Local officials highlight needs, cooperation during state housing secretary's visit

Sep. 28—Maryland Secretary of Housing and Community Development Jacob Day got a taste of Frederick on Thursday, visiting several sites around the city and meeting with local officials.

County Executive Jessica Fitzwater, D, said she's always excited for officials from the state to see the good things happening in Frederick County.

As the fastest-growing county in the state, Frederick County has a chance to be a key in unlocking a lot of economic development opportunity, she said.

Visits like Day's are also a chance to show the state that county and local officials work together to help advance local interests, Fitzwater said.

Officials in Frederick County know they work well together, but it's valuable for people at the state level to see the partnership and collaboration, Frederick Mayor Michael O'Connor, D, said.

The point wasn't lost on Day, a former two-term mayor of Salisbury, who said the work between the city and county is one of the best examples he's seen of collaboration between local governments.

Day has worked with Democratic Gov. Wes Moore's administration since January.

Day's morning included a meeting with Main Street managers from Brunswick, downtown Frederick, Middletown, Mount Airy, New Market and Thurmont at Cowork Frederick, a co-working space in downtown Frederick.

"Main Street is a lens through which we look at the places that are ours," Day told them.

The state is looking to hold an annual gathering for Main Street managers from around the state to work with people from multiple agencies around the state on specific issues from their communities, he said.

Frederick County's Main Street managers are connected with each other, but not as much with their colleagues from other parts of the state, said Caitlin Moroney, the Main Street manager for New Market.

Day also toured spots around the city and county, including:

— Frederick's Lucas Village neighborhood

— the Monocacy MARC station on GenStar Drive, where the county is looking at adding more dense, mixed-use development

— the Foundry Square development on South Street in Frederick.

The 180,808-square-foot Foundry Square project, using affordable housing tax credits, will include 96 units for senior citizens and 56 houses for families.

His walk through downtown also included a stop at the planned site of a hotel and conference center along Carroll Creek.

The project with Plamondon Hospitality Partners for a Marriott-branded hotel and conference space includes money from the city and county, as well as possible funding from the state.

Lots of people at the state have heard about the hotel project, but it's good to have them stand where it will be and visualize it, O'Connor said.

The global pandemic, increases in construction costs and other issues have affected the project's development, but O'Connor said in his State of the City speech last month that the project remains a key priority for his administration.

The hotel is a regional development opportunity, Fitzwater said.

Local officials like to take any chance they get to show off the hotel site and talk about the return on investment they believe it can bring to the area, she said.

Day said the hotel project is a great example of the type of development that can help the community around it.

"It's precisely the type of thing that we want to see happen," he said.

Follow Ryan Marshall on Twitter: @RMarshallFNP