Baltimore Development News

[StevenW]

Ok.
How about this, also? Why not post a grand total of all the posts and viewings from all of the "sticky" threads somewhere on the forum page that all can see? As an example, this Baltimore thread. I believe we had a grand total of around 2,000 some odd posts and 32,000 some odd viewings. Take those numbers and have them posted on part of a page or link. As daily posts and viewings increase on the threads, so does the total number on that part of the forum page. Understand? Give it a try. I think it would keep a sort of pride going about how many posts and viewings per sticky thread. :D So, regardless to how many times sticky threads start over the grand total numbers can still be seen by all! I think people would really go for that.
Let me know what you think. Pass it on to the other mods and see what they think, too.
:)

Thanks.

[fanofterps]

Saw 275 unit luxury apartments 951 Fell St under construction in Fells Point(Crane is in the sky). Also, I saw a large retail store open called Urban Adventures on Thames St right across the street from Su Casa furniture. Looks like a store similar to Gap or LL Beam.

Office Depot opened in the new garage next to Little Italy and tractors have started digging some ground at 800 Allicienna where I here Crate and Barrel, William Sonoma and Arhouse furniture are coming.


Ok.
How about this, also? Why not post a grand total of all the posts and viewings from all of the "sticky" threads somewhere on the forum page that all can see? As an example, this Baltimore thread. I believe we had a grand total of around 2,000 some odd posts and 32,000 some odd viewings. Take those numbers and have them posted on part of a page or link. As daily posts and viewings increase on the threads, so does the total number on that part of the forum page. Understand? Give it a try. I think it would keep a sort of pride going about how many posts and viewings per sticky thread. :D So, regardless to how many times sticky threads start over the grand total numbers can still be seen by all! I think people would really go for that.
Let me know what you think. Pass it on to the other mods and see what they think, too.
:)

Thanks.

[jaysonjaz]

Saw 275 unit luxury apartments 951 Fell St under construction in Fells Point(Crane is in the sky). Also, I saw a large retail store open called Urban Adventures on Thames St right across the street from Su Casa furniture. Looks like a store similar to Gap or LL Beam.

Office Depot opened in the new garage next to Little Italy and tractors have started digging some ground at 800 Allicienna where I here Crate and Barrel, William Sonoma and Arhouse furniture are coming.

I love all the stuff thats going on over there...

I think that the condo going up at Lancaster St actually makes a good contribution to the skyline. Even though its not that tall a building, its large compared to whats around it.

Are there any renderings of the 951 Fell St condos?

[jaysonjaz]

Are there any renderings of the 951 Fell St condos?

Answered my own question :)


http://www.designcollective.com/fulllist.rxml

http://i.xanga.com/jaysonjaz/951fell.jpg

[StevenW]

Nice.

Hey, 800 Allicienna is supposed to be pretty tall, isn't it? :?
:D

[fanofterps]

Harbor East, Locust Point, Fells Point and Canton will continue to get nicer over the next 5 years.

I am 50/50 on the west side. They need to continue to move the pawn shops and low income wig salon stores out and get more people who can pay rent at $1,000 a month or more to live there.

The West Sides success may depend on who replaces O'Malley in a few years.
If we get someone like Schmoke again, things will likely stay stagnant. We lost a few hundred thousand people in his term and had very little development.

I love all the stuff thats going on over there...

I think that the condo going up at Lancaster St actually makes a good contribution to the skyline. Even though its not that tall a building, its large compared to whats around it.

Are there any renderings of the 951 Fell St condos?

[TritaniumZ3]

One Light Street
Floors 24
Construction 2004
Approved

http://www.onelightstreet.com/images/page2.jpg

[fanofterps]

We have been hearing about this project for 10 years. I wish Joseph Clarke would sell the property to Pateratiks or someone that will build it. A 350 unit luxury apartment house with built in parking and retail would be nice.

One Light Street
Floors 24
Construction 2004
Approved

http://www.onelightstreet.com/images/page2.jpg

[TritaniumZ3]

Hey, 800 Allicienna is supposed to be pretty tall, isn't it? :?
:D

I think its 16 floors.

[TritaniumZ3]

Spinnaker Bay
18 Stories, 32 units
Construction 2004
Under Construction

Spectacular Urban Living on the Waterfront
Destined to become one of Baltimore's premier residential addresses, Spinnaker Bay blends sophisticated urban living with dazzling views of the water.
Located on a spectacular waterfront site in the city's Harbor East area, minutes from both Fell's Point and Little Italy, Spinnaker Bay will offer an exclusive collection of just 32 elegantly appointed condominium residences. Sweeping views of the harbor are maximized with expanses of oversized windows while fireplaces, studies, and spacious kitchens with breakfast rooms contribute to the exceptional appeal of the residences themselves, which range in size from 1,400 square feet to nearly 4,000 square feet.
Residents will also enjoy fine services and amenities, including a concierge, a fitness center, a business center, a Club Room, and a rooftop swimming pool. Convenience is underscored with unusual on-level parking.
Part of the exciting $90 million Spinnaker Bay community, the condominiums offer residents access to one of the area's most vibrant neighborhoods with such renowned dining establishments as Charleston, Roy's, and Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar a short stroll away.

http://www.bozzuto.com/_images/homes/photo_spinnakerbay.jpg

[jaysonjaz]

Spinnaker Bay looks almost finished and it looks awesome
I was driving down Key Highway today taking a good look at it.

I'm a bit dangerous around town. I should pay a bit more attention to the road a bit less attention to the skyline. :jk:

[fanofterps]

I agree. Spinaker Bay is one of the best projects to be built in Baltimore in a long time. We need more upscale residential and retail. Does anyone know what will be in the 16 floors of 800 Allicienna. At one time, I heard 100 apartments or condo's, 60,000 sq feet of retail, foreign films theater and office space.

Spinnaker Bay looks almost finished and it looks awesome
I was driving down Key Highway today taking a good look at it.

I'm a bit dangerous around town. I should pay a bit more attention to the road a bit less attention to the skyline. :jk:

[willrusso]

:)

[StevenW]

Uhmmm, this rendering is the old one light street that has 35 floors.
http://www.onelightstreet.com/images/page2.jpg
It would have been 446 feet tall, not counting the two flagpoles. Add 50 more feet to that height with the flagpoles and you have 496 feet tall. BUT, sad to say the 24 floor tower is only around 290 to 300 feet tall because the office portion was cut from the plans. AND the tower looks a whole lot different.
I'll see if I can get a rendering soon.

[StevenW]

Here is the new One Light Street:

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6full_rendering_email__1_.jpg

[scando]

Here is the new One Light Street

Do you know it this will actually get built anytime before the next decade? It's definitely a fallback from the original proposal but better than the parking lot that's there now.

[robert parsons]

the last i heard on 800 Allicienna, is that it was to be 24 floors and Pateratiks still wanted office space to be in the building. It was cut down from 30 floors becuse of too many complaints from the niebors saying it was too tall!!!!!

[robert parsons]

the new rendering of one light street looks big enough to go higher. the base looks like it could hold another 20 or 30 floors on top of it.the crown of the building looks like it can be extended to have an extention put on it????? maybe when the market gets better they will add an office portion????

[Furiine]

Baltimore does have a thing for really short buildings it seems. It figures the one part of town, i.e. downtown, that would have really tall skyscrapers ends up with dinky ones that would be dwarved in many American skylines. :mad2:

Tall buildings are logical. It's good city planning if you ask me as long as you can afford the extra costs. Otherwise you just have sprawl within a city. Don't like tall buildings? The suburbs are the place to be. Baltimore is a city of 640,000! We're way past due for some tall buildings.

With all due respect to how much the city can afford, there have been numerous proposals at persistent rates calling for 20+ story buildings. There's your sign that the city can afford tall buildings. When those buildings get shortened, it's bites you back.

[Eerik]

In terms of short buildings...this may be a Baltimore myth (and one which I have a hard time believing) but the story goes that around the time of the 1904 Fire, Baltimore could not help but be astounded that skyscrapers of that time, especially those which were declared "fire-proof" were the ones often times which burned "hottest" in the fire-district. So the story goes, citizens developed an inherent phobia for tall buildings. So much so that during reconstruction, some buildings were rebuilt on existing and salvaged foundations at much lower heights. Back in the 1970s/80s there was an article in The Evening Sun, which recounted this theory in regard to downtown redevelopment. If anyone has heard similar, I'd be interested in learning more...

[Baltimoreguy]

Most of the Inner Harbor Area is actually landfilled in the 1800's and early 1900's. Some of the area is actually concrete piers. Parts of the Inner Harbor East when building foundations were being dug hit water. There is not much bedrock in downtown. The Federal reserve bank was going to build its branch at Calvert and Pratt Streets, but they decided not to because the vault would have been too expensive. The Gallery at HarborPlace Garage and tower there now had to build a seawall to keep the water out because it is 65 feet below sea level at the Bottom of the garage. The HarborCourt Tower 29 floors and 370 feet tall had to drill pilings 170 feet into the ground to support the tower. I think the Financial District will come back as more housing and retail are built. The West Side and Mid-Town-Mt Vernon Area will see lots of Residential Towers, not for a few years. Jobs Follow People. As the Population grows so will the jobs. If Morgan Stanley goes into Harbor Point, it could start other companies to move offices into Baltimore as backdoor space that was previously in NYC,DC Philly. It would be great to see M&T Bank to move it Headquarters to Baltimore. That could be a signature building Baltimore Needs Maybe 50 or 60 floors. Baltimore has over 40 Buildings above 300 ft tall. In 1980, there were only 18. What Baltimore lacks in height it makes up in volume and density.

[fanofterps]

300 upscale apartments/retail and the new Marriott Residence Inn there would really create a 24 hour buzz on that block.

Here is the new One Light Street:

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6full_rendering_email__1_.jpg

[robert parsons]

On the first newly developed parcel immediately north of Baltimore’s Camden Yards, The Zenith will soar above the busy intersection of Pratt and Paca Streets. In what will be the city’s tallest residential building in over a decade, The Zenith will deliver 200 new luxury rental apartments, a 253 space parking garage, and a 24 hour ground floor restaurant all in a modern architectural skin. The 22-story glass curtainwall and masonry tower echoes the geometry of its site with a sweeping tower fronting Paca Street, one of Baltimore’s main entry routes. This curved geometry creates unique residential units unrivaled in the Baltimore market.

Apartments range from 640 sf studio apartments to 1850 sf 2-story duplexes. With floor-to-ceiling windows in the majority of the units, residents will enjoy commanding views of Baltimore’s skyline and Camden Yards. The Zenith is scheduled to open in Summer 2005.

Points of Interest

· 200 luxury rental apartments/253 space parking garage/6500 sf restaurant

· Unprecedented translucent curtainwall skin for residential building in the Mid-Atlantic region. The building’s skin provides varying levels of opacity concealing or revealing the mixed uses inside.

