Baltimore Harborplace: Planning commission recommends redevelopment proposal

Lorraine Mirabella, Baltimore Sun
·8 min read

The Baltimore Planning Commission recommended Thursday that the city move forward with a proposal to revitalize the Inner Harbor by replacing the aging Harborplace pavilions with a mixed-use development of housing, shops, offices and a park.

Commissioners voted in support of legislation that will now move to the City Council for hearings and a vote.

Acknowledging opponents’ concerns about rushing review of a plan that developers unveiled less than two months ago, commissioners agreed that the city must act with urgency to restore a city treasure for future generations.

“It seems like a lot of older folks remember the old Harborplace and are resistant to new ideas,” said Eric Stephenson, the commission’s vice chair. “At the same time, a lot of younger folks have only seen Harborplace in its current state of disrepair and are really anxious for something new that we all deserve.”

Voters would have a say via referendum this fall on proposed land use changes, Stephenson noted, but further delays would mean “another entire generation of our youth is going to miss out on those memories that so many of you are clinging to from your own youth.”

The nine-member panel’s unanimous votes on three separate land use bills followed hours of testimony both for and against the controversial plan proposed by Baltimore-based MCB Real Estate.

The developer has proposed demolishing the 43-year-old waterfront shopping and dining pavilions that for decades have symbolized the Inner Harbor attraction and replacing them with four taller, mixed-use buildings, including a conjoined tower with around 900 apartments, one smaller structure in a large new park, a two-tier promenade and realigned roadways.

The proposal involves about $500 million of private investment and would need an estimated $400 million in public funds — about $300 million for parks and public spaces and $100 million for the roadwork — the developer has said.

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Representatives of MCB and Councilman Eric Costello, who sits on the planning commission and co-sponsored the land use legislation, said Thursday that all public funds are expected to come from the federal government and state, not from the city.

Commissioners had been scheduled to vote Nov. 30 on the high-profile project, which has drawn scrutiny for its proposed density, design and the inclusion of apartments for the first time on the site. The board had put off the vote after a livestream of that earlier hearing failed, leaving people unable to watch or offer comments. Thursday’s hearing was advertised as in-person only.

Dozens of people who testified and wrote letters objected to a plan many said would unnecessarily privatize the public Inner Harbor shoreline. Opponents said they were against the removal of height limits, the addition of hundreds of apartments in tall towers that would block views, a road narrowing that would clog traffic and uses, and site configuration that would make the waterfront less accessible to the public.

Others lined up in a crowded hearing room to share their excitement about the planned redevelopment.

Amanda Mack, owner of Crusts by Mack bakery, currently a pop-up Harborplace tenant, became emotional speaking about meeting P. David Bramble, MCB’s managing partner and a Baltimore native, when he was a customer at her previous location in Hampden.

“He always talked about my vision, what I was doing,” said Mack, who grew up in Upton and whose mother and grandmother work with her. “That was something he saw and connected with. … To have something like this, to be on the water, to have my mother, my grandmother, my children, my husband stand beside me and say, ‘Our name is on this building. The developer wants me to succeed’ …This company is doing something great.”

Emma Stokes, who lives near the harbor, said she is “very keen on Harborplace getting revived. Watching its deterioration over the past 10 or more years in particular I’ve constantly looked for signs or something or someone that might turn the tide and rescue Harborplace. … It just got shabbier and shabbier.”

Andrew Hinton, president of the City Center Residents Association, a neighborhood association for downtown Baltimore who spoke on behalf of himself, said he has no objections to changes to height restrictions.

“People that live in downtown actually appreciate living in a large city with the taller buildings,” he said, adding that “there’s always pros and cons but the pros in this scenario in my view outweigh the cons and we should move forward.”

The three companion bills before the City Council would allow residential development and other new uses, remove height restrictions and expand both private and public space along the Inner Harbor arc from the Baltimore Visitor Center to the World Trade Center. The bills include rezoning requests, amendments to the city’s urban renewal plan governing the Inner Harbor, and an amendment to the City Charter.

