Baltimore Development News 20

[baltimoreisbest]

I looked at that square feet thing. Tell me something isn't wrong with the office market charts. One South Street is listed twice -- once by address, and once by the Alex. Brown Building, and both show different vacancies.

[sdeclue]

Great shot of the Zenith. Looks great. I can't believe the Hilton hasn't even started to rise out of the ground yet. It's supposed to be ready in 2008!!

[Eerik]

Originally Posted by baltimoreisbest

I looked at that square feet thing. Tell me something isn't wrong with the office market charts. One South Street is listed twice -- once by address, and once by the Alex. Brown Building, and both show different vacancies.

Two different listings could indicate someone is subleasing space. I recently heard some small-talk about the One South Street building. The building has been prone to high vacancies ever since the brokerage firm downsized/vacated, and RTKL headed down to Fells Point.

Supposedly, nearly half the building sits vacant...

[sdeclue]

Really happy to hear about the Icon and how they are planning on developing that area of Canton. Parking and traffic should never be problems when it comes to whether or not to develop an area. It's a city, not the country or the suburbs. There is going to be traffic and parking can easily be made available as part of the development.

[bmore87]

Originally Posted by sdeclue

Great shot of the Zenith. Looks great. I can't believe the Hilton hasn't even started to rise out of the ground yet. It's supposed to be ready in 2008!!

The Hilton is rising. It just isn't above street level yet. I wonder how many feet underground the basement consumes?

[getontrac]

Originally Posted by sdeclue

Really happy to hear about the Icon and how they are planning on developing that area of Canton. Parking and traffic should never be problems when it comes to whether or not to develop an area. It's a city, not the country or the suburbs. There is going to be traffic and parking can easily be made available as part of the development.

Traffic MUST be taken into consideration. Individual developments by themselves usually don't matter much, but when planning large scale long-range plans and master plans, it's crucial. There are thresholds that, once crossed, can make easy motoring roads into gridlock overnight.

Parking insn't necessarily easy to make part of a development. Building parking adds extra expense, hence why urban developments usually cost more since the tenants will usually insist on some level of parking spaces. When working in tight footprints, it can be quite problematic from an architectural point of view. When there's a large footprint, like the Boston St-Canton example I mentioned earlier, there's a number of ways to work it and it's much easier.

Reducing parking requirments can ease construction costs allow better designs. It can also reduce auto demand. However, this must be done carefully. One cannot crush auto demand TOO much, if there is no suitable non-auto transportation available or otherwise deemed acceptable. That's what Baltimore did back in the 70s and 80s to encourage development, IIRC. They drastically relaxed parking requirements to generate office space growth, probably betting they'd would have more of the Baltimore Region Rapid Transit System (Metro) constructed. Well they goofed, and that's what led to the massive parking garage building binge at the turn of the last century. Look at the number of modern era office buildings in Baltimore that have no or little parking.

Everything revolves around parking when your talking urban development in America. Parking dictates everything. Density is dicated by parking. Remember Parking is Power...say it with me....

Nate

[getontrac]

Originally Posted by bmore87

The Hilton is rising. It just isn't above street level yet. I wonder how many feet underground the basement consumes?

AFAIK, there are 2 levels of underground garage, so that would probably make the bottom absolutely not less than say--18 feet?

Nate

[baltimoreisbest]

Originally Posted by Eerik

Two different listings could indicate someone is subleasing space. I recently heard some small-talk about the One South Street building. The building has been prone to high vacancies ever since the brokerage firm downsized/vacated, and RTKL headed down to Fells Point.

Supposedly, nearly half the building sits vacant...

Yeah, but Stifel is supposed to move in soon, and there are some prominent law firms in the building, Performax, and some other company whose name doesn't come to mind. The building has 23 rentable floors of space, and I think each floor averages 18-20k sf, so I would imagine that far less than half of the space is vacant. How many floors does Alex. Brown still have? What is Deutche Bank planning to do to Alex. Brown -- are they just gonna fold the damn thing or retain the name and some (albeit limited) Baltimore presence?