· “Gateway” building along major city entry route

· Terminates Pratt Street view corridor from Inner Harbor

· “24 hour building” with all night restaurant, Live-Work units and 24-hour staffed building lobby


http://www.designcollective.com/_internal/cimg!0/8vvu8jlcwt8

[TritaniumZ3]

The old One Light Street looks better than the new one.

Old
http://www.onelightstreet.com/images/page2.jpg

New
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6full_rendering_email__1_.jpg

[90 degrees]

Thanks for sharing the breaking news.

[StevenW]

Do you know it this will actually get built anytime before the next decade? It's definitely a fallback from the original proposal but better than the parking lot that's there now.

The tower should get going late next year, last I heard. BUT, I heard the plans for the tower MIGHT have changed some more. It would be worth a looking into. :D

[StevenW]

The old One Light Street looks better than the new one.

Old
http://www.onelightstreet.com/images/page2.jpg

New
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/6full_rendering_email__1_.jpg

AMEN! ;) To say the least! :D Just imagine what the old proposal would look like extended about 20 more floors. :D :D

[StevenW]

Baltimoreguy, where did you get this info from: "Baltimore has over 40 Buildings above 300 ft tall. In 1980, there were only 18. What Baltimore lacks in height it makes up in volume and density."? I thought Baltimore had only 20 or 21 buildings 300 ft. or taller. According to www.emporis.com it says, Baltimore has only 20 towers over 300 feet tall. :(

[StevenW]

"The Zenith is scheduled to open in Summer 2005."
I think that may not be correct, now. :D The Zenith hasn't even broke ground yet. :D
Maybe by the early to mid part of 2006 it might open. :D

[TritaniumZ3]

Centerpoint Redevelopment

Baltimore, Maryland

a mixed use project, entailing three quarter of a million square feet of new construction, renovation and adaptive re-use, as well as significant historic preservation. Centerpoint will include nearly 400 rental lofts and apartments.

http://www.titanformwork.com/TITAN/PROJEC_G/centerpoint_S.jpg

http://www.architectsusa.com/_images/1003669_1503_p3019.jpg

[StevenW]

very nice. :)

[jaysonjaz]

It looks like Centerpoint is almost done. The only thing that's missing right now is the retail portion on Eutaw St. Thats coming along swimmingly.

[TritaniumZ3]

AMEN! ;) To say the least! :D Just imagine what the old proposal would look like extended about 20 more floors. :D :D

I wonder why they changed it?

[Baltimoreguy]

Emporis is a nice site however half of Baltimore buildings don't even list the Height of the Building. If you get a hold of some older World Almanac and Book of Facts you can see the heights of many of baltimore's buildings. The opther things about emporis is that the Heights on most of the buildings are wrong. The Biggest mistake is the WaterFront Marriott it is not anywhere close to 460 feet tall. It is 365 ft tall and 32 floors. You can just look at the blgd and know it is not 460 feet tall.
32 buildings above 300 feet
Legg Mason 40 floors 529 32 buildings above 300 feet
Bank of America 34 floors 509
Schaefer Tower 37 floors 492
Commerce Place 32 floors 456
World trade Center 30 423
T Rowe Price Headquarters 28
Tremont Plaza 37
Charles Center Apartments south 31
HarborCourt 29
Blaustein Blgd 30
Bank of America 30
St Paul plaza 28
Waterfront Marriott 32
Legg Mason HarborPlace Tower 28
Harborview Condo 29
250 West Pratt 26
Wachovia 25
SunTrust 25
Redwood Tower 24
Center Center South 25
Baltimore Arts Tower 15
Mercantile Bank 22
RESCO 15
Radsion Plaza Lord Baltimore 24
1st National Bank 22
Charles Center Apartments North 28
BG&E 22
Wydham Hotel 28/23
One Charles Center 22
Federal Bldg 18
M&T Bank 25

A few feet under 300 but taller than 280ft tall
BGE Headquarters 21
Baltimore Federal 20
Court Square Bldg 18
Mercy Hospital 19
Bank of America 17
Bank of America 18
Munsey Buuilding 18
CitiFinance 20
Park Charles Apts 28
21 St apartments 22
St Paul at Chase 22
Horizon House 21
Metro West 17
Howard Hall 19

[TritaniumZ3]

Nice facts!!! Emporis is a good site except you have to pay to copy the pics!

[TritaniumZ3]

http://www.designcollective.com/_internal/cimg!0/8vvu8jlcwt8
I don’t know if you guys have heard of Rosslyn. It’s a city in Arlington County VA. They have a building that looks exactly like The Zenith. I wonder if it was made by the same guys?
http://www.beyonddc.com/images/photos/va/rosslyn/1801nlynn15-good.jpg

[StevenW]

??? :?

[Eerik]

I love Rosslyn! I lived there for seven years and continue to work in Rosslyn. It’s a great place: 20-minute walk across Key Bridge to Georgetown, a few minute ride on Metro to downtown, and very convenient to everything. While Rosslyn does have its share of “ugly” buildings, I feel 1801 North Lynn Street is probably one of the better buildings to be built in Rosslyn since the twin 33-storey USA Today buildings went up in the 1980s.

While I agree 1801 North Lynn Street appears similar to The Zenith, 1801 North Lynn was designed by RTKL (Ned Kahn, public art). As we know, The Zenith is by The Design Collective of Baltimore.

In some ways I hope we (Baltimore) don’t end up with too many more of the “visors” that are appearing on buildings elsewhere. We already have the visor on 750 East Pratt Street, as well as other manifestations on 500 East Pratt and the proposed Zenith. A few here and there are pleasing to the eye. But if every building ends up with some sort of plume or ornate fenestration, then we begin to look silly…

[willrusso]

Nice facts!!! Emporis is a good site except you have to pay to copy the pics!

I've found a way to rip pics off emporis.com. you can either copy the page and paste it into microsoft frontpage and extract the photo, or you could simply do a print screen and crop the edges.

[NewBaltimore1980]

Originally published Nov 29, 2004
The northeast corner of Light and Redwood streets has long been a place for people on the move - most recently as the site of the 14-story Southern Hotel and before that as the setting for the historic Fountain Inn.
But it may soon be the address for people who want to make downtown Baltimore their more permanent home, if the owners proceed with their latest redevelopment plan.

Seeking to tap into the growing market for upscale housing in Baltimore's central business district, J. Joseph Clarke Enterprises and Capital Guidance Corp., owners of the property known as One Light Street, are considering plans to build high-rise apartments or condominiums there.

Their plan represents a shift in thinking about the prime downtown parcel, which has previously been eyed for offices, a hotel or both.

J. Joseph Clarke, managing agent for the development team, said he has been thinking about residences since last summer and asked the architectural firm of Hord Coplan Macht in Baltimore to design a residential tower for the site.

The architects drew plans for a 28-story tower that would contain 248 residences and 410 parking spaces, plus commercial space at street level.

Clarke said he has been impressed by the number of people moving to downtown Baltimore in recent months, primarily to apartments in recycled office or loft buildings, and thought the Light Street property would be an ideal location for new construction.

He said he has been looking for a development partner who specializes in housing and has had strong interest.

"This is the direction that I see the site moving in," he said. "It's not a done deal yet, but we're warmer than we've been in a while."

"To have apartments at that location would be dynamite, because you can walk to so many things," said architect Ed Hord. "There's a great appetite for downtown living right now."

Hundreds of downtown apartments have been occupied in recent months, with the opening of developments such as Centerpoint, the Munsey Building, the Standard Building and Saratoga Court.

An apartment tower is under construction at the northwest corner of Howard and Lombard streets; another is planned for the southwest corner of Pratt and Paca streets. Thirty-eight upscale condominiums are being created at the Breco Building two blocks north of City Hall.

The One Light Street property is bounded roughly by Light, Redwood, Baltimore and Grant streets. Besides the old Southern Hotel, built in 1917 and razed starting in 1998, an office building at 5 Light St. was demolished to make way for redevelopment, and four low-rise buildings in the 100 block of E. Baltimore St. still face demolition.

The parcel does not include the Thomas Building at Baltimore and Light streets, a six-story structure that is owned by McDonald's Corp. and contains a McDonald's restaurant.

Designed by Otto Simonson for builder Abraham J. Fink, the 400-room Southern Hotel was one of the city's premier hotels during the first half of the 20th century. Many Baltimoreans have fond memories of parties and dances in the "Spanish Villa" on the roof. Last used as a hotel in the 1960s, it became the home of an engineering school that moved out in the 1980s and was subsequently acquired by Clarke's group.

Over the past decade, Clarke and his partners have promoted plans for a 45-story office tower and mixed-use developments containing offices and an Embassy Suites hotel, but they have been unable to obtain the funding needed to proceed with construction.

Clarke said the chance of building an office tower is remote at this point because the downtown market already has an abundance of office space, and hotels can be difficult to finance.

He said city planners have already tentatively approved plans that call for construction of a seven-story structure containing street-level retail space and parking above. He said this base could be modified to support a residential tower above, rather than offices or a hotel.

Hord said he envisions a "very sleek" building that would be a counterpoint to the historic Bank of America tower at 10 Light St.

A rendering created by the design team indicates that the building would have a glass and metal skin, with floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies enabling residents to take advantage of panoramic views.

For the corner of Light and Redwood, where the Southern Hotel stood, the designers created a "blue cube" that could contain offices or loft apartments. It would provide a slipcover of sorts for the parking structure to the east.

The top of the garage would be the first level of the residential tower, with amenities such as an indoor pool, exercise room, theater, community room and landscaped terrace.

For now, Clarke said, the land is being used as 46 parking spaces for the law firm of Miles and Stockbridge, which recently agreed to keep its headquarters at 10 Light St.

"I wanted to applaud them," Clarke said, "for signing their new lease."


Student housing

The Maryland Institute College of Art today will begin demolishing a building at 1601 Mount Royal Ave. to make way for a $20 million student residence facility to be designed by RTKL Associates.

The vacant Ditch, Bower and Taylor building will be razed over the next three weeks to make way for the housing, expected to open by fall 2007.

[waj0527]

Apparently the Silo Point project in Locust Point is moving along nicely. BTW....has anyone seen any renderings of the final project or heard any proposals?

From the Nov. 18th Maryland Daily Record:

Md. pays to remove pier
November 18, 2004
By EZRA K. FIESER,
Daily Record Business Writer

$3M demolition clears way for silo housing
With the industrial lines on Baltimore’s waterfront continuing to recede, state officials are spending $3 million to demolish a South Baltimore pier near the site of a future residential development.

The Board of Public Works agreed yesterday to spend $3 million to demolish a pier at the former Archer Daniels Midland grain elevator, above, in South Baltimore’s Locust Point. The former industrial site will be converted to housing, offices and retail.

