Baltimore Grows

Today’s Baltimore Sun reports that development plans for the former balloon ride site have been scaled back.  The vacant site sites adjacent to Power Plant Live and President Street at the base of I83.  Developer David Cordish is now presenting alternate plans.

Cordish had promised Baltimore Development Corp. that at the foot of a 250-unit high-rise of condominiums and apartments, he would build a Lucky Strike Lanes, an upscale bowling “lounge” - part of a network with 16 locations nationwide including Washington.

But yesterday BDC officials were trying to decide which of two much smaller alternative proposals they preferred. One includes 100 apartments and retail space a fraction the size of the bowling alley. Another maintains the same retail space and substitutes a 100-room hotel. Both options include parking garages for about 100 cars.

They cited market conditions as the reason for the change of plans.  To me, this isn’t a great location anyway.  Stuck between the obnoxious bars & clubs of Power Plant and President Street.  There is a subway stop there, but unless your heading to one of the few places it visits, it won’t be of much use.  But I can see how this location would appeal to many young downtown workers.  Unfortunately this will kill the possibility of adding another high-rise to Baltimore’s skyline.

Federal Place a 49 unit town-home community being built on the hill overlooking Key Highway and the Harborview town-homes, and adjacent to Digital Harbor High School.  These are very impressive looking properties, no wonder they are priced from $900,000 to $1.25 million.  Amazingly they are 5 stories tall.  I’m not sure how the builder - Patriot Homes, a Lennar Corp. subsidiary - managed to get the permits to build such high structures.  They easily exceed the 35 foot limit enforced on much of the properties in south Baltimore, and tower over the height limits of the nearby controversial Pier Homes.

These houses are pimped out with elevators that run from the 2 car garage level all the way to the rooftop terrace, 2 car parking pad, 3 bedroom, 3.5 baths, professional kitchens, and amazing views.  But for that much money I might go with a 6 bedroom estate in the county.

Photo tour of properties

Official Website

Despite all the new development and new housing in the city, the population continues to shrink.  Baltimore ranked 241 in the list of fastest growing cities (-0.8 %).  Nestled right between #240 Providence city and #242 Fayetteville city - you know… those places.

Census Stats:

#241 Baltimore City 
2005 Population: 636,377 
2006 Population: 631,366   
Change: -5,011    -0.8% 

A common opinion among Baltimoreans is that our public transportation is horribly lacking.  Which is why I’m as surprised as you probably are to read in a CNN Money article that Baltimore ranks 7th among all US cities in percentage of residents commute to work on buses, trains and light rail - 48,252, or 18.9%.  That’s pretty impressive. 

Baltimore trails other much larger cities known for their public transportation - New York, Washington, San Fransisco, Boston, Philly, and Chicago.  But surprisingly leads cities such as Seattle, Oakland, and Portland.  I wonder if the study is including all the people who take trains from Baltimore city or BWI into DC.  Perhaps that is skewing the number.  But hey - once we the proposed Red Line metro addition and downtown trolley are in place, we may just jump up a couple spots.

The article in Monday’s Baltimore Sun talked about Baltimore’s plans to hopefully turn Pratt Street - the main artery through downtown - into a more vibrant and pedestrian friendly area.  Progress has already started with the recent additions of retailers Best Buy, P.F. Changs, Panera, etc. 

Will Baltimore’s Pratt Street ever be the equivalent of Chicago’s Michigan Avenue or New York’s Fifth Avenue, or perhaps even the Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris?

These sorts of questions were raised at a recent presentation by architects hired to make suggestions about their vision for Pratt Street.  Ahh the short answer, no.  At this point there is just too much ground level office space along Pratt.  But why not strive for something better. Baltimore may not make it all the way there, but the more progress the better. 

One of the interesting proposals would be to change the traffic pattern from 1 way to 2 way.  The logistics of making this happen sound like a nightmare.  I assume the would need to do the same with Lombard Street in order to balance the loss of lanes heading west to east.  Pratt Street is maxed out during rush hour, I can’t imagine what the construction would do to Baltimore’s downtown rush hour.

One worthwhile proposal would be to do away with the fountain area sitting between Pratt, Light Street South, and Light Street North.  The area really is a waste of space.  It basically serves as a place for people to stand while waiting to cross the street, a place for the homeless to congregate, and a place for city workers to try and keep kids out of the fountains.  So I guess it’s serving a purpose, but certainly could be put to better use.

This photo from the Baltimore Sun shows one of the presented Pratt Street visions.  What happened to the Verizon building? It’s missing - I guess part of their vision included knocking down that building and putting up a billboard type structure.  Or maybe that’s what is replaing the fountain area, it’s hard to tell.

A piece of prime real estate at the entrance of Locust Point (corner of Fort and Lawrence) will be going up for sale.  The owner (GE Energy) has spent millions of dollars over the last decade cleaning up the polluted site.  The land is currently valued at $362,800… Not sure how that works, but I guess that is what it is assessed at for tax purposes. Perhaps it’s so low because nothing could be built on it because of pollution and environmental concerns.  Any sale will likely be contingent on getting the city to rezone the property for commercial development. 

The company currently handling the site cleanup - URS Corp. - recently removed a row of full grown trees that lined the site and adjacent side walk on Fort Ave.  It’s safe to say that this pissed off a lot of neighborhood residents.  There appeared to be no good reason to remove the trees.  Time will tell if they actually follow through on their promise to replant trees in that spot.

