baltimore having one?

Colin Tarbert, president and CEO of the Baltimore Development Corp. (BDC), says he doesn’t like to overuse the term when speaking about planning and construction activity in the city, but he can see why people might think the city is experiencing one.

“I’m always a little bit reticent to use the term Renaissance,” Tarbert said at the BDC’s annual board of directors meeting earlier this month. He likened construction activity in Baltimore to compound interest in banking. “I think it’s starting to compound at a point now where people are recognizing it,” he said. “They’ve seen these investments for so long now that it’s starting to clearly grow.”

In his year-end remarks to the board, Tarbert pointed to three development projects in Baltimore – MCB Real Estate’s $500 million plan to reimagine Harborplace, approved by city voters last month; a virtual groundbreaking ceremony this month for the $32 million Southern Streams Health and Wellness Center in Broadway East; and substantial completion of the 4MLK research tower on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. A grand opening ceremony is scheduled for mid-January for the 4MLK building, which marks a new gateway to the BioPark at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and to Poppleton.

“There’s a lot happening in downtown,” Tarbert said. “People are excited about Harborplace. But then you also have [projects in] Broadway East and you have Poppleton. It’s really kind of happening much more widespread than I’ve ever seen it. The housing TIF [legislation to fund housing through tax increment financing] is citywide. So I think that’s why people are excited, because it’s not just about one project that’s going to transform the city. We’re heard that comment over and over. But it’s really like all these projects happening at once — both in downtown but then also throughout neighborhoods. I think that’s what people are seeing and what people are excited about.”

When he served as the city’s housing commissioner from 1968 to 1977 – a period that led to the era widely considered to be Baltimore’s first Renaissance – Robert C. Embry Jr. aimed to have at least one major civic project opening every year: the Maryland Science Center in 1976; completion of the first segments of the Inner Harbor promenade in the late 1970s; the Baltimore Convention Center in 1979; Harborplace in 1980; The National Aquarium and the Hyatt Regency Baltimore hotel in 1981. He believed that city leaders should strive to give people new places and spaces to look forward to, to build anticipation and make them proud of the city.

Over the past year, there has been considerable discussion about the need to ‘connect the dots’ – not only building and opening individual projects around the city but knitting them together in a cohesive fashion that results in a more walkable and ‘legible’ city, with fewer ‘dead zones’ that people avoid.

According to Oxford Languages, one definition of Renaissance is: “A revival of or renewed interest in something.” Here are some of the projects and themes that sparked interest in Baltimore’s urban landscape in 2024:

Harborplace: Question F, the proposal to amend the Baltimore City Charter to give a private developer control of more land near the intersection of Pratt and Light streets, won approval from city residents in November by a tally of 127,113 votes (60.15 percent) in favor of the charter amendment to 84,204 votes (39.74 percent) against the amendment. The vote paves the way for the developer, MCB Real Estate, to move ahead with its $500 million plan to replace the Harborplace pavilions with a mixed-use project containing offices, shops, restaurants and two towers with 900 apartments.  The developers say they will need $400 million in public funds for road realignments, parks and a two-tiered promenade, but they can now move ahead with finalizing their plans and lining up financing for the privately-funded portions of the development.

“We are grateful to the people of our hometown and have always had faith they would believe in the power of progress,” MCB Real Estate co-founders P. David Bramble and Peter Pinkard said in a statement about the passage of Question F. “Our vision for the future of Harborplace was developed through an inclusive and intensive public engagement process. That vision is one that looks forward – to an Inner Harbor for future generations of Baltimoreans, to an Inner Harbor with public parkland, mixed income housing and local business opportunities. The success of Question F demonstrates that vision is one that the people of Baltimore support. Now the real work begins to transform Harborplace, the Inner Harbor and the City of Baltimore for the benefit of our City and State – and we will need everyone to help make this a reality.”

Tarbert said in his address to the BDC board that he doesn’t think a groundbreaking for MCB’s project is imminent. “It’s probably at least 24 months before we get to a groundbreaking,” he said this month. “That’s probably even aggressive, but we should be aggressive. And then from there the project will likely happen in different phases but of course that will all depend on financing.” While he’s “breathing a sigh of relief” that Question F passed, Tarbert said, “there’s a lot more work to be done before we can celebrate.”