The state Board of Public Works approved a contract with Maine-based Cianbro Corp. to remove the pier in Locust Point, an increasingly popular waterfront neighborhood where developers are turning former industrial buildings into upscale offices and residences.
“There’s no need for a pier if the site is going to become residential,” said J.B. Hanson, a spokesman for the Maryland Port Administration, which owned the pier.

The pier was used by Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland Co., which owned an adjacent grain elevator operation. The elevator site was recently purchased by a Baltimore developer who is planning a $200 million mix of offices, retail shops and upscale residences.

A partnership led by Henrietta Corp. owner Patrick Turner is planning Silo Point, a mix of 120 townhouses, as many as 380 apartments or condominiums, 130,000 square feet of office space and 60,000 square feet for retail use on the 15-acre site. Construction on the townhouses by national home builder Pulte Homes Inc. and the first phases of the conversion of the 290-foot tower are expected to begin early next year.
Although grain shipping effectively halted from the North Locust Point Marine Terminal in early 2002 when ADM moved the operation to Virginia, the conversion of its grain elevator is another sign of the transition of Baltimore’s waterfront.

When Turner was negotiating to buy the site from ADM last year, port officials objected, asking the state to block the sale and preserve the land for industrial use.

The city planning department responded with an industrial overlay district aimed at drawing lines for commercial development and preserving industrial land — even that which is currently unused — for future growth.

The Silo Point project won zoning changes and city approvals before that overlay district became law this summer. The popularity of the surrounding neighborhood — where two-bedroom townhouses are selling for nearly $200,000 — have led developers to look outside of the compact area’s traditional boundaries for land.

A former Procter & Gamble soap factory had already been converted into offices designed for technology companies by Baltimore-based Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc. The renamed Tide Point complex is fully leased.
But as manufacturing has changed in the United States, many of the industrial sites have been vacated, leaving large waterfront sites ready to be developed.

At the Silo Point site, “The train tracks form a natural barrier between our development and the port,” Turner said. “Trains don’t run very often on those tracks. They used to serve the grain elevator and the Procter site.”

[StevenW]

I'd sure love to see the architect's rendering of the 'new' One Light Street. Wouldn't you? :D
Maybe a little investigating is in order. :)

[StevenW]

Here is a site you guys should check out:

http://www.hcm2.com/home_frameindex.html

It's the new architectual Firm for One Light Street.

[StevenW]

Hord said he envisions a "very sleek" building that would be a counterpoint to the historic Bank of America tower at 10 Light St.

A rendering created by the design team indicates that the building would have a glass and metal skin, with floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies enabling residents to take advantage of panoramic views.

For the corner of Light and Redwood, where the Southern Hotel stood, the designers created a "blue cube" that could contain offices or loft apartments. It would provide a slipcover of sorts for the parking structure to the east.

The top of the garage would be the first level of the residential tower, with amenities such as an indoor pool, exercise room, theater, community room and landscaped terrace.


Very nice when he said, "very sleek", :D

[willrusso]

Here is a site you guys should check out:

http://www.hcm2.com/home_frameindex.html

It's the new architectual Firm for One Light Street.

I can't view it for some reason. All I see is a black page with some links at the top.

[TritaniumZ3]

I can't view it for some reason. All I see is a black page with some links at the top.

Samehere. Try his site it might help.

One Light Street (http://www.onelightstreet.com/)

[StevenW]

sorry guys, try this: http://www.hcm2.com

[Baltimoreguy]

One Light street 28 Floors not too bad should be between 320 and 350 feet tall. I hope this one gets built. I bet the old McCormick Spice PLant Site gets Huge Residential Tower prosposal soon. It is the last nearly waterfront site left and next to HarborPlace. I would love to see a building like the one once proposed for St Paul and Calvert Streets(Now an Apartment Complex also). It was a 68 story apartment tower. The city turned them down saying it was too tall for Mt Vernon. This was way back when I was studying Urban Cities At U of MD. Could you Imagine a 68 story Apartment building at Conway and Light Street. Of course to comfirm with the Inner Harbor Site Plan the front of the building would be half to be less than 145 feet. It would be similar in design as HarborCourt but 30 floors taller. I could see a large garage, with street level stores, maybe even a small hotel and like 500 condos or apartments in the a tower on the back of the site. The McCormick site will be the next SuperBlock Development. Ok Dream Over. Wake up The City would turn it down anyway. LOL

[fanofterps]

Super Fresh Grocery Store= creates perception people live in downtown Balto
Water Tower Condo= over 300 units
Conversion of old Gas & Electric Building = 200 units
1 light st = 250 units
300 pratt st =250 units
Zenith = 200 units
Abell Building on Eutaw= 35 lofts
Calvert and Mercer site= 300 units
Bohager's site= 200 units
McCormick site= build residential 300 units
951 Fell st = 260 units
Silo Point= 500 units
Caton Crossing= 505 units
Ritz Carlton = 174 units
Pier Town Harbor View= 88 towns
800 Allicienna= 100 units
4 Seasons= 80 units

QUOTE=Baltimoreguy]One Light street 28 Floors not too bad should be between 320 and 350 feet tall. I hope this one gets built. I bet the old McCormick Spice PLant Site gets Huge Residential Tower prosposal soon. It is the last nearly waterfront site left and next to HarborPlace. I would love to see a building like the one once proposed for St Paul and Calvert Streets(Now an Apartment Complex also). It was a 68 story apartment tower. The city turned them down saying it was too tall for Mt Vernon. This was way back when I was studying Urban Cities At U of MD. Could you Imagine a 68 story Apartment building at Conway and Light Street. Of course to comfirm with the Inner Harbor Site Plan the front of the building would be half to be less than 145 feet. It would be similar in design as HarborCourt but 30 floors taller. I could see a large garage, with street level stores, maybe even a small hotel and like 500 condos or apartments in the a tower on the back of the site. The McCormick site will be the next SuperBlock Development. Ok Dream Over. Wake up The City would turn it down anyway. LOL[/QUOTE]

[waj0527]

I honestly think this may be one of the most underrated project currently taking place in Baltimore. Sure, its great to be adding class-A office space, hotels, and residences to the City Center, Mt. Vernon, Westside and Harbor East neighborhoods and along the waterfront, but I think this project, University of Maryland's Biopark and the massive renewal project in the Uplands neighborhood in SW Baltimore are vital to the city's future.

The townhomes, condos and apartments planned for these areas will be market-rate properties. I really believe that these projects will provide housing alternatives to graduate students and faculty. These projects will continue to bring a more wealthy tax base back to the city.


Developers push to double housing at east-side biopark
By Alan Zibel
Baltimore Business Journal

As many as 700 new homes are being proposed for a downtrodden section of East Baltimore next to the Johns Hopkins medical campus as part of a $1 billion plan to build a life sciences park there.

That's more than double the minimum of 300 housing units -- a mixture of apartments, townhouses and condominiums -- originally set by planners of the proposed New East Baltimore Community, which is slated to be built in a neighborhood plagued by high crime rates and boarded-up rowhouses.

To accommodate the developers' interest in building housing, the initial phase of the project has been expanded to include 30 acres north of Johns Hopkins Hospital, up from 20 acres. The overall project is designed to be 80 acres.

Each of the three development teams being considered to build the project's $500 million first phase is interested in constructing more than 500 homes as part of the project, said Jack Shannon, president and chief executive officer of East Baltimore Development Inc., the city-affiliated organization overseeing the project. One developer has even proposed more than 700 housing units, he said.

"There is a marketplace for housing north of the Johns Hopkins campus," Shannon said.

The developers believed that more new apartments, condominiums or townhouses could create enough "critical mass" to generate momentum for the neighborhood's turnaround, Shannon said.

Housing could also be attractive to Johns Hopkins graduate students in such fields as medicine, public health and nursing, most of whom live off campus.

Some of the East Baltimore families who are being moved out of the area to clear way for the project may want to move back to the neighborhood when the project is done, Shannon said.

Bill Cassidy, sales manager of the Long & Foster realty office in Fells Point, agreed there will be strong demand for new housing north of the Hopkins campus, especially since nearby Butcher's Hill and Patterson Park are already seeing an influx of new residents who are sprucing up old rowhouses.

"Once the whole area is redone, it will become very much like a new part of the city," he said.

The area north of Hopkins could compete with new suburban townhouse developments because there are always people looking to buy newly constructed homes, Cassidy said.

And the chance to avoid a highway commute to downtown Baltimore could be enticing for many homebuyers.

Spacious townhouses with on-site parking and easy access to the subway could be attractive to buyers who also are looking at small rowhouses with no parking spaces in nearby Canton.

The 11-member EBDI board is now slated to make a decision on a master developer for the overall project sometime in December, a delay from the original goal of mid-November. Shannon said the decision has been delayed because the board wants to do a careful and thorough review of all three proposals.

At first, the project's planners did not know, Shannon said, how big the market would be for housing in the area.

One third of the housing would be sold or rented at market rates. Another third would be designated as affordable housing, with the rest set aside for low-income households. All three proposals include a mix of rental properties and for-sale properties.

One of the three potential lead developers, Steven Grigg, president and chief executive of Washington-based Republic Properties Corp., said the residential part of the project is "probably the most important feature from an urban planning standpoint" because it could have the most impact on the area. He declined to describe his company's proposal in detail.

The other two possible development team leaders are the Washington division of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises and a joint venture between Baltimore development firm Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc. and New Hampshire-based Lyme Properties LLC. Neither could be reached for comment.

The timeline for the initial phase of the project is likely to become clearer when the developer is picked next month.

Johns Hopkins has one graduate student dormitory on the East Baltimore campus, Reed Hall.

"We believe that there is some demand for some folks who want to come back to the campus," said Richard Grossi, vice president and chief financial officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Additional apartments could help to meet that demand, he said.

Johns Hopkins Medicine has committed to lease 100,000 square feet of office and laboratory space in the life sciences park, Grossi said.

That space is slated for researchers in the medical school's Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences.

The project's first phase calls for 1 million square feet of office space. Hopkins is playing a role, Grossi said, in trying to recruit companies to the park.

"We've had some people come unsolicited and say, 'Look we're interested in being there,' " said Grossi, who declined to give names. "I'd like a couple of large companies."

© 2004 Baltimore Business Journal

[Eerik]

http://www.dcestonian.com/baltimore/financialdistrict/onelight/hcm/1lightSWview.jpg

The design of the newly proposed One Light Street has potential. The blue-cube seems to pay homage to the old Redwood Street façade. It seems to be an attempt at providing some sort of scale to the old Redwood Street cornice-line while pragmatically acknowledging the space in and of itself as a garage. The cube also appears to help create a more graceful tower by appearing detached. While I like what it seems to be trying to do, in some ways it’s too literal; too elementary.