[getontrac]

Originally Posted by Maudibjr

Whew! I finally caught up, 25 pages on comments and since I last posted on Jan.3. Thats a lot of dedicated people on this thread and one annoying one about 10 pages back .

Getontrac are there any plans to expand the eastern end of boston St. to the expressway? It drops from a nicely landscaped 4 lane road to a rough 2 lane road that crosses multiple railroad tracks at Ground level.

I pretty sure that there are plans (don't know about funding though) that would grade seperated the RR crossing that everyone hates so much. Beyond that, I'm not sure.

Nate

[Eerik]

Originally Posted by getontrac

I pretty sure that there are plans (don't know about funding though) that would grade seperated the RR crossing that everyone hates so much. Beyond that, I'm not sure.

Nate

I think those tracks are property of Canton RR, a small East Baltimore company that serves the port. I'd imagine the city/state will have to offer funds...they're too small to take on a project that size.

[getontrac]

^I mean to say the road would rise above or something. The tracks would presumably stay as is.

Nate

[Eerik]

Originally Posted by baltimoreisbest

Yeah, but Stifel is supposed to move in soon, and there are some prominent law firms in the building, Performax, and some other company whose name doesn't come to mind. The building has 23 rentable floors of space, and I think each floor averages 18-20k sf, so I would imagine that far less than half of the space is vacant. How many floors does Alex. Brown still have? What is Deutche Bank planning to do to Alex. Brown -- are they just gonna fold the damn thing or retain the name and some (albeit limited) Baltimore presence?

I hate to say it, but screw Deutche Bank-Alex. Brown. They’re history. Gone. Doesn’t matter one iota to us anymore.

I’m sort of ambivalent about Stifel. Sure, it’s a good thing we were able to retain those jobs, but we really didn’t gain/win anything there…when Legg Mason sold its capital markets business to St. Louis’ Stifel Financial, I think Stifel management decided to do the right/conservative thing by creating as little upheaval as possible. So we ended up with a sort of status quo in terms of those jobs. I think it’s only a matter of time once those jobs are absorbed into HQ in St. Louis.

Now what I am excited about is Signal Hill. When Baltimore’s Wachovia equity capital markets group was dissolved into offices up in New York, a rather large core group decided to stay-put in Baltimore. What is significant about this is the talent was primarily alum from Alex. Brown…folks who defected once the initial and subsequent mergers occurred. (Take a look at their website and the CV's of their leadership; you will feel a chill down your spine. It's almost overwhelming, as if something immortal!) Now with the Wachovia operations gone, they have organized and established a new company, located in the shadow of their old locale, at 300 E. Lombard Street.

So the “official word” has it they don’t plan on even trying to recreate the former glory of AB…but they have all the talent and expertise to do so. Maybe they’re being modest, but should business grow, I can’t see them saying “no” to making money. Plus, since all the headquarters are gone from the Baltimore scene…there’s lots of local small to medium sized companies to play with; to help them make money.

I think in 10-15 years, Signal Hill will be a rather formidable Baltimore company molded after principles of Alex. Brown.

[StevenW]

Very interesting, Eerik.

[baltimoreisbest]

Stifel won't go. If they were planning on status quo, the company wouldn't be building up a private client group here, and wouldn't be calling baltimore the "headquarters" of its capital markets division. Plus, I think they're on a 15 year lease, which is substantially longer than just filling out the remaining sublet term from Deutche Bank. Stifel also has offices in Philly, and Baltimore gets them in on a stragetic east coast position. Obviously, acquisitions or mergers that affect the company itself might jeopardize its future in Baltimore, but this is one company I am sure will be sticking around.

Cignal is interesting, as well.

[harlem87]

Originally Posted by getontrac

Traffic MUST be taken into consideration. Individual developments by themselves usually don't matter much, but when planning large scale long-range plans and master plans, it's crucial. There are thresholds that, once crossed, can make easy motoring roads into gridlock overnight.