Opponents of the project say they want to see Harborplace revitalized but don’t believe it’s appropriate to make public parkland at the Inner Harbor available for high-rise residences and off-street parking, as the charter amendment does. They say it sets a bad precedent for other city parks, such as Patterson Park and the Canton waterfront. They didn’t obtain enough signatures to get their own question on the November ballot, one that would protect parks around the city from commercial development, but say they’ll try again in two years. They’re also exploring other ways to block MCB’s project and vow that the fight is not over.

Collapse of The Compass: Redevelopment efforts on the west side of downtown experienced a setback when the BDC terminated its agreement with Westside Partners LLC, the group that proposed to build a $150 million to $200 million mixed-use project called The Compass using 18 city-owned parcels on the west side of downtown, an area known as “the Superblock.”

Westside Partners was selected to be the developer in December 2020 and had not moved ahead with acquisition of the parcels that the BDC awarded after nearly four years. After losing a key member of its team, changing architects and getting two deadline extensions, the group asked for more time to negotiate with the city. A foreshadowing that the deal was on verge of collapsing came last summer when one of the vacant buildings awarded to the team literally collapsed into the street and a second one had to be taken down at the city’s expense for safety precautions. The collapse came on the same day that a F-35B jet flew over downtown as part of the scheduled Maryland Fleet Week and Flyover Baltimore activities, and shortly after a heavy rainstorm. There were no other reports of building collapses in downtown Baltimore during the Flyover event.

Tarbert said the BDC would issue a new Request for Proposals in early 2025 and Westside Partners was free to reapply. “Given the time elapsed since the project was awarded and the two extensions already granted,” he said in October, “BDC believes that reissuing a Request for Proposals is in the city’s best interest.”

Other Westside developments: Westside housing projects that moved ahead in 2024 included Theatre 120, developer Chukuemeka “Chukes” Okoro’s plan for a $10 million, seven-story, 48-unit apartment project at the northeast corner of Lexington Street and Park Avenue; and Sojourner Place at Park, a $26 million, 42-unit affordable housing project at the highly-visible corner where Liberty Street and Park Avenue meet Fayette Street. The city sold buildings at 116-120 Lexington Street and 207 Park Avenue so Okoro could move ahead with his project, which received final design approval from the city’s preservation commission.  It also agreed to sell 102, 104 and 106 N. Liberty Street and 142 and 144 W. Fayette Street for $310,000 to the developers of Sojourner Place at Park, a joint venture of two non-profits, Episcopal Housing Corporation and Health Care for the Homeless.

In October, representatives of the University of Maryland, Baltimore held a groundbreaking ceremony for their next major campus building, a $120 million, six-story home for the School of Social Work at 600 W. Lexington Street, near Lexington Market. When complete in the summer of 2027, the 127,000-square-foot building will bring under one roof the school’s Master of Social Work and Doctor of Philosophy programs, which are currently spread across three locations. The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center had its busiest day ever on a Saturday in February, welcoming 4,400 patrons to two sold-out performances of “Peter Pan” and 500 guests for the University of Maryland School of Medicine Diversity Dinner.

The Downtown Partnership of Baltimore unveiled preliminary plans for a $4 million civic space tentatively called Liberty Park, that will be just south of Sojourner Place at Park and just north of the CFG Bank Arena. The location is a 0.35-acre sliver of land that’s bounded roughly by Fayette, Liberty and Baltimore streets and Park Avenue, currently a city Department of Transportation right of way. One feature of the new civic space will be an improved dog park to replace the gated dog run that’s there now. The $4 million in funding will come from a $10 million appropriation that the Maryland General Assembly made to the Downtown Partnership for fiscal 2023. It’s part of an effort to connect the dots between activity hubs by providing an amenity for both office workers and downtown residents.