I really like the attempt at salvaging the old Thompson’s Drugstore on Baltimore Street. While today used as a McDonalds, the loss of that structure would spell an end to a very important and significant piece of Baltimore. The same applies to the rest of the 200 Block of East Baltimore Street…all the way down to the old Alex Brown Building/Chevy Chase bank branch. I hope those structures can be salvaged and incorporated.

I can’t say I am all that thrilled with the tower itself. I hope this is the first massing-rendering and that the final design will be less 60s-70s retro and a bit more forward thinking. I am also not all that convinced about the tower plan: I would love to hear what Hord Coplan Macht was thinking. There seems to be no rhyme or logic; the positioning of the tower-wings won’t provide any benefit to inhabitants. The extended-stay hotel will block views for nearly half of the lower floors across Redwood Street, and 200 East Pratt Street will block all the rest of the views. (City planners are probably beginning to kick themselves for allowing the old Harbor-frame concept to be compromised in the 80s. The old Union Trust/Wachovia Bank Tower will have a significant slice of additional breathing space removed as well, probably pissing off building management more so than with the 200 East Pratt Street addition some fifteen years ago.)

What I am unsure of is the programming. And this is a question that has less to do with the new proposal for One Light Street and more so with downtown as a whole: I firmly believe in a downtown that is 24-hour in nature. However I am not all that sure and convinced that by channeling so much residential development into the financial district is a good thing. By dumping The Munsey, The Standard, and others…and now this plot of what ought to be prime available land to residential…worries me a bit. The heart of the Baltimore region is fast becoming a residential neighborhood. We no longer have a manufacturing base, and we are no longer a headquarters town (in terms of Fortune 500 companies, with the exception of Constellation Energy). My regret and fear is that in some ways we are truly becoming what planners predicted some thirty or forty years ago…a bedroom community of the larger and more important Washington DC. We are watching the prestige…importance of what was an important city…decline.

[jaysonjaz]

"There is a marketplace for housing north of the Johns Hopkins campus," Shannon said.

The developers believed that more new apartments, condominiums or townhouses could create enough "critical mass" to generate momentum for the neighborhood's turnaround, Shannon said.

Housing could also be attractive to Johns Hopkins graduate students in such fields as medicine, public health and nursing, most of whom live off campus.

Some of the East Baltimore families who are being moved out of the area to clear way for the project may want to move back to the neighborhood when the project is done, Shannon said.


I would love to own one of those houses directly north of Johns Hopkins. The homes on broadway directly north of the hospital rival Resevoir Hill in their raw beauty. Unfortunately they also rival Resevoir Hill in their lack of care and amount of decay. I really hope that some of those houses are left intact and renovated during all of this.

I would agree that one of the best indicators of Baltimore's health and one of the main factors that will make this city a 24hour city will be the ammount that the neighborhoods surrounding the central business district get redeveloped. I am excited to see all thats going on here! :)

[jaysonjaz]

[IMG]
What I am unsure of is the programming. And this is a question that has less to do with the new proposal for One Light Street and more so with downtown as a whole: I firmly believe in a downtown that is 24-hour in nature. However I am not all that sure and convinced that by channeling so much residential development into the financial district is a good thing. By dumping The Munsey, The Standard, and others…and now this plot of what ought to be prime available land to residential…worries me a bit. The heart of the Baltimore region is fast becoming a residential neighborhood. We no longer have a manufacturing base, and we are no longer a headquarters town (in terms of Fortune 500 companies, with the exception of Constellation Energy). My regret and fear is that in some ways we are truly becoming what planners predicted some thirty or forty years ago…a bedroom community of the larger and more important Washington DC. We are watching the prestige…importance of what was an important city…decline.

I hear what you are saying about the loss of a downtown prestige, but I am not quite as pessimistic. I think by making the downtown a more "happening" place, you increase the image of the city. This makes Baltimore seem a more desirable place to do business.
If I am a CEO and I am visiting Baltimore on a business trip and I were considering moving my company, I would want to see a bustling busy city with people moving all about. Seeing a place that is boarded up and closed at 5pm says a lot about a location. I think once this is a more round the clock city, the image will be that Baltimore is a good place to do business and a fun place for people to live and to work.
I don't think the loss of several CBD buildings to residential will really hurt us overall.

[StevenW]

THIS IS INTERESTING: http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2004/11/29/story2.html

Comments, anyone? :D

[StevenW]

http://leaflet.vet.ed.ac.uk/webpage/postcards/baltimore/baltimore1_large.jpg

[NewBaltimore1980]

http://www.dcestonian.com/baltimore/financialdistrict/onelight/hcm/1lightSWview.jpg

The design of the newly proposed One Light Street has potential. The blue-cube seems to pay homage to the old Redwood Street façade. It seems to be an attempt at providing some sort of scale to the old Redwood Street cornice-line while pragmatically acknowledging the space in and of itself as a garage. The cube also appears to help create a more graceful tower by appearing detached. While I like what it seems to be trying to do, in some ways it’s too literal; too elementary.

I really like the attempt at salvaging the old Thompson’s Drugstore on Baltimore Street. While today used as a McDonalds, the loss of that structure would spell an end to a very important and significant piece of Baltimore. The same applies to the rest of the 200 Block of East Baltimore Street…all the way down to the old Alex Brown Building/Chevy Chase bank branch. I hope those structures can be salvaged and incorporated.

I can’t say I am all that thrilled with the tower itself. I hope this is the first massing-rendering and that the final design will be less 60s-70s retro and a bit more forward thinking. I am also not all that convinced about the tower plan: I would love to hear what Hord Coplan Macht was thinking. There seems to be no rhyme or logic; the positioning of the tower-wings won’t provide any benefit to inhabitants. The extended-stay hotel will block views for nearly half of the lower floors across Redwood Street, and 200 East Pratt Street will block all the rest of the views. (City planners are probably beginning to kick themselves for allowing the old Harbor-frame concept to be compromised in the 80s. The old Union Trust/Wachovia Bank Tower will have a significant slice of additional breathing space removed as well, probably pissing off building management more so than with the 200 East Pratt Street addition some fifteen years ago.)

What I am unsure of is the programming. And this is a question that has less to do with the new proposal for One Light Street and more so with downtown as a whole: I firmly believe in a downtown that is 24-hour in nature. However I am not all that sure and convinced that by channeling so much residential development into the financial district is a good thing. By dumping The Munsey, The Standard, and others…and now this plot of what ought to be prime available land to residential…worries me a bit. The heart of the Baltimore region is fast becoming a residential neighborhood. We no longer have a manufacturing base, and we are no longer a headquarters town (in terms of Fortune 500 companies, with the exception of Constellation Energy). My regret and fear is that in some ways we are truly becoming what planners predicted some thirty or forty years ago…a bedroom community of the larger and more important Washington DC. We are watching the prestige…importance of what was an important city…decline.


Thats a pretty depressing outlook. I actually like the building, its fits for that area. PLus I think that us being a bedroom community for DC is not necessarily a bad thing. Its makes Baltimore a more 24 hour city and will increase the values of the markets here. Returning to a manufacturing town would be a mistake. Manufacturing provides low wage, dirty jobs and industry. Its better to have service sector jobs or commute to them to make Baltimore a better place to live.

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW!

[Gsol]

I hope they are not serious about the design. Please say this is a joke. The building is inconpatible with the surronding ones on the skyline. It is a residential looking design and belongs in the Hopkins area or Towson. In order to conform with its neighbors, One Light St. should be more rectangular in shape, not sectioned in wings, and loose the decks. This is not Ocean City.

Gary

[StevenW]

I agree. The tower does look like it should be at the beachfront. :D AT LEAST, if they will build it, add another 28 floors! ;) THEN, I might warm up to the "beach" look. :D ;)

[fanofterps]

The trend the last 10 years or so is for companies to relocate from the central business district to water-front locations(Can Company, Tide Point, Canton Crossing, Bonds Wharf in Fells Point) with free parking or the suburbs. We have a 23 percent vacancy rate in the central business district and this may increase with the 500 Pratt st opening. Why not convert some of these buildings into upscale residential and retail. Jaysonjaz is right in that a 24 hour city in the central business district would attract more investment.

QUOTE=jaysonjaz]I hear what you are saying about the loss of a downtown prestige, but I am not quite as pessimistic. I think by making the downtown a more "happening" place, you increase the image of the city. This makes Baltimore seem a more desirable place to do business.
If I am a CEO and I am visiting Baltimore on a business trip and I were considering moving my company, I would want to see a bustling busy city with people moving all about. Seeing a place that is boarded up and closed at 5pm says a lot about a location. I think once this is a more round the clock city, the image will be that Baltimore is a good place to do business and a fun place for people to live and to work.
I don't think the loss of several CBD buildings to residential will really hurt us overall.[/QUOTE]

[scando]

What I am unsure of is the programming. And this is a question that has less to do with the new proposal for One Light Street and more so with downtown as a whole: I firmly believe in a downtown that is 24-hour in nature. However I am not all that sure and convinced that by channeling so much residential development into the financial district is a good thing. By dumping The Munsey, The Standard, and others…and now this plot of what ought to be prime available land to residential…worries me a bit. The heart of the Baltimore region is fast becoming a residential neighborhood. We no longer have a manufacturing base, and we are no longer a headquarters town (in terms of Fortune 500 companies, with the exception of Constellation Energy). My regret and fear is that in some ways we are truly becoming what planners predicted some thirty or forty years ago…a bedroom community of the larger and more important Washington DC. We are watching the prestige…importance of what was an important city…decline.

The residential move seems to me to be great. It's not like the Munsey, Standard, etc were functioning all that well as office buildings. They were nearly empty hulks in danger of demolition for a parking lots. The unfortunate fact is that corporate HQs aren't really breaking down the doors to get to those above-the-harbor locations and those buildings would not have been much of a draw if they were. The fact that those buildings seem to be pretty attractive as residential property is a real positive alternative. As more people live downtown, the possibility of more corporate interest will increase. I don't worry about the bedroom community for DC thing. There are a few people continuing to move into the area in areas that are close to the MARC but so what? They can't live too far afield from Camden or Pennsylvania stations because they already have a 1 1/2 hour commute via MARC and DC Metro. They aren't going to spread over the whole area because of the commute. They bring income and tax base and as they live here, DC people seem to like Baltimore much more than DC so they become local after a while. That all leads to more economic vitality to city areas that have been struggling for decades.

[scando]

I hope they are not serious about the design. Please say this is a joke. The building is inconpatible with the surronding ones on the skyline. It is a residential looking design and belongs in the Hopkins area or Towson. In order to conform with its neighbors, One Light St. should be more rectangular in shape, not sectioned in wings, and loose the decks. This is not Ocean City.