Parking insn't necessarily easy to make part of a development. Building parking adds extra expense, hence why urban developments usually cost more since the tenants will usually insist on some level of parking spaces. When working in tight footprints, it can be quite problematic from an architectural point of view. When there's a large footprint, like the Boston St-Canton example I mentioned earlier, there's a number of ways to work it and it's much easier.

Reducing parking requirments can ease construction costs allow better designs. It can also reduce auto demand. However, this must be done carefully. One cannot crush auto demand TOO much, if there is no suitable non-auto transportation available or otherwise deemed acceptable. That's what Baltimore did back in the 70s and 80s to encourage development, IIRC. They drastically relaxed parking requirements to generate office space growth, probably betting they'd would have more of the Baltimore Region Rapid Transit System (Metro) constructed. Well they goofed, and that's what led to the massive parking garage building binge at the turn of the last century. Look at the number of modern era office buildings in Baltimore that have no or little parking.

Everything revolves around parking when your talking urban development in America. Parking dictates everything. Density is dicated by parking. Remember Parking is Power...say it with me....

Nate

Why muist you talk like bumbling country hick with this anti-Cars BS. What you want Baltimore to remain looking like 19th Century experiment gone bad while other large cities like DC/Northern Virginia, Philly, Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Miami, and Boston cointinues to move towards a modern 21st century cities/suburbs with equal demand on Cars and Mass Transit. In the real world a populated area can not survive with out cars and from the way your talking you want Baltimore if not the whole state of Maryland to retro itself back to the 17th century when people rode horses as their means of transportation.

[Maudibjr]

Originally Posted by Eerik

I think those tracks are property of Canton RR, a small East Baltimore company that serves the port. I'd imagine the city/state will have to offer funds...they're too small to take on a project that size.

The Canton RR is owned by the state.

[Javalady1]

Originally Posted by harlem87

Why muist you talk like bumbling country hick with this anti-Cars BS. What you want Baltimore to remain looking like 19th Century experiment gone bad while other large cities like DC/Northern Virginia, Philly, Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Miami, and Boston cointinues to move towards a modern 21st century cities/suburbs with equal demand on Cars and Mass Transit. In the real world a populated area can not survive with out cars and from the way your talking you want Baltimore if not the whole state of Maryland to retro itself back to the 17th century when people rode horses as their means of transportation.

I've been reading this board for a while but never posted before. I'm grateful for all the information I find here. Different interests/opinions create interest and creativity. That's great! But Harlem, could you express yourself without being so nasty and condescending; basically attacking others? It makes it really hard to come back here when I know I will be faced with this. Please think about it. Thanks.

[PeterSmith]

Originally Posted by StevenW

Great picture, Silver Springer!
Just imagine the Hilton rising next to the Zenith, now.
It'll be a wall of urbanity greeting residents and newcomers, alike.

The Zenith is supposed to have a street level restaurant, no? Anyone know any details on what it will be?

Is the Hilton going to have a street level retail?

[Huck]

Originally Posted by Javalady1

I've been reading this board for a while but never posted before. I'm grateful for all the information I find here. Different interests/opinions create interest and creativity. That's great! But Harlem, could you express yourself without being so nasty and condescending; basically attacking others? It makes it really hard to come back here when I know I will be faced with this. Please think about it. Thanks.

Amen Javalady! You picked the perfect time to chime in. I gotta admit, I cringe every time I see that Harlem has posted, just waiting for the next insult.

[StevenW]

Originally Posted by Javalady1

I've been reading this board for a while but never posted before. I'm grateful for all the information I find here. Different interests/opinions create interest and creativity. That's great! But Harlem, could you express yourself without being so nasty and condescending; basically attacking others? It makes it really hard to come back here when I know I will be faced with this. Please think about it. Thanks.

Welcome to this Forum, Javalady1!
I'm sorry for the problem with harlem87.
I wish he/she was more possitive, too.
Please post often.
Every now and then there is a negative poster. The vast majority, however, are very possitive and polite/considerate.
We all would love to hear your views on these topics that we discuss. Questions as well.
Please don't be deterred.
We love when new people join in our Forum. A Forum that we all, I think, are glad to have.
I know I am.