It remains to been seen how the property will be rezoned - and what that rezoning will allow to be built.  A likely candidate would be a combination of commercial and residential.  If the site still has the environmental issues that the nearby Chesapeake Paperboard property has - then they will not be able to build residential on the ground floor. They would need to build commercial on the first floor and condos on top.  However - a proposal to build additional residential in Locust Point would likely draw a lot of resistance.  But to me it’s probably the most logical use for the site.  The property sits high above the harbor and Key Highway.  Town-homes or condos built on the site would have great Harbor views.

Another possibility would be office space with parking on the bottom.  There have been some rumors that someone was looking to build a parking garage on the spot. To me this would be a waste of a great property.  And I’m really not sure why the city would need a parking garage there.  Sure there is some strain on the local street parking in the area, but enough for a parking garage?  Also the new Shoppes at Fort project which will be built on the Chesapeake Paperboard site will contain plenty of extra parking.

Today’s Baltimore Sun reports that Baltimore’s Board of Estimates approved $200,000 to help study whether it’s possible to build a trolley to link the Inner Harbor with the Johns Hopkins University.  The Trolley would run from Baltimore’s Inner harbor North through downtown and Mount Vernon, ending in Charles Village.

…an engineering study to examine how the trolley might interfere with utility lines and if the train could make it up the hills of Mount Vernon.

We can put men on the moon, build 1,400 foot tall skyscrapers , and squeeze the Library of Congress onto a drive smaller than a credit card, but Baltimore isn’t sure if they can get a trolley to go up hills.  Of course this is also the city that built a hot air balloon tied to the ground and were surprised when the wind took over and the riders had to be rescued.

More public transportation in Baltimore City - Absolutely.  It’s something the city is desperately lacking.  But why not incorporate this with the existing underused Baltimore metro system.  We recently looked at the current study of the metro red line project.  Why not expand on this?  A separate trolley system would result in yet another disjointed public transportation system that serves only a small portion of the city.  I assume they would built it so that stations connected near one of the existing metro stations downtown. 

Obviously the cost of building an above ground trolley system is on much smaller scale than building additional underground metro lines.  So maybe the city is thinking about this as an interim step.  Do the Hopkins students really need to get to the Harbor that badly? Perhaps a trolley taking them right to Fells Point would make more sense.  Or how about a trolley that runs from Canton through Fells Point, Harbor East, downtown, Federal Hill, ending in Locust Point.  That would save a lot of us some weekend cab fair $.

Green Harbor Point - the green homes being built in Baltimore’s Locust Point community are well under way.  These are the first green town-homes to be built in Baltimore. I snapped a couple pictures while walking by them the other day.  They look pretty interesting and unique from the outside.  The builder (Dan Rieth) and builder (Hawkeye Construction) have taken a different approach than most of the town-homes currently being built in the city.   I guess you could say they look a bit out of place among Locust Point’s standard row homes that typically feature a pretty flat and basic front facade.  But to me it makes them a lot more visually interesting.

The standard floor plan seems to have only 2 bedrooms, but there is an option to do a third on the lower level with the garage.  The lower level sits partial underground.  This blueprint below comes from the Green Harbor Point website.  The split level design is unusual for the area, but the result is pretty cool. Prices are starting in the mid $500’s.  Which is pretty standard for new construction. Apparently the “green” tag doesn’t command a much higher price than similar “environment killer homes.”  The materials used and feature offered on the inside are pretty impressive - range hoods, bamboo floors, designer sinks, etc.

If your not yet familar with the term “green” for construction - it basically means that they are more energy and resource efficient than typical construction. 

More specifically from the website…

The homes at Green Harbor Point are LEED Certified Green Buildings by the U.S. Green Building Counsel (USGBC) and have earned Energy Star Rating by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

Green

Building is the practice of creating healthier and more resource-efficient models of construction, renovation, operation, maintenance, and demolition. The many elements addressed through

Green

Building include: Energy Management, Water Conservation, Improved Indoor Environments, Choice of Building Materials, and Construction Waste Reduction.

Homes that earn the ENERGY STAR must meet guidelines for energy efficiency set by the EPA. ENERGY STAR qualified homes are at least 15% more energy efficient than homes built to the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).

Came across this blog recently - http://bubblemore.blogspot.com/

It’s dedicated to the housing bubble in the Baltimore region.  Very interesting content about housing prices and trends - check it out.

Mayor Sheila Dixon has decided that the city Fire Department’s waterfront repair facility - located along Key Highway in South Baltimore - will become a public park.  There has been a lot of debate over the future use of the property.  It’s a prime waterfront location that sits adjacent to the Harborview community and the popular bar and restaurant Little Havana.

 The property was very close to being rezoned a couple years ago.  A move that would have led developers to bid on the property and likely build a mixed use project that included condominiums and retail space.  I attended some of these Key Highway Association meetings back when this was being debated.  Much of the community was in favor of seeing the property rezoned and rebuilt.  However, a few residents raised concerns, and as a result the city backed away and included the property as part of the Key Highway Master Plan that it was creating. 

In one respect in would have been nice to see the property developed and put to good use, rather than just another dilapidated property sitting along Key Highway.  But in the end, it looks like the rethinking paid off.  A waterfront park will be a nice addition to the community.  I wonder how this will affect some of the other proposed open/green space and view corridors along Key highway.  Another piece of land along Key Highway - at the bottom of Lawrence Street, roughly across from the Royal Farms - had been proposed as waterfront open space.  So I doubt there will end up being two parks located that close.   So this news will certainly shake up some of the existing plans along Key.

Baltimore Sun article