The charter amendment, which would require voter approval on a ballot next year, would expand the area of the city’s ground lease with the developer to 4.5 acres from the current 3.2 acres.

MCB has said it produced its plan after months of community meetings, during which residents prioritized safety, waterfront access and inclusion of small- and minority-owned businesses as tenants.

But Sue Carlin, a condo owner living near the Inner Harbor, said in a letter to planners that MCB failed to engage the community in a meaningful way.

During two of the forums she attended, “there was no talk of the planned 900-unit luxury apartments in two high rises nor demolition of the existing pavilion structures.”

Leon Bridges, a retired architect, was among speakers Thursday who asked commissioners to table the proposed bills. MCB should do further real estate and economic analyses and have public money for the project in hand, he said.

“We don’t need another Morris Mechanic downtown,” Bridges said, referring to the vacant site where the former theater was razed. “We were told the vision of Harborplace would reflect Baltimore. It seems to me that vision has been lost.”

As of Wednesday, more than 200 people, including some who sent in identical form letters, had registered objections to the plans in emailed letters to commissioners.

“Those plans will forever alter the openness of the area that many outside the city associate immediately with Baltimore,” Edith Pula, a fifth-generation Fells Point resident, said in a letter. “This area belongs literally and emotionally to the public. It cannot and must not be given over to private use in whatever guise.”

Anthony Ambridge, a former planning commission member and former member of the City Council, called the city’s review “unnecessarily hurried.”

David Benn, a Baltimore architect for more than 40 years, asked for further studies on traffic issues, housing needs, while Cindy Conklin, a downtown resident and residential Realtor for four decades, said she believes there is an oversupply of market-rate rentals on the way in an area bounded by Baltimore Peninsula to the south, the city-county line to the north, Interstate 95 to the east and MLK Boulevard to the west.

“Notwithstanding the complaints of neighbors and stakeholders about the projected size and scope of the buildings themselves, I believe it will upset the equilibrium of the supply and demand of rental units in the city,” Conklin said in a letter.

Rachael Caruso, a Federal Hill/Riverside resident, opposed changes to building heights, worrying that “large, tall buildings would create a canyon-like experience.”

Another Baltimore architect, Klaus Philipsen, said in written comments that the proposal offered no alternatives to violating long-standing zoning and urban renewal plans.

“Yes, we probably want more residents, but the argument that they need to live on top of the desired activities at HarborPlace, a cherished and pivotal space in our city, is not supported by facts,” Philipsen said.

The commission also received about 20 letters supporting the project.

Former state Del. Maggie McIntosh, a 50-year city resident, called it “heartbreaking” to see the vacant, deteriorating pavilions of Harborplace after decades of neglect.

“The plan for renovations at Harborplace must reflect the “new world order” and the new economy that all cities are facing,” Maggie McIntosh wrote. “Urban centers and downtowns like the Pratt St corridor need to adjust to the post pandemic workspace realities. … The mixed use approach to Harborplace and downtown is critical to rebuilding Baltimore.”

The developer wants to build two 200,000-square-foot commercial buildings on Pratt Street plus two apartment towers — 32 stories and 25 stories — on Light Street that connect and also have shops.

One commercial building on Pratt Street, dubbed “The Sail,” would house food and beverage tenants and feature a tiered, amphitheater-like 50,000-square-foot, public rooftop park. The second would feature publicly available conference space on the ground floor.

Bramble struck a deal to acquire the mostly vacant pavilions out of receivership in April 2022. The pavilions have lost tenants and fallen into disrepair over the past decade, with many attributing the problems to what they saw as mismanagement by the previous, New York-based owner.

Bramble argues that only a densely populated project that mixes park space with commercial uses and housing is economically viable and will spark further growth downtown.

“I think we all remember what Harborplace meant to us, but it hasn’t been that way for a really long time. … It is a project that we want to do because it’s extremely important for the future of our city.”