Baltimore moves forward on next waterfront development project

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Sep 29, 2005 by Jen DeGregorio

Maryland Chemical Co. will soon leave its home of more than 50 years on Russell Street south of Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium to make way for a permanent Greyhound Lines Inc. bus station and potential waterfront development.

The chemical company's move - most likely to the city's Fairfield area - has been a long-held plan by the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's quasi-public economic development agency.

The BDC is trying to create a 16-acre mixed-use development around the Maryland Chemical property dubbed Gateway South, which is located in the aging Carroll-Camden Industrial Park.

Gateway South is bordered on the east by the shore of the Middle Branch, an L-shaped tributary of the Patapsco River.

It is a fantastic development opportunity that will get the attention of developers throughout the country, because of its size and its location, said Andrew B. Frank, the BDC's executive vice president. You would be able to develop on the water.

Baltimore waterfront has become real estate gold, with developers fighting over the last bits of usable land around the Inner Harbor. The scarcity of such land has caused developers to look elsewhere for city waterfront, even if it means taking a risk.

The definition of waterfront in the city now expands beyond the Inner Harbor and includes the Middle Branch, Frank said.

Waterview Overlook, an upscale townhouse and condominium project by Consolidated Investment and Management Group LLC, soon will rise on Middle Branch shores to the south of Carroll-Camden, near the city's Cherry Hill neighborhood.

Just southeast of Waterview, Henrietta Corp. developer Patrick Turner has an ambitious plan for a mixed-use project where the defunct Carr-Lowrey glass factory and Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. power plant now stand.

The BDC sees Gateway South as a similar opportunity. The Greyhound station would serve as an important anchor to any new development, said BDC President M.J. Jay Brodie.

Last year, Greyhound was relocated from its former home on West Fayette Street to a temporary facility on Haines Street, just blocks from Maryland Chemical.

The move to Russell Street, with its easy access to Interstate 95, was meant to provide a more convenient location for Greyhound while spurring investment in Carroll-Camden.

The BDC expects to issue by year's end a request for proposals from developers interested in creating a mix of office, retail, industrial or residential buildings at Gateway South.

The impetus for this, as it is with any urban renewal, is to eliminate blight and to create economic development opportunities, in this case with a mixed-use development at the city's southern gateway, Frank said.

The BDC acquired the Maryland Chemical properties - at 1501, 1525 and 1551 Russell St. - for less than $3.5 million via eminent domain. The Board of Estimates, the city's spending panel, approved the acquisitions yesterday.

The 500-acre Carroll-Camden Industrial Park is now home to more than 165 businesses that employ more than 6,100 people.

The BDC predicts that Gateway South, which could be completed within the next three years, will bring 1,500 new jobs and $55 million in new investment, according to city statistics.