Gary

Who would want to buy an expensive condo and hot have a deck? It seems no more incompatible than the disparate buildings that are alreay there and too many glass boxes in one area gets pretty repetitive.

[Eerik]

I’m sorry that I came across as too pessimistic! I guess I too often let me inner feelings and fears surface, and as such, they can be misinterpreted!

First of all, I do not have any real hate or animosity for the proposed One Light Street. If anything, I find it a better design than earlier proposals. As cited by Hord Coplan Macht, it does juxtapose with the Bank of America Building across the street. Designs by Burgee, Fillat, and others almost competed with the BoA tower across the street. By sheer mass and scale they almost tried to overtake the building across the street. The current proposal is a neutral “backdrop” building that fulfills a market need while not calling undue attention to itself. If anything, for that reason alone, Hord Coplan Macht ought to be praised.

However, from a sheer urban planning perspective, I still maintain that buildings, i.e. zoning downtown ought to be carefully weighed. This reason alone is why I tend to oppose a horserace track downtown. Even a subtle shift in land-use can create havoc. In other words, let’s be careful how we place out bets; lad is scare! So let’s be frugal!

Yes, a traditional economy based on manufacturing is a thing of the past. And for many various reasons, Baltimore as a hub for financial and banking is also long gone. What’s left? Do we really become a bedroom community? Has the City really done the best it can to attract and nurture a new economy? I totally endorse the slogan “out with the old, in with the new.” But are we realizing the best investment? Are we getting the most return for the dollar?

[Ron C]

I’m sorry that I came across as too pessimistic! I guess I too often let me inner feelings and fears surface, and as such, they can be misinterpreted!

First of all, I do not have any real hate or animosity for the proposed One Light Street. If anything, I find it a better design than earlier proposals. As cited by Hord Coplan Macht, it does juxtapose with the Bank of America Building across the street. Designs by Burgee, Fillat, and others almost competed with the BoA tower across the street. By sheer mass and scale they almost tried to overtake the building across the street. The current proposal is a neutral “backdrop” building that fulfills a market need while not calling undue attention to itself. If anything, for that reason alone, Hord Coplan Macht ought to be praised.

However, from a sheer urban planning perspective, I still maintain that buildings, i.e. zoning downtown ought to be carefully weighed. This reason alone is why I tend to oppose a horserace track downtown. Even a subtle shift in land-use can create havoc. In other words, let’s be careful how we place out bets; lad is scare! So let’s be frugal!

Yes, a traditional economy based on manufacturing is a thing of the past. And for many various reasons, Baltimore as a hub for financial and banking is also long gone. What’s left? Do we really become a bedroom community? Has the City really done the best it can to attract and nurture a new economy? I totally endorse the slogan “out with the old, in with the new.” But are we realizing the best investment? Are we getting the most return for the dollar?


An interesting discussion.

Here’s a personal perspective. My wife works just above the DC beltway in PG Co, and I work in Harford Co. We live in Federal Hill, half-way between, more or less. While that is probably a good justification in itself, we actually would want to live there anyway. I’d certainly love the opportunity to have the same (or similar) job in downtown Baltimore. Although in our cases (for several reasons) there is essentially 0% chance of changing jobs at this point in our lives, I can imagine that if the population of potential employees in an area increases, employers might be encouraged to locate there to tap into that base. Isn’t that, at least in part, what happened (and is still happening) when employers moved to the ‘burbs? They followed their potential employees. I can imagine that increasing the number of people who live downtown might help reverse that trend—as would increasing the number of people who live in city neighborhoods close to downtown. Not every business can have a waterfront location. But I’d bet that if you increase the number of potential employees downtown, employers may want to locate there in order to entice them through shorter commutes. There should be enough room for both businesses and residences. I think that would be ideal.

(I'm hoping that will also be the case with retail downtown, though it seems to be taking longer than I would like.)

[robert parsons]

http://www.designcollective.com/_internal/cimg!0/8vvu8jlebrz




Design Collective, Inc. is continuing to redefine and activate Baltimore’s waterfront area in the heart Fells Point and is working with Houston-based developer, The Hanover Company, to design an eight-story midrise high-end loft apartment project comprised of 252 rental units and 10 waterfront townhomes. Located at the harbor’s edge and at the terminus of Fell Street, the project extends Baltimore’s waterfront promenade through the site and provides prominent project visibility, immediate waterfront access, lush landscaping, and rich hardscape amenities for residents and public use.

The design concept includes a modified ‘E-shaped’ midrise to maximize waterfront views for a majority of units to the south and east, and stunning downtown skyline views for the remainder to the northwest. The waterfront townhomes are designed to enhance views over the marina to the outer harbor by situating the four residential levels above the 400-space parking garage, which serves residents and marina users.

The Hanover/Design Collective residential project offer “true loft” apartments with 10-feet high ceilings, oversized windows, and features including exposed spiral ductwork and stained concrete floors. The building’s ground floor will offer 10 “walk-up units” with street access and richly landscaped private terraces. One and two bedroom apartments range in size from 750-1850 square feet, and with overall luxurious building amenities to include a demonstration kitchen for cooking classes, a 24-person movie theater, a wine cellar, internet/coffee bar, and fitness/aerobics center. Construction is scheduled to begin in Winter 2003 with a Spring 2005 grand opening anticipated.

[robert parsons]

I Like The New One Light St But, Dont Like The Location!!!!!!
It Needs To Be Futher Away From The Core Maybe Closer To 83. Were Some More New Residentail Is Going Up. Start Spreading The Downtown A Little Closer To Hopkins . Has Anyone Also Heard Any New Info On 83. Last I Heard They Were Toying With Putting 83 Underground And Making A Street Level Blvd With The Jones Falls Exposed , Kinda Like A Park.

[Ron C]

Design Collective, Inc. is continuing to redefine and activate Baltimore’s waterfront area in the heart Fells Point and is working with Houston-based developer, The Hanover Company, to design an eight-story midrise high-end loft apartment project comprised of 252 rental units and 10 waterfront townhomes. Located at the harbor’s edge and at the terminus of Fell Street, the project extends Baltimore’s waterfront promenade through the site and provides prominent project visibility, immediate waterfront access, lush landscaping, and rich hardscape amenities for residents and public use.
.
.
<Stuff Deleted>
.
.
Construction is scheduled to begin in Winter 2003 with a Spring 2005 grand opening anticipated.

I think that this is the project that I took pictures of back in August. If so, it looked like they were only getting started at that time, so I'd guess they are behind schedule.

Here's what it looked like in August 04.

http://www.digistash.com/data/a51c896c9cb81ecb5a199d51ac9fc3c5/full_2793_p22553.jpeg

http://www.digistash.com/data/a51c896c9cb81ecb5a199d51ac9fc3c5/full_2793_p22552.jpeg

[NewBaltimore1980]

I Like The New One Light St But, Dont Like The Location!!!!!!
It Needs To Be Futher Away From The Core Maybe Closer To 83. Were Some More New Residentail Is Going Up. Start Spreading The Downtown A Little Closer To Hopkins . Has Anyone Also Heard Any New Info On 83. Last I Heard They Were Toying With Putting 83 Underground And Making A Street Level Blvd With The Jones Falls Exposed , Kinda Like A Park.

Like the big leak in Boston? Please dont wish this one on ourselves.

[Eerik]

I agree, the One Light Street residences would better suit the Guilford corridor further east. It would complement the residential zone developing along the northern edge of the CBD which seems to be moving east and south. I have not heard of placing I-83 underground, and agree that tunneling may not be a smart idea.

However, one of the recommendations floated around in the late 80s/early 90s in a report on downtown was to demolish the I-83 platform-bridge and replace with an at-grade boulevard. I think a significant cost was demolition and properly channeling and containing the Jones Falls under a new boulevard. One study recommended opening the Falls as part of a pedestrian walk alongside the new boulevard. The idea may still be on the city's "wish list" of items.

[StevenW]

Are there any pictures and/or renderings of a residential tower, that you know of, that you would like to see designed and erected at One Light Street, that you could post? :) There are a few I seen in San Francisco that I liked. If I can find them I'll post them. :D

[LilMoeJoeJoe]

I saw on the news recently that a city in Georgia was able to lure 5-6 foreign manufacturers after a major automobile assembly plant was closed down. Baltimore's Civic leaders should do the same thing. Offer huge tax breaks and turn the facility into sort of a manufacturing mall. Boeing is contracting out assembly work for it's new 7E7 aircraft. That huge facility that once built vans could build airplane parts, other automobile parts, laser discs, hard drives, parts for various military vehicles etc. The Civic leadership must not take this lying down. They have to recognize changes in the market and then try to capitalize on them. BWI is an example that comes to mind. They built a multi million dollar International Terminal, lured 3 new International Airlines, and now one of them is in bankruptcy (not BWI's fault) and another says they my leave altogether. Well if you've flown out of BWI you can understand why. The airport does not cater to the International traveler but rather to the Greyhound Southwest crowd. The International terminal is not easily accessable as the other terminals are and the airlines there get little or no marketing. That is why they cannot attract and keep more International Airlines. I hope that Baltimore City sees this and learns from it.

[fanofterps]

I drove by the site this weekend and their is a large crane in the sky now. They have done alot since your pictures in August Ron C.

I think that this is the project that I took pictures of back in August. If so, it looked like they were only getting started at that time, so I'd guess they are behind schedule.

Here's what it looked like in August 04.

http://www.digistash.com/data/a51c896c9cb81ecb5a199d51ac9fc3c5/full_2793_p22553.jpeg

http://www.digistash.com/data/a51c896c9cb81ecb5a199d51ac9fc3c5/full_2793_p22552.jpeg

[scando]

However, one of the recommendations floated around in the late 80s/early 90s in a report on downtown was to demolish the I-83 platform-bridge and replace with an at-grade boulevard. I think a significant cost was demolition and properly channeling and containing the Jones Falls under a new boulevard. One study recommended opening the Falls as part of a pedestrian walk alongside the new boulevard. The idea may still be on the city's "wish list" of items.

I think that idea went DOA quite a while ago. The state has spent a lot of money upgrading the JFX and just finished the project. It doesn't seem likely that anybody would entertain tearing it up at this point. Most of the underground stream actually runs under the Fallsway rather than the JFX. The Falls collects runoff from about half of the streets in the city as well as stuff from leaking sanitary sewers. The water is strained and aerated before it enters the harbor in attempt to avoid polluting the harbor water (wow). It's kinda hard to imagine making that into a gathering place.

