Baltimore Grows

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.