On September 22, a five-alarm fire damaged several buildings at the northwest corner of Lombard and Eutaw streets, including an adult entertainment club at 36-38 S. Eutaw Street called The Goddess. The building was once a bar owned by George Herman “Babe” Ruth, who bought it after the 1915 World Series. His father operated it and the ballplayer reportedly lived upstairs and worked there in the off season. His father died there three years later when he hit his head on the curb as he tried to break up a fight. The club’s current owner has the only known photo of Babe Ruth and his father together. The building’s connection to Babe Ruth is a main reason the city hasn’t moved to tear down the block to make way for redevelopment. Smoke from the Sunday morning blaze was visible from as far away as Federal Hill.  

More downtown activity: The National Aquarium opened Harbor Wetland, a $14 million free outdoor exhibit and “living habitat” that teaches visitors about the harbor and the need to support conservation efforts. It has already attracted 50,000 visitors since its grand opening in August. Leaders of the Maryland Science Center outlined plans for $10 million in improvements, from new exhibits to landscaped plazas facing both Key Highway and the Inner Harbor, to celebrate its 50^th anniversary in 2026. At 207 E. Redwood Street, the former Hotel RL reopened as a 130-unit apartment building called Redwood Place. The conversion was designed by Michael Graves Architects, which moved its Maryland office from Howard County to the Redwood Exchange building at 233 E. Redwood Street. Actor and singer Kevin Spacey lost his five-story pier home off Key Highway when it was sold at a foreclosure auction for $3.24 million.

The Convention Center got 10 new murals along Pratt Street and a ‘Birdland’ mural on its Howard Street façade. The Ravens unveiled the first of more than $400 million worth of improvements to M&T Bank Stadium. After a group led by David Rubenstein acquired the Orioles, the Maryland Stadium Authority approved architects and contractors for upgrades to Oriole Park as well. The Orioles also disclosed plans to modify the dimensions of the playing field for the second time in three years, this time to move the left field wall closer to home plate. The state-owned Bard Building, a long-vacant eyesore at Lombard Street and Market Place, was demolished to make way for a green space while Baltimore City Community College comes up with a new “vision” for the 1.1-acre site; the state of Maryland paid $4.2 million for the work.  In Jonestown, the last vestiges of the historic Hendler Creamery were removed to make way for a green space.

Beyond downtown: The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in March after a container ship struck one of its support piers, and that adversely affected shipping and vehicular traffic around the city. A division of Kiewit Corporation was selected to lead the team that will design the replacement, and the federal government has agreed to cover 100 percent of the cost. Under Armour moved into its new headquarters in South Baltimore, a five-story, 280,000-square-foot building with a flagship retail operation on the first level. Its move raises questions about the fate of its property in Locust Point, a former Procter & Gamble soap factory. Baltimore Peninsula continued to draw new office and retail tenants, including Pinky Cole’s Slutty Vegan restaurant. The community also opened a new public space, Elijah’s Park, named in honor of the late U. S. Rep. Elijah Cummings. A Colorado-based developer, NexCore Group, replaced Claiborne Senior Living as developer of an upscale senior living community in North Roland Park.

Seawall opened its latest mixed-use development, the $29 million Service Center at 2507 N. Howard Street in Remington, with 64 apartments, street-level retail space and offices for The CollegeBound Foundation and Wide Angle Youth Media. Restaurateur Tony Foreman debuted his latest venture, The Duchess, where Café Hon was in Hampden. Developer Josh Mente unveiled plans to convert the former St. Mary’s Protestant Episcopal Church at 3900 Roland Avenue to a restaurant and up to 29 apartments. Hampden also lost several longtime businesses, including The Hunting Ground on Falls Road and Caravanserai and The Arthouse pizza bar and art gallery on The Avenue.  

At the Mount Clare Junction Shopping Center, the Jumbo Fresh Supermarket replaced the Price Rite market that closed in 2022, quenching a southwest Baltimore food desert. The Little Italy Neighborhood Association declined to support a developer’s plan for a 32-story apartment tower on President Street and pondered what to do with the empty pedestal where a statue of Christopher Columbus stood before it was thrown into the Inner Harbor in 2020. Baltimore Sun Media moved its newsroom from St. Paul Place to the Bagby Building. The ‘stump dump’ caught fire in Woodberry.