[StevenW]

City is shifting gears to preserve industry

Overhaul: Zoning changes are designed to protect waterfront sites from “condo creep.”
By Jill Rosen
Sun Staff
Originally published December 1, 2004, 9:33 PM EST
Thirty years ago, when the city last considered its industrial zoning plan, manufacturing was king. Few anticipated that someday people would spend millions to live next to those grimy factories. Or that so many of Baltimore's blue-collar behemoths wouldn't make it to 2004.
Now, as city planners revisit those dusty zoning rules, they struggle to balance the needs of the city's remaining factories and manufacturers, which often awkwardly co-exist next to upscale homes and condos, with the needs of more modern businesses that the city must also attract to stay viable and competitive.











"It's an attempt to stand back and take a new look from a long-range perspective," said Evans Paull, a director with the Baltimore Development Corporation, the agency that drafted the plan. "What is the new reality of the marketplace?"

The old zoning has left Baltimore with a glut of sites zoned for heavy industry, but not enough property appropriate for more modern businesses. By revamping the code, the goal is to make sure both needs are balanced.

Though the guidelines, first released earlier this year, haven't been controversial, they are sweeping. As city leaders work over the coming year to rewrite the zoning rules, these guidelines will serve as the framework. They'll likely form the roadmap for how and where industry will grow in Baltimore -- a loose set of recommenda tions for the City Council as it makes future zoning decisions.

Thursday the public will have a final chance to comment on the proposal as it's presented to the city Planning Commission at 1:30 p.m.

More than anything else, the BDC's plan, based on a consultant's analysis, protects Baltimore's historic waterfront industries from "condo creep," assuring maritime interests that the deep-water access their businesses require won't be overtaken by residential and office developments that covet their Harbor views.

The plan dovetails with the recently-passed "Maritime Industrial Overlay District" which preserves a large swath of the waterfront from anything but maritime development for the next 10 years.

The proposal also recommends new buffering and landscaping standards so that the city's industrial zones better blend with residential and office areas.

Baltimore's shipping companies, which have felt threatened by the encroaching upscale developments, applaud the proposed remedies.

Rupert Denny, general man ager of C. Steinweg Baltimore Inc., and the spokesman for Private Terminal Operators, a group representing a dozen private stevedores, said it's "refreshing" to hear city officials acknowledge the vital nature of the ports. And he hopes that better zoning will put an end to what he calls the waterfront's "airport syndrome," or complaints from new homeowners shocked to find themselves living amid the clanks and dust of heavy industry.

"We've been in the port for the last 75 years, quietly keeping to our corner of Baltimore, and you can't just have condos built flat-bang next to it," he said. "Don't put a high class hotel next to a pile of coal."



John Mitchell is terminal manager for Westway Terminal Co., a Locust Point company that makes liquid animal feed and offers bulk storage. The company, which runs a 24-hour, Monday-to-Friday operation with all the expected smells and loading noise, is next to Tide Point, a new office complex in the renovated Procter & Gamble plant. It will be within shouting distance of Silo Point, a grain elevator being turned into luxury condominiums, offices and stores.

"There's pressure put on industry to quiet themselves down," Mitchell said. "But we were here to start with."



The proposed buffer zones, Mitchell said, will make industry feel more secure about making an investment in Baltimore. No one wants to spend money to develop a property and then be run out by complaining neighbors.

"If companies see a buffer, it's going to make it more beneficial for them to come," he said.

The proposed rezoning rules will dictate industry development standards citywide, not just for the waterfront. The proposal targets 12 "unstable" areas in Baltimore under pressure to evolve from traditional industrial use.

In addition to obvious spots, such as Canton and Locust Point, the plan targets areas like Falls Road north of the Streetcar Museum, and in southeast Baltimore, at Kane Street and Eastern Avenue.

The plan recommends introducing four new zoning categories to make way for industrial parks, urban businesses, mixed-use developments and port-compatible developments.

Some worry that if the city is too heavy-handed with its new zoning designations, future developers may be as boxed in by out-dated rules as today's are.

Mitch Gold, a real estate broker with Business Real Estate Partners, calls the current city zoning "a "checkerboard of sometimes conflicting uses." Though he agrees that an overhaul is needed, he is concerned that the rules will be too rigid to bend with changes in the market.



"Their plans aren't fluid enough," Gold said.

He points to Seton Business Park in Northwest Baltimore as an example. There, he said, the city was so determined to lure high-tech businesses, they failed to see other viable uses for the space, like offices for nonprofit agencies. "For 10 years, all that land was just sitting there," he said.

Michael Seipp, a former development official with developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse who lost a bid for City Council last year, doubts the city, with its current budget woes, will be able to resist holding property for industrial possibilities when faced with a tempting residential proposal that would expand the tax base.

"The plan is only as good as the political will," said Seipp, who also questions the demand for heavy industrial property, when biotechnology and academia are the region's high-growth fields.

City and state officials say they are confident that shipping and heavy industry will continue to thrive in Baltimore. In fact, the BDC predicts that if the city could offer modern facilities with highway access, it could attract as much as 30 to 40 acres of new development a year.

City officials realize that the zoning plan can't anticipate everything.

"Things will change," Paull said. "This is a live document. ... [But] there are blue-collar jobs that employ blue-collar residents and we need to protect them."



Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun | Get home delivery

[StevenW]

Anyone heard anything new on 300 East Pratt Street, lately? :D Things have been pretty quiet on that project for some time now. :(

[jaysonjaz]

I think that idea went DOA quite a while ago. The state has spent a lot of money upgrading the JFX and just finished the project. It doesn't seem likely that anybody would entertain tearing it up at this point. Most of the underground stream actually runs under the Fallsway rather than the JFX. The Falls collects runoff from about half of the streets in the city as well as stuff from leaking sanitary sewers. The water is strained and aerated before it enters the harbor in attempt to avoid polluting the harbor water (wow). It's kinda hard to imagine making that into a gathering place.

I'd agree with you Scando. Its great to finally have the JFX complely finsihed. I think it would be a really hard sell to get them to put it back under construction. If this is a real project, I'd have to imagine its years away.

[Eerik]

The JFX plan is very real. Earlier this year there was another report drafted on the concept, which seems to be driven from within the Planning Department; I do not know if it’s from the Urban Design Committee, the GBC, BDC or all of them, but logically it falls under the Department of Public Works Bureau of Transportation and Interstate Division. I have scanned an image of the area below:

http://www.dcestonian.com/baltimore/eastside/jfxplan/image1a.jpg

Most of the focus has been, and continues to be placed on the section of the JFX where it rises above grade-level at Chase Street and “terminates” at Fayette Street. As we know at Fayette, it continues as a boulevard and becomes President Street. From what I know, this zone was not rehabilitated during the most recent JFX upgrade; most reconstruction took place north of the Chase Street bridge, per numbers from the Baltimore Development Program (a.k.a. the Capital Improvement Program). One fifth of the reconstruction costs came from the City Motor Vehicle Fund, while the remainder from Federal Funds. Interestingly, while browsing through past copies of the program, the 1995 program cover includes a concept rendering from another focus group:

http://www.dcestonian.com/baltimore/eastside/jfxplan/image1e.jpg
http://www.dcestonian.com/baltimore/eastside/jfxplan/image1f.jpg

I think most of the hub-bub came out of a report completed in the early 90s. This zone, at the time simply labeled as “East Side” took a look at the eastern edge of downtown. The question was how could downtown development be encouraged to spread eastward (roughly along the Gay Street corridor). Of course the immediate barrier identified was the terminus of I-83. Aside from development along the harbor shoreline, the question has been and continues to be how the CBD might be linked with Hopkins Hospital?

While I agree the construction zone probably won’t be altered anytime soon, I do think that in another five to seven years we’re going to hear about this project more, if not earlier. The amazing thing is the area of study itself was built and finished from scratch only about twenty years ago!

As envisioned, the boulevard would replace the elevated bridge along the Jones Falls. The street grid of the entire area would be reconfigured to accommodate an at-grade boulevard, provide ample pedestrian space, as well as new plots for development and construction. The report had several renderings, but the one that best demonstrates the notion or idea is below. My impression is the space would have a feel similar to the lower Jones Falls, except with a slightly higher density:

http://www.dcestonian.com/baltimore/eastside/jfxplan/image1c.jpg

When drafting the report and based upon work of the initial task groups, I do not know what they were exactly thinking when the idea came to reopen the Jones Falls as a waterway. While pollution is a serious issue, my first reaction was historically, the Jones Falls has been prone to serious flooding. After all, that’s one of the major reasons it was contained in the first place. Of course, the sewage issue is another obstacle. But when that same exact topic was raised, the utopian consensus was the sewage problem could be corrected. Several recalled what the Inner Harbor used to smell like prior to development. Others pointed out that on any given summer night, hundreds will gather along the Jones Falls immediately next to the sewage pumping station at Pier Six to enjoy a concert.

As much as building highways in the 50s-70s provided quick exit and subsequently cut-off neighborhoods from one another, by the late 80s urban planners began (and continue) to talk about undoing what was done earlier by removing such barriers and creating boulevards. Today it appears that how quickly we get out of downtown really doesn’t matter any more; it’s the “experience” that’s more important. Recall recent discussion of undoing what Barnes did to Baltimore a few decades ago: much energy has been placed into the idea of converting Charles Street (along with other major thoroughfares) back to two-way traffic. After all, in the urban planning circles of today, the “experience” of the pedestrian is king.

[jaysonjaz]

http://www.dcestonian.com/baltimore/eastside/jfxplan/image1c.jpg

When drafting the report and based upon work of the initial task groups, I do not know what they were exactly thinking when the idea came to reopen the Jones Falls as a waterway. While pollution is a serious issue, my first reaction was historically, the Jones Falls has been prone to serious flooding. After all, that’s one of the major reasons it was contained in the first place. Of course, the sewage issue is another obstacle. But when that same exact topic was raised, the utopian consensus was the sewage problem could be corrected. Several recalled what the Inner Harbor used to smell like prior to development. Others pointed out that on any given summer night, hundreds will gather along the Jones Falls immediately next to the sewage pumping station at Pier Six to enjoy a concert.

As much as building highways in the 50s-70s provided quick exit and subsequently cut-off neighborhoods from one another, by the late 80s urban planners began (and continue) to talk about undoing what was done earlier by removing such barriers and creating boulevards. Today it appears that how quickly we get out of downtown really doesn’t matter any more; it’s the “experience” that’s more important. Recall recent discussion of undoing what Barnes did to Baltimore a few decades ago: much energy has been placed into the idea of converting Charles Street (along with other major thoroughfares) back to two-way traffic. After all, in the urban planning circles of today, the “experience” of the pedestrian is king.

When I see that picture.. my first thought is a couple eating outside saying "My God Whats the smell" :)

But honestly.. i think that sounds like a great idea if it can be done right.. What would be great is if it can be engineered to be a destination point, something like the riverwalk in San Antonio.

Here are a few picture examples

http://i.xanga.com/jaysonjaz/RW1.jpg
http://i.xanga.com/jaysonjaz/RW2.jpg
http://i.xanga.com/jaysonjaz/RW3.jpg

[StevenW]

hmmm.....

