Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse?s proposed expansion at Tide Point won?t result in Harbor East: Part II.
“I hope we don?t have the impression or sense that we?re trying to create another Harbor East,” Bill Struever, president and chief executive officer of Struever Bros., said Thursday to the Baltimore City Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel. “This is a different thing altogether.”
Harbor East is tall buildings and high density, Struever said. Tide Point figures to be a lot more residential with some office space ? mainly for Under Armour ? and retail in the mix.
The plan calls for several new residential buildings, about 196,000 square feet of office space and a garage with more than 1,500 parking spaces. The expansion would also include the construction of a Baltimore Immigration Museum on the waterfront.
Struever Bros. is seeking a zoning change to move forward with the plan.
Under Armour, which currently has headquarters in Tide Point, plans to expand its presence in Locust Point by taking on 140,000 square feet of space in the Overflo Public Warehouse on Beason Street. The building will be converted to give the Baltimore-based sports apparel maker office space, a showroom and a small retail outlet. Under Armour has signed a 6 1/2-year lease on the building and plans to add 350 employees with the expansion.
Tim Pryor, a developer on the project, told the panel the plan?s goals were to meet Under Armour?s expansion goals without “disrupting the integrity of the neighborhood.”
Struever Bros. has met with the Locust Point Civic Association, which had concerns with the original expansion plans. The group said the original plans included buildings that were too high for the neighborhood and created too much density in the area.
With that, the developer revised the plans, lowering the building heights, including taking a combination garage and residential building from 26 stories to 15 stores, an office building from 12 stories to seven stories and a second apartment building from 11 to seven stories.
“It?s reduced the overall impact on the community,” Pryor said.
In all, the expansion would result in about 650 new residential units, he added.
Matt D?Amico of Design Collective said several empty patches in the neighborhood south of Key Highway would be filled with several four- to five-story residential buildings and individual row houses.
“We can place buildings in there that fill in the gaps and give the street the definition it should have,” D?Amico said.