Artist and jewelry designer Betty Cooke passed away in August at age 100 and her business, The Store Ltd., closed permanently at The Village of Cross Keys. Businesses that opened at The Village of Cross Keys include Ruxton Mercantile; Bluemercury; Always Ice Cream Company; Easy Like Sunday; Cece’s Roland Park and ZaVino Italian Marketplace. Construction will begin in January there on a 331-unit luxury apartment building called Sanctuary at Cross Keys.

The University of Baltimore took over the former headquarters of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, which moved to Park Heights Avenue. The university also received approval from the University System of Maryland Board of Regents for a 10-year facilities master plan that calls for its Academic Center in the 1400 block of N. Charles Street to be replaced with a smaller Center for Learning. The Swann House events venue opened in Mount Vernon, but a reopening for the Eddie’s of Mount Vernon grocery store was delayed. Baltimore SquashWise began construction on a $14.5 million conversion of the former Greyhound bus station to its new home. Amtrak officials cut the ribbon for Platform Five, a new boarding area for high-speed trains and a key phase of a $150 million initiative to improve customer service and increase ridership at Penn Station, but plans to build a new station stalled due to lack of funds.

In Station North, the Crown nightclub closed permanently while the former Gatsby’s and Trip’s Place clubs were acquired for $609,000 by a local group that plans to open a club on the premises and fill other spaces with “artistic and cultural” uses that will fit in with the surrounding arts district. The North Avenue Market also changed hands. The former KAGRO building at 101 W. North Avenue was razed to make way for a temporary new Ynot Lot to replace an outdoor events venue at the northwest corner of Charles Street and North Avenue. The SNF Parkway Theatre reopened after an extended hiatus.

Johns Hopkins University broke ground for an addition to its Bloomberg School of Public Health in east Baltimore, held a topping-out ceremony for its $250 million Student Center due to open in July; started a $130 million renovation of its Milton S. Eisenhower Library and reopened the former Hopkins Club as a temporary library; unveiled the design for a six-story Life Sciences Building that will rise in place of Reed Hall, Hampton House and the Denton A. Cooley fitness center; and announced plans to move its Homewood Early Learning Center from 200 Wyman Park Drive to 115 W. University Parkway, where a Modernist structure called the Carnegie Building stood from 1960 to 2020. The Early Learning Center is moving so Hopkins can build a home for its new Data Science and Translation Institute (DSTI), also called the Data Science and AI Institute, planned to occupy two buildings at the intersection of Remington Avenue and W. 31^st Street. Current city zoning allows both structures to rise up to 120 feet, a fact that has alarmed some Remington residents who live in rowhouses across the street from the construction site.

Record enrollment at Morgan State University has prompted campus planners there to create more on-campus student housing, both through new construction and by upgrading existing structures. Morgan is also expanding into the surrounding area with plans to occupy a $58 million, 473-bed apartment building nearing completion at 4529 Harford Road in Hamilton-Lauraville. At a topping off ceremony last summer, Morgan President David Wilson joined with representatives of the developer, MCB Real Estate, to announce that the building will be called The Enolia in recognition of Enolia Pettigen McMillan, the first and only woman to serve as chair of the university’s Board of Regents. The Enolia scheduled to open in the summer of 2025.

Some worrisome trends in 2024: multiple deadly rowhouse fires in city neighborhoods; multiple closings of retail pharmacies and other big box stores, including Rite Aid and Walgreens; foreclosures on recently-completed and still-incomplete office-to-apartment or hotel-to-apartment conversions that promised new life for vacant buildings, and record high vacancy rates for downtown office space as companies downsize or move outside the center city.

The Walters Art Museum named Kate Burgin to be its new Andrea B. and John H. Laporte Director. The Peale named John Suau to be its new executive director. Eric Holcomb announced plans to retire as executive director of Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation. Adam Gross retired as a principal of Ayers Saint Gross Architects and Joel Fidler was selected to become the firm’s new president effective Jan. 1.

If that’s not enough for a Renaissance, two more major city projects were to have opened in 2024 but had their openings postponed due to supply chain issues and other delays. The postponements affected the T. Rowe Price headquarters under construction at Harbor Point and the Johns Hopkins University’s Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute taking shape on Wyman Park Drive. Both buildings are now expected to open in early 2025, helping fulfill former housing commissioner Embry’s goal of giving people something to anticipate in the new year.