[scando]

The JFX plan is very real. Earlier this year there was another report drafted on the concept, which seems to be driven from within the Planning Department; I do not know if it’s from the Urban Design Committee, the GBC, BDC or all of them, but logically it falls under the Department of Public Works Bureau of Transportation and Interstate Division.

I didn't know anybody was still thinking about that. It's hard to think that, even if it were a good idea, the city has the money available to tear down a usable highway when they don't have the money to keep a decent pavement on existing streets or fix obstacle course sidewalks.

Most of the focus has been, and continues to be placed on the section of the JFX where it rises above grade-level at Chase Street and “terminates” at Fayette Street. As we know at Fayette, it continues as a boulevard and becomes President Street. From what I know, this zone was not rehabilitated during the most recent JFX upgrade; most reconstruction took place north of the Chase Street bridge, per numbers from the Baltimore Development Program (a.k.a. the Capital Improvement Program).

It hasn't been rehabilitated but it is in good shape now. With the recent work that has been done on the curves and the improvements north of there that were done during the 90's, the entire road is now in good shape.

While I agree the construction zone probably won’t be altered anytime soon, I do think that in another five to seven years we’re going to hear about this project more, if not earlier. The amazing thing is the area of study itself was built and finished from scratch only about twenty years ago!

Exactly. Priority wise, I walk on sidewalks and drive on streets that have not seen even a minor repair in what seems like centuries. In addition, the area where the JFX ends, is pretty much the back end of downtown and in part borders the prison city and the kiddie jail that decorates the view to the east of the JFX. It's hard to imagine people dining in the view of the Supermax, bordering the lower Jones Falls and its effluent of empty soda bottles that wash down storm drains. There doesn't really seem to be much potential until you get down about to just above Fayette where the elevated portion currently runs out.

As envisioned, the boulevard would replace the elevated bridge along the Jones Falls. The street grid of the entire area would be reconfigured to accommodate an at-grade boulevard, provide ample pedestrian space, as well as new plots for development and construction. The report had several renderings, but the one that best demonstrates the notion or idea is below. My impression is the space would have a feel similar to the lower Jones Falls, except with a slightly higher density:

Yeah but next to the Pen?

When drafting the report and based upon work of the initial task groups, I do not know what they were exactly thinking when the idea came to reopen the Jones Falls as a waterway. While pollution is a serious issue, my first reaction was historically, the Jones Falls has been prone to serious flooding. After all, that’s one of the major reasons it was contained in the first place. Of course, the sewage issue is another obstacle. But when that same exact topic was raised, the utopian consensus was the sewage problem could be corrected. Several recalled what the Inner Harbor used to smell like prior to development. Others pointed out that on any given summer night, hundreds will gather along the Jones Falls immediately next to the sewage pumping station at Pier Six to enjoy a concert.

The sewage problem is endemic to many sewage pipes, the older they get the leakier they get and a lot of it ends up in the Falls. Like the streets, the city lacks funds to fix all those pipes on any short time scale. Additionally, a significant portion of storm drains in the city end up there along with trash, oil drippings, etc. It's pretty intense after it rains. By the time it reaches pier 6 it has mixed with harbor water, which is comparatively benign.

Today it appears that how quickly we get out of downtown really doesn’t matter any more; it’s the “experience” that’s more important. Recall recent discussion of undoing what Barnes did to Baltimore a few decades ago: much energy has been placed into the idea of converting Charles Street (along with other major thoroughfares) back to two-way traffic. After all, in the urban planning circles of today, the “experience” of the pedestrian is king.

In a city with no significant transit system and a lot of narrow streets, getting in and out is no small matter. Even in the most rosy of live-downtown scenarios, people will be commuting and that has to be addressed, especially if downtown is to grow more businesses. For the first time in my memory, the JFX is pretty functional and it doesn't seem that there is enough to gain in that particular area to merit spending a lot of money rebuilding something that works. The city has enough areas that really need work without making new projects where they aren't needed.

[Eerik]

In regard to previous comments about East Side development, I totally disagree with several of the previous points regarding:

1) Jones Falls and water quality
2) Cost of infrastructure
3) City Priorities

By law, Baltimore must comply with water quality standards set by the fed or face significant penalties. Current estimates predict Baltimore must comply with the feds by making more than $900 million in repairs to the city's sewer system over the next 12 years. If Baltimore doesn’t, it will be faced with more fines, as it was in 2002 where Baltimore agreed to pay a federal fine of $600,000. As to feasibility of the East Side project, I would point out there are several other stream watersheds in Baltimore much worse off than the Jones Falls, i.e. Herring Run in Northeast Baltimore. While I wouldn’t go for a swim in Herring Run, or the Jones Falls, for all intents and purposes the water quality in all three above cited examples are about the same. The water in the Inner Harbor is just as toxic or dangerous as the water in the Jones Falls or any of the other waterways within Baltimore, yet on any given day there are ample people walking, sitting and eating along the bulkheads. So why not along the Falls?

While Baltimore doesn’t have the funds necessary to complete such a boulevard and open the land for future development, here as elsewhere, local funds NEVER cover entire cost for transportation projects. State and Federal funds normally cover most of the expenditure, depending on the type of infrastructure. From a study in mid 2003, the probable mixture to cover cost would be 10% City Motor Vehicle Funds, 35% State, and 55% Federal Funds.

As to why Baltimore would consider this project? I would guess for the same reason Baltimore pays for bulkhead improvements along the waterfront in Fells Point, road construction at Seagirt, and land acquisition north of Hopkins Hospital: to get highest return on investment. While the decking south of Chase Street on I-83 currently meets highway standards, within the next couple of years rehabilitation of the last ¾ mile stretch will need to be addressed. Currently I’m assuming the City is simply asking which would make more sense: to maintain the structure as is or help foster new development in the zone between the CBD and Johns Hopkins.

[Eerik]

…and as to the question why would Baltimore focus so much attention on an area adjacent to the prison complex? The East Side development area encompasses a land area nearly one quarter of the existing CBD area; an area within blocks of City Hall that has not been developed and generates very few dollars in tax revenue. In other words, per square foot, Baltimore has the potential to “buy” Microsoft stock at $2 a share and sell at the current price of $27 per share!

Think about it!

[Gsol]

Getting back to the One Light Street project, I thought I would post this Letter to the Editors piece from today's SUNPAPER. This urban planner says it better than I did in an earlier post.



Suburban slab does little for downtown

As if it wasn't bad enough losing the old Southern Hotel, the proposed new apartment tower at Redwood and Light streets is a banal-looking, suburban slab that will look particularly ignominious right across from the old Maryland National building - one of the best buildings in Baltimore ("Residences may rise at Redwood and Light," Nov. 29).

Of greater concern is that this intersection is supposed to anchor the central business district. Any new building there shouldn't be so singularly residential in character that it practically screams of a loss of confidence in downtown Baltimore's future as a viable place of business.

Residences are vital for a vibrant downtown, but not front and center.


Steven H. Allan
Baltimore




The writer is an urban planner.

[Brian21]

That design may very well change. In my opinion it doesn't fit in that part of downtown especially sitting right across the street from the elegant BoA tower. It should be a elegant, soaring tower that fits in with the rest of towers in that area.

We'll see, its still early yet. May he can redesign it to be a retail/residential/hotel. And yes I agree that they should loose the balconies, I'm sure that residents won't mind not having a balcony as long as they have the views. :)

[StevenW]

http://www.dcestonian.com/baltimore/financialdistrict/onelight/hcm/1lightSWview.jpg

This isn't really a bad looking building. It would look nice elsewhere other than the CBD. I could see it as one of the condos around the Harbor's edge somewhere. :D

[Eerik]

Getting back to the One Light Street project, I thought I would post this Letter to the Editors piece from today's SUNPAPER. This urban planner says it better than I did in an earlier post.


Suburban slab does little for downtown

As if it wasn't bad enough losing the old Southern Hotel, the proposed new apartment tower at Redwood and Light streets is a banal-looking, suburban slab that will look particularly ignominious right across from the old Maryland National building - one of the best buildings in Baltimore ("Residences may rise at Redwood and Light," Nov. 29).

Of greater concern is that this intersection is supposed to anchor the central business district. Any new building there shouldn't be so singularly residential in character that it practically screams of a loss of confidence in downtown Baltimore's future as a viable place of business.

Residences are vital for a vibrant downtown, but not front and center.

Steven H. Allan
Baltimore

The writer is an urban planner.


Very thought provoking! Now in hindsight, since it is doubtful there will ever be commercial space on this site, maybe the old Southern Hotel could have received a tax credit and been converted into apartments? I recall CHAP playing a major role in trying to preserve the old Southern from being demolished. At the time, program emphasis called for commercial space. I now regretfully admit I was leaning more in favor of demolition in order to clear the way for financing and construction of a new tower…even though I was always fearful of the shear mass of the proposed tower, its height and potential to overshadow the old Maryland National building across the street. Not to mention the impact it would have on surrounding streets, especially Redwood. But, the building is gone…so hopefully we get a real winner!

[NewBaltimore1980]

http://www.dcestonian.com/baltimore/financialdistrict/onelight/hcm/1lightSWview.jpg

This isn't really a bad looking building. It would look nice elsewhere other than the CBD. I could see it as one of the condos around the Harbor's edge somewhere. :D


I like the tower even with the balconies. However, I do not like the blue box. Even though I have some reservations, we are not the ones coughing up the money for this, so I give the developer the benefit of the doubt and say proceed with the building.

Another note.... A crane is now at Lockwood Place to build the long awaited retail stores.

[Ron C]

Another note.... A crane is now at Lockwood Place to build the long awaited retail stores.

Oh, good! I was beginning to worry about that part of it.

[Eerik]

I’m trying to think of other buildings in the CBD with balconies…? One Light Street could be a first. Well, come to think of it…the Wachovia building has balconies, as does 250 West Pratt Street on their tiers; so does the residential tower at Pier One. Oh well. (But as currently proposed, I agree it does look very “Miami” or closer to home…Ocean City.)

Hey, is there any news about the ongoing thirty-year saga of developing the air rights over the rail tracks at Camden Yards? It’s been an on-again, off-again lineage of proposals. Commercial space, a medical mart, and so on. I think Richard Swirnow was the last guy to come along and propose high-density development. Were there any restrictions placed on the site after the other proposed addition for offices fell through to add a new building onto the warehouse? (What did Gunts call it in his editorial at the time, a wart…?)

Have a great weekend! I’m hoping on driving up to Baltimore this weekend and having a look around…

[StevenW]

In my opinion, One light street should be a mixed use project, if not all together an office project, just because of where it's at. To me, if you took the old One Light Street, designed by Peter Filliat, and added some residential to that tower, THEN, that would have been Baltimore's premeire tower, ecspecially at that address. One Light Street needs to be the place for Baltimore's tallest. A 600 or, even better, a 700 footer there would make a great centerpoint of the city's skyline. Plus, it would be surrounded by Baltimore's tallest towers, adding a great supporting cast! :D ;)

[scando]

In regard to previous comments about East Side development, I totally disagree with several of the previous points regarding:

1) Jones Falls and water quality
2) Cost of infrastructure
3) City Priorities

The water in the Inner Harbor is just as toxic or dangerous as the water in the Jones Falls or any of the other waterways within Baltimore, yet on any given day there are ample people walking, sitting and eating along the bulkheads. So why not along the Falls?

The reason relates more to visuals and tourists than to water quality specs. Every time it rains hard, all the gunk that collects on streets upstream washes down the Jones Falls and accumulates at that outlet into the harbor. Fact based or not, I see the tourists grabbing their kids when they look at that water and backing off as though Godzilla were about to emerge. These are the same tourists that rent paddle boats two blocks away. By that time the stuff has been diluted by harbor water (which is probably more toxic but less visually ugly). Whats upstream in the Falls is still concentrated. Open up the stream at your own risk.

As to why Baltimore would consider this project? I would guess for the same reason Baltimore pays for bulkhead improvements along the waterfront in Fells Point, road construction at Seagirt, and land acquisition north of Hopkins Hospital: to get highest return on investment. While the decking south of Chase Street on I-83 currently meets highway standards, within the next couple of years rehabilitation of the last ¾ mile stretch will need to be addressed. Currently I’m assuming the City is simply asking which would make more sense: to maintain the structure as is or help foster new development in the zone between the CBD and Johns Hopkins.

In regards to redevelopment in the area, but my impression is based on gut feeling. I have had a pretty good track record on my instinct on what will work in redevelopment. If I were a gambler, with other parts of the city still available and not being accompanied by a highway, prison complex and scary stream, I would go there and not astride a deconstructed JFX. Too many negatives and not enough positives.

[NewBaltimore1980]

In my opinion, One light street should be a mixed use project, if not all together an office project, just because of where it's at. To me, if you took the old One Light Street, designed by Peter Filliat, and added some residential to that tower, THEN, that would have been Baltimore's premeire tower, ecspecially at that address. One Light Street needs to be the place for Baltimore's tallest. A 600 or, even better, a 700 footer there would make a great centerpoint of the city's skyline. Plus, it would be surrounded by Baltimore's tallest towers, adding a great supporting cast! :D ;)

There is no market for commercial towers in Baltimore so therefore no developer is dumb enough to invest their money in the tower. There is a market for residential so that is what we will get and I am fine with that. Build One Light Street as planned.

[scando]

There is no market for commercial towers in Baltimore so therefore no developer is dumb enough to invest their money in the tower. There is a market for residential so that is what we will get and I am fine with that. Build One Light Street as planned.

Unfortunaly I agree. Not only would a developer be putting himself out on a very long limb, but in all likelihood, when that space came on the market and didn't sell right away, it would probably start a round of falling rents which would spell trouble for other buildings and bring on an office building "ice age" like what happened back in the early 80's. The real choice right now is whether it is better to have a residential building that will increase downtown life or to continue to have a parking lot and a memory of an old building. Hard choice? Not for me.

[fanofterps]

The central business district is just not a booming area for business. One Light St should be residential or we will never see it built.


If there is a need an additional large office building in the next 5 years, I see it being built near the water at Harbor Point or Harbor East. Also, Light and Paca is a very attractive site.



Unfortunaly I agree. Not only would a developer be putting himself out on a very long limb, but in all likelihood, when that space came on the market and didn't sell right away, it would probably start a round of falling rents which would spell trouble for other buildings and bring on an office building "ice age" like what happened back in the early 80's. The real choice right now is whether it is better to have a residential building that will increase downtown life or to continue to have a parking lot and a memory of an old building. Hard choice? Not for me.

[NewBaltimore1980]

The central business district is just not a booming area for business. One Light St should be residential or we will never see it built.


If there is a need an additional large office building in the next 5 years, I see it being built near the water at Harbor Point or Harbor East. Also, Light and Paca is a very attractive site.

I think we should be happy that Downtown Baltimore is becoming a great place to live. You cannot say that about a lot of downtown area in the US.

[fanofterps]

If One Light St, Water Tower, Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Zenith, 800 Allicienna, Grain Elevator complex, Super Fresh on Charles, Canton Crossing, Calvert Mercer site, Bohagers site, etc.. break ground the next 2 years, Baltimore will move into the top 7 to 10 nicest cities in the country.


We will never catch New York, D.C, Boston, Chicago, San Diego and San Fran. These cities are much bigger than Baltimore.


I think we should be happy that Downtown Baltimore is becoming a great place to live. You cannot say that about a lot of downtown area in the US.

[jaysonjaz]

If there is a need an additional large office building in the next 5 years, I see it being built near the water at Harbor Point or Harbor East. Also, Light and Paca is a very attractive site.

I agree as well. When there is a demand for office buildings, then it will happen. Money has a way of moving things forward. There are plenty of spots underutilized areas downtown that could be torn down and new buildings can be built. Also, as we were talking about a while ago, the CBD has room to expand towards Hopkins if there is a demand for it.

I think the most important thing to do right now is to use all up all of the space we can with whatever wants to use it. If residential forces are driving the market now, then lets make it residential. When all of the empty buildings have been filled, then that will reduce vacancies. This will reduce supply of office buildings, which will drive up demand for office space.

I realize thats a bit far fetched and mostly hypothetical, but honestly having an excess of vacant buildigns doesn't do anyone good.

[NewBaltimore1980]

I agree as well. When there is a demand for office buildings, then it will happen. Money has a way of moving things forward. There are plenty of spots underutilized areas downtown that could be torn down and new buildings can be built. Also, as we were talking about a while ago, the CBD has room to expand towards Hopkins if there is a demand for it.

I think the most important thing to do right now is to use all up all of the space we can with whatever wants to use it. If residential forces are driving the market now, then lets make it residential. When all of the empty buildings have been filled, then that will reduce vacancies. This will reduce supply of office buildings, which will drive up demand for office space.

I realize thats a bit far fetched and mostly hypothetical, but honestly having an excess of vacant buildigns doesn't do anyone good.

Jayson for once we agree. The worst thing Baltimore can do is hold back projects like One Light Street, 300 East Pratt, Aegon Site, Collegetown, and Lockwood. Not to mention Harbor East, Harbor Point, Ritz Carlton, Harbor View, Henderson Wharf, The Moorings, Canton Crossing, Silo Point, Patterson Park Plaza, Brewers Hill, East Baltimore Biotech, Lombard and Howard, Centerpoint, Superblock, UMD Biotech Park, Westport (Middle Branch), Lombard Mercer, Oldtown Mall, and there are more.

The more of these vacancies that we fill up in the next several years will make Baltimore a much better place to live and work. That will make more people want to be here, and so on and so on. So if they want to build a tall Ocean City Condo on Light Street, then it should happen.

[StevenW]

There is no market for commercial towers in Baltimore so therefore no developer is dumb enough to invest their money in the tower. There is a market for residential so that is what we will get and I am fine with that. Build One Light Street as planned.

I still would like to see some more different residential designs for a new tower there.

Are BGE's parent company and Morgan Stanley looking for space in Baltimore now? I could have swore that they were looking for office space. Both of them combined could be about 400,000 sq. ft. of office space.

BTW, is the "chocolate factory" still part of the 'retail' portion of Lockwood Place?

And what about 300 East Pratt?

Think about all the future residential space that is "supposed" to be built soon. With the new One Light Street project, 300 East Pratt, Water Tower, and all the other places mentioned earlier, can the city really absorb all these residences? Where are all these people coming from? And why? Are we just hoping the DC people will move to Baltimore? I mean, I would just like to know. I'm all for building more residential housing, but alot of thought should go into these projects, ie; design, funtion, area and feesibility. If you build residential, then build a nicely designed building that "fitts" the surrounding area, unless the area is just a bunch of different designs anyway.

It 'seems' jobs are not just sprouting about everywhere in Baltimore. Maybe I'm wrong, but Baltimore needs a good balance of business, not just service industry/type businesses. I think the bio-parks for both sides of the city are a good start, but what about the parts of the city where there is alot of people who don't have the education and/or skills for these types of higher paying jobs? Factory work is not strong much anymore. How are the educational systems doing lately on the middle/high school levels? What are the strengths/weeknesses of the city that should be addressed?


Finally, in your opinion, when do you think Baltimore's office market will pick up so well that we DO start seeing proposals for large office towers?

[fanofterps]

My prediction is Baltimore will get 3 to 4 new office buildings in the next 5 years. They will be in Harbor East, Canton, Locust Point,Light and Conway and Harbor Point.

Therefore, build up the central business district with "upscale" retail, and residential apartments which would make it more attractive for companies to locate in the central business district.

A 24 hour downtown in the central business district will create new office towers in a 5 to 10 year period.

I still would like to see some more different residential designs for a new tower there.

Are BGE's parent company and Morgan Stanley looking for space in Baltimore now? I could have swore that they were looking for office space. Both of them combined could be about 400,000 sq. ft. of office space.

BTW, is the "chocolate factory" still part of the 'retail' portion of Lockwood Place?

And what about 300 East Pratt?

Think about all the future residential space that is "supposed" to be built soon. With the new One Light Street project, 300 East Pratt, Water Tower, and all the other places mentioned earlier, can the city really absorb all these residences? Where are all these people coming from? And why? Are we just hoping the DC people will move to Baltimore? I mean, I would just like to know. I'm all for building more residential housing, but alot of thought should go into these projects, ie; design, funtion, area and feesibility. If you build residential, then build a nicely designed building that "fitts" the surrounding area, unless the area is just a bunch of different designs anyway.

It 'seems' jobs are not just sprouting about everywhere in Baltimore. Maybe I'm wrong, but Baltimore needs a good balance of business, not just service industry/type businesses. I think the bio-parks for both sides of the city are a good start, but what about the parts of the city where there is alot of people who don't have the education and/or skills for these types of higher paying jobs? Factory work is not strong much anymore. How are the educational systems doing lately on the middle/high school levels? What are the strengths/weeknesses of the city that should be addressed?


Finally, in your opinion, when do you think Baltimore's office market will pick up so well that we DO start seeing proposals for large office towers?

[Gsol]

I think we can all agree that if Mr. Clark wants to put up a residential building at One Light, that's OK. Better a building there than a surface parking lot. The problem is the building's design must blend in with the nieghboring structures. The design as proposed is fine for uptown and the suburbs. We have plenty of residendial buildings already in the CBD a